by M. Chooki
A [US] federal judge ruled that asylum-seekers, who suffered beatings, unsanitary conditions and humiliation at the Elizabeth detention center in New Jersey in the mid-1990s may go ahead with a lawsuit alleging human rights violations against the private company that ran the facility.
The
Star
Ledger
[of
Newark,
NJ]
said
the
ruling
by
U.S.
District
Judge
Dickinson
R.
Debevoise
is
considered
groundbreaking
by
the
legal
community
in
that
it
considered
the
wretched
conditions
of
confinement
and
not
just
physical
torture
in
its
definition
of
human
rights
violations.
It also allows immigrants to seek recompense for such abuses.
Nine people, one of them from Sri Lanka, filed a suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1795. Penny Venetis, a Rutgers Law School professor representing the plaintiffs, said the case brought home the issue of human rights abuse. The paper said the ruling marked the 1795 law's first successful application against a private company, in this case the Correctional Services Corp., formerly known as Esmor Corp., that ran the detention center.
The company ran the detention center on behalf of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), now known as the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In 1995 humdreds of prisoners rioted over poor conditions. The suit was filed in 1997 seeking damages from the company, its chief executive and four other top officers.
Venetis said her clients were kept in horrific conditions and denied basic amenities for as long as 11 months as they awaited their asylum decision.
She said the judge's ruling could have implications beyond just her clients, including for those detained at the Elizabeth center in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes on New York and Washington.
News India-Times, New York, November 26, 2004