Campaigners seek to stop deportation of Armenian
Irish Times
May 27, 2005
Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent
Mental health campaigners are seeking to prevent the deportation of a
mentally-ill 34-year-old Armenian asylum seeker because they fear he
will not receive proper treatment or may be killed if he returns to
Armenia.
John McCarthy of Cork Advocacy Network has urged Minister for Justice
Michael McDowell to rescind his decision of January 25th to deport
Arsen Negocsian.
Mr Negocsian, who has been living in Cork for five years, has been
held at Cloverhill Prison under a deportation order since April 19th
but lawyers have obtained an interim injunction preventing his
deportation.
“Arsen is under medical care and has been under medical care and
medication for the past three years. He suffers from depression and
his present circumstances are hardly ideal for this condition,” said
Mr McCarthy.
“That said, bad and all as they are, they are better than what he can
expect back in his home country and we are asking the Minister for
Justice to delay Arsen’s return on humanitarian grounds for 12 months
so that he can receive proper treatment for his illness.”
Mr Negocsian, a concert flautist, fled Armenia in 2000 after the
assassination of a leading politician. He had met journalist Nairi
Hunanyan, who shot dead former prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan and six
government officials in 1999, at a party some six months before the
assassination when they spoke about the prime minister.
Mr Negocsian believes that meeting has endangered his life.