When arguing Algeria is a “safe” country, did Department of Justice officials downplay human rights violations?

In January, the Department of Justice said it was updating its docket of countries it considers “safe” when assessing asylum claims, adding Botswana and Algeria.

Before that, officials at the Department of Justice had prepared country briefings laying out their reasoning for the Minister for Justice, Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee.

But migrant and human rights workers say that reasoning is flawed.

The submission for Algeria – released following a request under the Freedom of Information Act – cherry-picked information from sources, some of which was out-of-date, they say.

The internal analysis also glosses over human-rights breaches in the country, says Fiona Hurley, CEO of migrants’ rights non-profit NASC.  Her organisation had asked the department not to add Algeria to the safe list.

“We are disappointed to see that the analysis did not fully engage with the broad body of international reporting on human rights in Algeria,” she said.

Five Amnesty International updates from last year contradict the department’s findings in the briefing’s two final pages, said Hurley.

And, the analysis does not properly weigh findings of a United Nations special rapporteur who visited Algeria in September 2023, she says.

Enda O’Neill, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Ireland, said UNHCR is not against the notion of designated safe countries, but it expects these classifications to be based on precise, objective, and up-to-date information.

“The process must be flexible enough to take account of changes, both gradual and sudden, in any given country,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the submission document shows that it was drafted using a wide range of international reports, including those from the UNHCR and the Council of Europe.

Also, Ireland’s International Protection Office (IPO) is still reviewing each case on its own merits even if an applicant is from a country the Irish government considers safe, they said.

Why now?

A country is considered safe if it has a democratic system and generally and consistently no persecution, no torture or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, no threat of violence and no armed conflict, according to the European Commission.

But critics say that the existence of safe-country lists subtly undermines the right to asylum, and that countries are added based on political expediency.

The department’s briefing to the minister on Algeria says some organisations had fed back that they were against the notion of safe countries, “as they assert they are flawed and do not reflect the fact that a country cannot be said to be safe for all of its citizens”.

But it’s in European law, and all member states apply it, it says.

Once a country is placed on the safe list, asylum judges assume that its citizens don’t need protection. It is up to the applicants to prove that, in their specific case, they do.

Cases from citizens of safe countries are processed quickly, impacting applicants’ access to legal advice and their right to work here while they wait for a decision.

Figures in the briefing raise questions about why Algeria was added to the list at this point in time and whether the move was triggered not by reforms in the country, but the number of applications.

Between 2018 to 1 August 2023, the IPO processed 666 asylum cases from Algerian citizens, according to figures in the report. But as of 19 May, there were 3,050 Algerian asylum seekers in direct provision, show IPAS figures, the third highest nationality.

Decision makers had granted refugee status to 49 people or around 7 percent of the cases within the period in the report – with a growing percentage in more recent years, 11% in 2022 and 8% in 2023 up to August.

Cherry-picking?

NASC’s feedback – which Hurley, its CEO, said is not detailed because of the word-count limit – mentions a visit to Algeria by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, in September 2023 and his findings.

“The UN expert affirmed that the Algerian restrictive laws create a ‘climate of fear’ for its citizens,” says NASC’s submission.

Voule’s report says lots of activists and civil society actors were facing terrorism-related charges in Algeria under a paranoid government.

“Criminal charges brought against individuals, associations, trade unions and political parties for having held meeting with partners from other countries or receiving funding from foreign sources,” he wrote.

He mentions ambiguity in the country’s justice system, especially around what constitutes criminal behaviour, leaving activists and civil society actors unsure at what point they’ve broken the law.

That’s not in step with the notion of legal certainty in international law, says Voule’s report.

“This principle recognises that ill-defined and/or overly broad laws are open to arbitrary application and abuse,” he wrote.

The department’s briefing cites that report but is focused on its positive points, in particular, the mention of laws being drafted to improve things.

NASC’s submission to the department pointed to the mass incarceration of political activists.

Recent Amnesty International reports show that Algeria continues to jail political activists.

The Algerian government kidnapped activist Slimane Bouhafs from his home in Tunisia, where he had been granted refugee status, and tried him on terrorism charges, said Amnesty International in August 2023.

“Not only are the charges against Slimane Bouhafs bogus, but his entire trial is illegal under international human rights law,” it said.

NASC’s submission says the Algerian government has shown disregard for international human rights law. “It is submitted that Algeria should not be considered a Safe Country of Origin.”

What is safe?

Cathryn Grothe, research analyst at Freedom House, a non-profit democracy watchdog in the United States, says that it has considered Algeria to be unfree since 2005, with an overall democracy score of 32 out of 100 in 2023.

“Political rights are quite restricted in the country,” she said.

Corruption is endemic, its military holds an enduring influence over civilian politics and operates without transparency and accountability, said Grothe.

“In April of 2023, the Algerian parliament approved a law that threatens media freedom by requiring journalists to get a work permit,” she said.

Algeria does slightly better on civil liberties like academic freedom, she said. Algerians can freely travel, and the government doesn’t interfere with people’s rights to private property and running businesses, Grothe said.

Women’s liberty and autonomy are curbed though, she said. “While Algeria’s constitution guarantees gender equality, women do not enjoy equal rights under the country’s family code.”

Male guardians chaperone them through life, and they can’t marry without their permission, she said. “Other marginalized communities including the LGBT+ community and migrants and refugees – particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa – face discrimination.”

The Department of Justice’s briefing looked at the treatment of migrants – and in particular at whether Algeria respects the “non-refoulment principle”, the notion banning forced deportation of asylum seekers to a place where they are likely to face harm.

It notes some concerns, but concluded that “improvements to state capacity are being made” and that the principle “is generally well respected”.

Yet, between January and August 2023, Algerian authorities deported 20,000 migrants of different nationalities, abandoning them over the border in the deserts of northern Niger, according to Human Rights Watch. Those pushed into the desert include children, it says.

As for queer people, the department’s submission says LGBTQ status is not criminalised in Algeria, but LGBTQ people may be prosecuted under existing rules.

“The Penal Code continued to criminalise consensual adult same-sex sexual relations, punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine,” says a 2023 Amnesty International report.

The department’s submission cites a 2020 report by the United Kingdom’s Home Office saying that the Algerian government doesn’t set out to find gay people to punish them. “And there is no real risk of prosecution, even when the authorities become aware of such behaviour,” it said.

In 2023, Amnesty International said that queer people are rendered invisible in Algeria, not allowed to be who they are freely and fearlessly.

“On 10 August, the Audiovisual Regulatory Authority suspended Essalam TV, a private Algerian TV channel, from broadcasting for 20 days for showing a movie that portrayed a wedding between two men,” it says.

Grothe, the Freedom House research analyst, said Algeria has higher freedom scores than some other countries in the region, such as Libya, Egypt, and Western Sahara.

“Tunisia remained the highest scoring country in the North Africa region in 2023, followed by Morocco and then Algeria,” she said.

Neither Morocco nor Tunisia is considered a safe country by Ireland.