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Updated 16.19
A RALLY HAS taken place outside the Department of Justice in Dublin calling for the immediate release of Afghan national Walli Ullah Safi from Cloverhill prison.
The Anti Racism Network (ARN) said that dozens of civil society organisations had attended the emergency rally and have signed a letter calling for Safi’s release.
“The legislation that Walli Ullah has been charged under is most commonly used to detain migrants in prison prior to deportation,” the group said in a statement.
ARN is alarmed that after two weeks in Cloverhill and having been made the target for violent attack, Walli Ullah has still had no application for asylum made.
This is highly irregular and no explanation appears to be forthcoming about this delay. This man is clearly a refugee and is entitled to protection.
Safi was taken hostage and assaulted during a riot at Cloverhill Prison this week.
He had his arm broken and his face slashed with a crude handmade knife during the incident on Wednesday. The 21-year-old had been found on the side of a motorway two weeks ago with no knowledge of where he was.
He was arrested as he had no identification and has been remanded at Cloverhill since then.
There were calls yesterday for the man to be released with one group saying the young man should not be in the criminal justice system at all. A rally will take place outside the Department of Justice and Equality in Dublin at 11am today.
Yesterday Safi’s solicitor Conal Boyce said the young man had been returned to prison from hospital. He is now in the medical wing with access to psychological support.
Boyce said the 21 year old was “beginning to realise that we are not all the savages that he thought we were yesterday evening”.
Additional Reporting Cianan Brennan
Related: Asylum seeker horribly beaten in Cloverhill is the Afghan man found at side of motorway>
More: Cloverhill riot: Prisoners injured, two climb onto roof>
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