US deports stateless man to Uganda

May 25, 2018

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson Jacob Shems Siminyu, Ahmad was deported to Uganda because he was born in Uganda

Dr. Shafik Ahmad smiles behind the metal bars of the doors that keep him from walking as a free man at the Ministry of Internal Affairs offices in Kampala.

The warmth he radiates belies his predicament. He is in a holding facility because he is a man without a country, no clear place to call home since the US revoked his Green Card status, which afforded him permanent residency.

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson Jacob Shems Siminyu, Ahmad was deported to Uganda because he was born in Uganda in 1961 at Mengo Hospital, and his birth certificate was the only "traceable document" he had besides his Green Card.

"He left [Uganda] at six months for Nigeria with his Pakistani parents, who settled in Nigeria and later moved to the US in the 1980s and got Green Cards. He got married to an American lady whom he developed an issue with and was charged in court and convicted, and his Green Card was withdrawn," says Siminyu.

He adds: "On thorough scrutiny we have found evidence that he is Ugandan and government is engaging the US embassy to ensure he is returned to the US."

Siminyu says Ahmad is in the facility because that is where the ministry holds people who have served sentences on immigration related incidents and are pending repatriation.

"The international practice requires that such people are held in holding facilities, which are separate from those where other criminals are kept," he says.

Siminyu explains that people held there have a fridge, radio, clean beds and mattresses, access to clean water, bathroom facilities and two meals a day—lunch and dinner.

"They have clean drinking water and they are free to order for extra food they need. They have space to relax and the in-charge of the holding facility has contacts of government hospitals in case of any medical issues," says Siminyu.

In addition to the facility at the ministry offices, Siminyu says they uphold international human rights and so they keep inadmissible people in holding facilities at major points of entry, which include: Entebbe, Mutukula, Elegu, Busia, Malaba and Mirama Hills.

Ahmad's story
When Sunday Vision visited the facility, Ahmad said he [and two Liberian men held in the unit] get a meal a day, not two. "They push the containers with food through the bars on the door, but if they [the containers] are too big to go through, then they take the food away," he said.

And before he could tell his whole story, ministry officials stopped us from talking to him and preferred that we get the story from them as the authority.

Attempts to get Ahmad to share his story then proved difficult and we resorted to a WhatsApp chat and documents he shared, where he recounted below:

I am Shafik Ahmad, a physician, and I was born on April 5, 1961 at Mengo Hospital in Kampala. My parents, Alauddin and Sultana Ahmad, were teachers at Agha Khan School in Kampala.

We left Uganda when I was six months old for Nigeria, where I spent my childhood and attended school until university at Ahmadu Bello University and University of Jos, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1987.

My parents and I later moved to the US in April 1989 on a Pakistani passport, where I got a Green Card in 1991. My Pakistani passport expired in 1995, but I did not renew it nor did I obtain a Pakistani ID.

In the US, I worked as a research associate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from December 1989 to March 1990. I also worked in other places [refer to fact file] until I started my practice, Family Physicians of Huber Heights in Ohio.

I got married in 1996 to Kris and had a son, Zaid in 1999. She was a medical assistant, a paediatric nurse and she was very helpful to me in the practice. It was probably the happiest time of my life to have my wife and child in the office all day. My patients would come and coo over him.

Things started going bad in 2001; she felt she was not living the good life because we were working hard at the practice, which was only 15 months old. She got sad and I wondered in retrospect if it was postpartum depression, and by December we had separated and I obtained a rental property. We finally got divorced in 2005.

I remarried in 2009 to Tiffany Macey, who I met in October 2008 and I proposed on New Year's Eve 2008. It was all rosy and I had adopted her three children so we were happy.

Actually, we had no physical or verbal altercation; we had an ideal marriage until, suddenly on Wednesday evening, I got arrested and I read the transcript of the 911 calls she had made that morning. I petitioned for divorce.

She pressed charges of attempted murder, and that is how I ended up spending seven years in incarceration and 15 months in immigration detention. She claimed in the 911 call that I had hired someone to kill my ex-wife, Kris.

I was so shocked that I have spent the last nine years thinking about it and working through my feelings of extreme betrayal and realising that everything was a set up. My two exes are friends.

I have not been free since 9p.m., October 21st 2009 and I have not seen my son since Sunday at 6.30p.m. October 18, 2009.

I think the hardest part is still thinking about Zaid and realising that I have not hugged, kissed and read him a bedtime story or even taken him out fishing. I don't know what he likes to eat, his favourite colour, his favourite food and his favourite TV show; the loss is unbearable.

Since my misfortune, my practice seems to have just disintegrated. My office manager, Lisa would probably be able to tell what exactly happened to it as she was involved in the packing of office supplies.

Here in Uganda, I have written to the immigration authorities asking them to release me because the Pakistani Indian Muslim communities have expressed the desire to provide assurance and accommodation until a final decision is made. This is a temporary solution until the authorities have decided what to do with my future as I am stateless and not eligible for UN refugee status.

I have repeatedly expressed my plight to multiple high ranking immigration officers, who express sympathy and empathy, but I continue to be detained illegally and I am worrying about Ramadan and consider religious persecution and bias if I am not released as I have not been charged.

I have run out of medication for blood pressure, anxiety and depression; I need a doctor's care myself.

For now, I spend late nights studying Ugandan immigration law, looking for my son on the web, which has been unsuccessful, and reminiscing about the pastimes with him.

The weekends are very hard watching all the officers leaving on Friday with happy faces as they wish me a good weekend.

Word from counsel
Ahmad feels that his lawyer, Emiru Dominic, is not doing enough, but he says he is working hard to get his client the right documentation he needs.

Dominic is a partner at Byamugisha Gabriel & Co. Advocates on Kampala Road, who explained that Ahmad's case is rather complex and involves three governments—Pakistan, Uganda and the US.

Asked about Ahmad's chances of getting released from detention Emiru says, "The chances are there because Dr. Shafik is a stateless person because the government of Uganda is trying to see what to do with him because he was dumped here. We are trying to have him released, but he has no document so we have to get him identification papers."

Emiru adds that he has applied to the government to take him to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a lodger because he is not a refugee.

"You have to appreciate his situation; if don't have a state, it means you don't have a country so we are working on the documentation," says Ahmad's lawyer, Emiru.

 Fact file

Born in Mengo Hospital, Kampala-Uganda

Moved to Nigeria at six months

Relocated to America in 1989

Got a Green Card in 1991

Married first wife, an Irish called

Married second wife, Kris in 1996 and had son in 1999

Divorced in 2005 and remarried Tiffany Macey in 2009

Charged and arrested with conspiracy to commit murder in 2009

Released to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in October 2016

Detained by ICE until February 28th 2018

Deported from US on February 28th 2018

Arrived in Uganda at Entebbe International Airport on March 3rd, 2018 at 1p.m.

Transferred to Internal Affairs holding facility on March 3rd to date  

Letter to Museveni from Messenger App

@KagutaMuseveni
Good Evening your Excellency, I would like to bring to your attention an injustice that is been perpetrated here at Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jinja Road.

You see I am a medical doctor, board-certified family physician from the US. I was deported to Uganda from the US based on my Kampala Ugandan birth certificate and being issued a travel document by the Ugandan Embassy in Washington DC.

I have applied for Ugandan citizenship, but have been denied based on the recommendation of the US Embassy, which against the law advised the Ugandan Immigration to deport me to Pakistan. This is against the double jeopardy law of the US, where a person cannot be tried for the same thing [offence] twice.

I am begging you to investigate this matter and to retain me here in Uganda as I am an excellent family doctor and wish to practise and live here in Uganda and I believe I will provide superior care than any of the new Cuban doctors. I pray for relief as I have been unlawfully detained for more than 8 weeks.

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