Do you still remember the most famous migrant in the country, whom Slovenia should have deported to neighbouring Croatia, but who was instead protected by MPs from the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD), the Modern Centre Party (Stranka modernega centra – SMC) and the Left party (Levica)? Ahmad Shamieh, who was also known in Slovenia as Ahmad Šami, was “running his business” in the middle of the centre of Ljubljana, where he set up a barbershop – the protection of the ruling politicians apparently also gave him immunity from the laws that us, ordinary citizens, are otherwise obliged to strictly respect. Nevertheless, the mainstream media martyred him by calling him “a psychological victim of bureaucracy, one of the key weapons of the European and Slovenian war against refugees and migrants.” “Ahmad Shamieh is an illegal migrant who has abused the asylum system and therefore got the decision on deportation, which was final. He was allowed into the National Assembly illegally, in a flagrant violation of security regulations. Despite his clear violations of the law, he was welcomed there by Milan Brglez. So much for his respect for the law,” wrote Branko Grims, an MP from the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS).
A few years ago, we wondered what the Slovenian authorities were doing as they zealously prosecuted market vendors for failing to issue a receipt for a bunch of parsley – while the country’s most famous migrant was shaving and cutting people’s hair illegally, for all to see. He used to do the same thing in the Rog factory, but then he moved to the very centre of the city. He claimed that he was living in prison, was not allowed to go anywhere and was barely getting by. However, the Syrian Ahmad Shamieh was living a very good life, at the expense of the taxpayers, but he was paying us back very poorly, as he was not paying his taxes. The first-class people had given him first-class status, while the rest of us simply have to obey the laws of this country, otherwise, we are hit with penalties. In the past, Shamieh has been seen at a pre-election rally of the Left party, in front of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and at a congress of the SMC party, and he was also spared from deportation by the current candidate for the position of President of the Republic, Milan Brglez, who was the Speaker of the National Assembly at the time.
Shamieh made the journey from Syria to Europe after seeing the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on TV, inviting Syrian refugees to come to Germany. He joined the corridor of refugees on their way north, leaving his wife and three daughters behind in Syria. He was on his way to Germany but was refused entry at the Austrian border, so he was “stranded” in Slovenia, where he had no choice but to apply for asylum. Then, according to the Delo newspaper, things for complicated – he was not registered in Greece, but in Croatia – even though the European Union’s Dublin Regulation was supposed to be temporarily frozen at the time. This is because it stipulates that asylum seekers must return to the country in which they entered the European Union. In the case at hand, the European Court of Justice ruled that Dublin II. was also valid during the humanitarian corridor – which meant that Slovenia did not have to process Ahmad’s asylum application. The European judges thus gave the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior the green light to deport Shamieh to Croatia. Well, luckily for Shamieh, MPs from the SD, SMC and the Left party, as well as the “civil society,” came to his rescue.
Four MPs called on the Ministry to stop the deportation – and they were supported by the then-Speaker of the National Assembly, Milan Brglez
In 2017, civil society stood up for Shamieh. Several organisations and individuals wrote to the Ministry expressing their support for Shamieh and calling him an example of integration – including volunteering to help migrants and taking part in activities in Rog. Four MPs – namely, Jan Škoberne (SD), Peter Vilfan (DeSUS), Miha Kordiš (Levica) and Jasna Murgel (SMC) called on the Ministry to stop the deportation. They were even supported by the then-Speaker of the National Assembly, Milan Brglez, and Prime Minister Miro Cerar stated that he had already agreed not to deport him until the matter was examined in more detail. On the day when the handover to Croatia was supposed to happen, Shamieh was taken to the National Assembly by MPs Kordiš and Škoberne, where he met with Brglez and Matjaž Han, who was an MP of the SD party back then.
He also met with the then-Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Prime Minister Djean Židan, and Tanja Fajon expressed her support from Strasbourg. “I am with you. I am with you in support and in the wish that Ahmed stays in Slovenia. Greetings from Strasbourg!” she tweeted at the time. Cerar then announced that the deportation procedure for Shamieh had been suspended and that the government would discuss the use of the discretionary clause under Article 51 of the Foreigners Act. Cerar had neither the legal basis nor the right to call on the decision-making bodies to suspend the deportation, and his action thus constituted a most dangerous attack on the rule of law. With his actions, the professor of constitutional law trampled on constitutional order and ethics – two important attributes that he has always been fond of referring to.
Slovenian political space has probably lost its compass
The next day, the largest opposition party, SDS, filed a constitutional impeachment against Cerar, accusing him of abuse of office. At the meeting, the government did not decide to use its discretion (which allows the state to decide on an asylum application without explanation) because of disunity; in particular, the then-Minister of the Interior, Vesna Györkös Žnidar objected to it. The opposition party, the Left, then announced an interpellation against Györkös Žnidar in case Shamieh was deported. The then-Minister of the Interior, who supported Shamieh’s deportation, stated that the Slovenian political space had probably lost its compass. The Minister then joined the assessment that Shamieh was the subject of political abuse “by those who made false promises at a time when the proceedings before the courts were still ongoing, despite the fact that they knew or should have known that his case would not have a positive outcome in the courts.” She then pointed out that the decision on the Syrian refugee had not been upheld by the Administrative Court, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court or the European Court in Luxembourg. She also found the pressure on the administrative authorities unacceptable. “We have heard suggestions that proceedings should be conducted on the streets. All this is inappropriate, unsustainable, unacceptable – because the state does not belong to individual political parties,” she stressed, according to the Delo newspaper.
On the 23rd of February 2018, Shamieh’s supporters stated that on that date, Slovenia became competent to deal with Shamieh, as six months had elapsed since the final deportation decision, which is the maximum period of time allowed under the Dublin Regulation for the surrender of an asylum seeker. The Ministry of the Interior denied this and informed Shamieh that, according to the Ministry, the six-month time limit had restarted on the 12th of January with the final judgment of the Supreme Court in the discretionary procedure. Shamieh’s lawyers have appealed against this decision. In March, Nova24TV reported that Shamieh’s deportation was scheduled for that day but failed because Shamieh did not report to the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of the Interior confirmed the news. Shamieh’s official representative, Miha Blažič, stated that he had not been informed of the deportation in a timely and proper manner and that it would have been illegal. On the 10th of April 2018, the Administrative Court ruled that the six-month deadline for the deportation had expired in February and that Slovenia had jurisdiction to process Shamieh’s asylum application. The ruling was final.
Sara Kovač
