Pang of Statelessness

by Eze Eluchie

Failure of Texas (US) authorities to notify Mexican citizen, 46 year old Edgar Tamayo Arias, of his right to assistance from and access to Mexican Embassy officials in the US  at the time of his arrest, served to  dampen relations between the United States and its neighbor when the said Mexican citizen was executed in Texas on 22nd January 2014.

From the United Kingdom to China, India to Spain, and virtually all over the world, citizens of sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Nigerian, languish in various detention centers, with the arresting authorities not bothering to inform the arrested persons of their right to diplomatic assistance – often times, the Embassy of the sub-Saharan African country in those foreign shores only become aware of the incarceration of of their citizens via messages surreptitiously smuggled out prisons or shortly before an execution takes place.

Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, all foreign citizens ought to be informed, at the time of their arrest, of their right to diplomatic/consular assistance by their country’s Embassy.

Countless citizens of sub-Saharan states have suffered and continue to suffer, in foreign climes, as a result of the brazen non-compliance with international laws and an unwillingness and or inability of their countries diplomats to act in defense and protection of their citizens outside our shores.

Rather than address the root causes of the frolic of our youngsters to foreign climes for the proverbial ‘greener pastures’ or inquire into the validity of the legal processes which leaves our citizens incarcerated often times en-mass outside our shores, our Governments, over the years choose to embark on bogus ‘prisoner exchange’ treaties, which usually leaves the already overcrowded and overburdened Prisons and social welfare system across sub-Saharan countries in more pitiable states as they are forced to take in more inmates, inmates whose guilty are very questionable. 

The fate suffered by some sub-Saharan citizens, whose countries suffer from a huge capacity deficit in the quality of diplomatic personnel at their Embassies abroad is truly unfortunate and quite worrisome to anyone concerned about international human rights law

Fully conscious of this lack of capacity of many sub-Saharan states to come to the aide of their citizens who get entangled in foreign criminal justice systems, there appears to be several isolated incidents of brazen trampling on the rights of citizens of sub-Saharan countries in foreign climes.

A restructuring and renegotiation of our contraption will ensure that the need for our youths to waste away in foreign lands will be minimized and responsible officials represent sub-Saharan State, particularly Nigerian, interests abroad.

Picture  behind bars: