MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2019) The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) on Thursday said it had concluded that the German authorities had mistreated an Afghan citizen, who had been rejected asylum in the European country, in a bid to gain his compliance while he was being deported.
In a report, released on Thursday, the committee described a flight that carried 46 deportees from Munich to Kabul. According to Deutsche Welle, citing the document, the CPT representatives, who were on the flight, saw police officers trying to restrain an Afghan man, who was resisting being deported. The officers initially put him, alongside another deportee, in handcuffs and leg restraints. Moreover, when the man continued struggling with the police, one officer forcibly placed him into his seat, squeezed his genitals and pushed his arm against the man's neck, making him hard to breathe.
"To ill-treat a person by squeezing the genitals, a technique which is clearly aimed at inflicting severe pain to gain compliance, is both excessive and inappropriate ... The CPT considers that any use of force must avoid inducing a sensation of asphyxia on the person concerned," the CPT said in the report, as quoted by Deutsche Welle.
The committee also argued that the German authorities should "take immediate action to end the application of these two techniques by Federal Police escort officers."
According to the newspaper, the German authorities said they had passed these recommendations to law enforcement.
Additionally, the CPT slammed the German authorities for the lack of time provided to those to be deported in order to adapt to the situation after their asylum application had been rejected. It also expressed concerns that seven Afghan nationals had been deported while their applications were still being considered.
Germany deports Afghan nationals back to their conflict-hit home country under a 2016 bilateral deal with Kabul on repatriating those people whose asylum bids had been rejected.
