From Persecution to Prison - Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of ...

them and they told me to take off my clothes and bend over and they puttheir hand . . . I am not a drug smuggler. Since I was not charged withany drug trafficking, I see no need to strip search me. I found it veryhumiliating.After being beaten, raped and becoming pregnant as a result of the rapein prison in her home country, a woman from Africa was accused of traffickingdrugs and body cavity searched at an airport. She reported that shehad no connection to drug traffickers, and subsequently was not chargedwith any criminal conduct. Nevertheless, she reported that the INS officerswere aggressive and this made her very nervous. She was told by an INSofficer, “Everybody wants to come to America. You people are thieves.”She later won asylum.Mystery DestinationWhen transported from place of entry to the detention facility, 60% ofstudy participants reported that US officials did not tell them where theywere being taken. For many asylum seekers, similarly secretive trips todetention facilities in the hands of government officials were the preludeto torture and incognito detention in their home countries.One asylum seeker described the following:Being led from the airport, I was shackled on my hands, stomach andlegs. I had no idea where I was being taken. At that time, I was reallyafraid. I thought I was being taken to jail.Subsequently, he was taken to a detention facility. INS personnel, hesaid, joked about where he was going.They said, ‘We are taking you to our home, where we will feed you andgive you hot meals and a bed.’ They were laughing.Said another asylum seeker:They put me in a van – I thought I would be brought to a refugee camp– a comfortable place. I shouldn’t be put in handcuffs. They didn’t tellme where I was being taken. They made me afraid.After shackling him for 12 hours, the INS transported another asylumseeker to what an officer told him was a “refugee camp,” and which, infact, was a county jail.One detainee reported.I was told I was going to some place like a hotel for about 1 week,where you can shower, eat, relax.Others were told a similar story about a hotel. Said one asylum seeker:I was told I was being taken to a hotel for a shower and a rest for sevenARRIVAL IN THE UNITED STATES 149