 MAN GRANTED ASYLUM FOUND TO HAVE BEEN WANTED FOR MURDER
When an Egyptian man granted asylum was recently charged with the murder of a 12-year-old boy, officials discovered that he had been accused of committing a similar crime in Egypt. INS officials do not contact officials in an asylum seekers home country, primarily because if the person has a valid claim for asylum, such contact could endanger them and their family.
While this policy works in most cases, in the case of John Samuel Ghobrial, it led the INS to grant asylum to a person who had been arrested in Egypt on charges of molesting and stabbing an 8-year-old boy. Despite this case, the INS stands by its policy of not contacting the government of asylum seeker’s home countries. Also, because such a relatively small number of applicants are granted asylum, while most are deported, there is a strong likelihood that a person who is brought to the attention of the government through an INS inquiry could face real persecution after deportation.
Police discovered Ghobrial’s Egyptian crime when they went to Egypt to conduct investigations related to the US murder. Prosecutors plan to use the Egyptian charges as a basis for requesting the death penalty in the current case.
While a number of people have called upon the INS to conduct more extensive background checks of asylum seekers before granting them asylum, asylum experts argue that it would be a serious mistake to subject people to persecution because their government claims they committed a crime. They say that if a person is seeking asylum their government is more likely to make up crimes that did not in fact occur.
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