Transcript
A lawyer in the Federated States of Micronesia says she she'll go ahead with legal action to try and set free four Nepali refugees detained in Pohnpei.
The men have not been allowed off the main wharf on the island since they arrived nearly a year ago and are living on a rickety fishing boat.
Before that they were held in a similar situation on Yap awaiting determination of their refugee status.
Marstella Jack, a former FSM attorney general, told Sally Round the men had been detained long enough.
MARSTELLA JACK: The representatives from the Justice Department couldn't meet over the weekend. They wanted us to reschedule this week, but because these refugees have been in detention for an unreasonable amount of time since they have arrived in the country which is almost just a little over two years, I am just going to go ahead and ask the court for their removal from detention through a writ of as habeas corpus so I am working on, I'm working that petition to file with the court as soon as I can.
SALLY ROUND: How long will that take? Does it mean that they will be released immediately?
MJ: Yes, once I file this the practice is that the court would most likely call a hearing so we can make oral arguments, the court would want to hear why they are being detained and why we are asking for them to be released. Then once an order is issued the court is pretty quick in this, because it is a writ of a habeas corpus so you want the person to be removed from detention as soon as possible, and the court should issue something right away. My experience with the FSM court, the national court, is that they will come back within the next two or three days and issue a decision. To me it is pretty simple. They are holding people in detention for no good reason. For why? Because they are refugees and we are not a party under the refugee convention. But they have not committed any crimes. We've had this experience before where they stayed with families. Why can't we do the same here? We have families willing to take them, we have schools and churches waiting to take them in.
SR: So people have come forward have they since their story came to light?
MJ: Probably even before that. According to IOM, the International Organization for Migration, there are organisations and people willing to take them in. So it is not like we are just throwing them out into the wild on the island. It is a small island and there are families who are willing to take them in and so that is what I am going to tell the court. The Justice Department is saying they are in detention awaiting resettlement and they say they are working with the UNHCR to get that done but when nobody knows.
