Togolese Asylum Seekers Demand Compensation

Mr. Muhammad Adam, the Togolese asylum seeker who petitioned the Amnesty International Secretariat for compensation from the German government for the inhuman treatment he is said to have suffered at the hands of German officers has petitioned the German embassy in Ghana for medical compensation.

He was deported from Germany to Lome.

In a letter to the head of the Legal Section at the German embassy in Accra, Adam said, since his deportation from Germany about three years ago he has lost his sense of smell and has since been plagued with chronic headache.

According to Adam's letter, he believed that his ailment derived from the food that was given him in Germany on June 22, 1999, prior to his escort to the Togo embassy in Germany.

He complained that after consuming the food, the next day he discovered that he had developed chronic headache, which led to the loss of his sense of smell.

"I have since arrival from Germany tried to treat the sickness ... with the little money on me but right now I cannot afford to buy the prescribed medicines again ... and I would be grateful if the German embassy would compensate me to enable me buy the medicines," Adam said.

Adam also drew the attention of the Germans to a document that was purported to have been used between the German authorities in Bonn and the Togo embassy.

He said the document used for his deportation was forged because he did not sign any document at the Togo embassy.

Adam's latest petition has come barely ten months after the Chronicle published his earlier petition to Amnesty International for compensation from the German government to offset the human rights abuses he is said to have suffered at the hands of the German immigration and police officers.

Adam was said to have sought refuge in Germany as a political refugee in April 1996, and was posted to Meseburg, East Germany, until his asylum request was revoked following a series of confrontations with the German Aliens Authority.

This led to Adam's expulsion from Germany in August 1999. Adam said prior to his deportation, he suffered lots of human rights abuses at the hands of the German immigration authority and police officers.

According to him, these range from the denial of legal redress to illegal arrest and torture. He said he was bound in ropes and forced into a plane for resisting to be sent to Togo on August 12, 1999.

But the German Aliens Authority has since said that the immigration authorities acted within the legal framework and denied ever carrying out any human rights abuses against Adam or subjecting him to any inhuman treatment.

The immigration authority in charge of the Merseburg-Querfurt district maintained that Adam was issued a resident permit valid for the period of the legal asylum proceedings.

It was to be updated accordingly by the competent immigration authority, but a ruling by BAFL Nuremberg dated April 25 the same year, Ref. No D2096446-283 later rejected his application.

At the same time Adam was given notice to leave the Federal Republic of Germany and was informed that he would be deported to Togo if he did not comply with the directive.