Ameer Alkhawlany. Photo: Solidarni z Ameerem / Facebook.Ameer Alkhawlany is a doctoral student in biology who lives in Cracow, and comes from Iraq. He has been also a victim of a deadly combination of ineptness and racism of the Polish authorities. For the last month Ameer has been detained in custody for foreigners and faces deportation. The reason for his arrest is yet to be given, and we can only speculate that it has something to do with his refusal to collaborate with the Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW). Its agents approached him before the Pope’s visit to Poland in August and wanted him to infiltrate the Muslim community within Polish cities. Only massive pressure on the authorities can now make the innocent student get out of arrest and avoid being expelled from the country he chose to live and study in.
In June this year the Polish government introduced a very harsh Anti-Terrorist Law according to which people can be arrested without providing a reason or pressing any charges, and kept in detention for up to two weeks. It’s particularly dangerous to foreigners: The Law on Foreigners allows the authorities to prolong their detention and to deport them while keeping the reason for these measures secret, ‘if it is of importance to public order, defence or security’. Needless to say, the foreigners in danger originate mostly from the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia. As newcomers from Muslim majority countries to Poland are usually students or academics on exchange, the media report of many cases where they were approached and blackmailed by the secret service forcing them to collaborate.
Ameer’s situation is the direct result of systematic and individual racism in Poland
