WILLEMSTAD - The judge in Curaçao has put an end to the existing refugee shelter on the island. The prison regime faced by refugees and migrants from Venezuela is inadmissible and a violation of human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the judge.
As a result, Curaçao currently no longer has a refugee shelter. Nine Venezuelans have been released immediately. The ruling comes after the judge decided at the end of the hearing last week to take a look at the SDKK prison in Koraal Specht.
The immigration barracks, to which the Netherlands has contributed millions of euros for improvement, are still not ready. Therefore, Venezuelans invoking the European Convention on Human Rights were now placed in a section of the penal prison, block 1.
Last month, that resulted in a verdict in which a Venezuelan woman who had been detained in the women's wing of the penal prison was released. The judge also stated that undergoing immigration detention in a penal prison under a prison regime is not permissible.
Block 1
Curaçao then decided to move all prisoners in block 1 elsewhere and to designate block 1 via a ministerial decision as a place where foreign nationals without residence papers may be detained, even if they apply for asylum.
However, the prison regime continued. During the visit, the judge determined that the Venezuelans were held under an even stricter regime than prisoners who had been criminally convicted.
The judge's findings fit in seamlessly with previous observations by Amnesty International, which twice investigated the detention conditions of refugees in Curaçao.
Shelter
As a result of the judge's ruling, the immigration shelter can no longer be used. A Venezuelan man who was to be deported on Sunday has also been released due to lack of shelter.
According to Ieteke Witteveen of Human Rights Defense Curaçao, who assisted the released Venezuelans and is now receiving them, the result of the human rights violations and the policy pursued by Curaçao is that hardly any Venezuelans are trying to enter Curaçao.
The island does not have an internationally recognized asylum procedure, but Venezuelans can invoke the European Convention on Human Rights. According to Witteveen, no one has ever succeeded in obtaining protection with this procedure.