"I'm very scared. My life is in danger and I fear for it. I've received death threats." A young Egyptian who travelled yesterday hidden in the hold of a plane from Cairo that landed at Loiu airport (Bizkaia) told the police the reasons why he fled his country. The words of the young man, who is 24 years old, were quoted today to this newspaper by Javier Galparsoro, a lawyer for CEAR (Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid), who assisted him in his statement to the agents. The man said he had fled his country for reasons of "religious persecution" and had just applied for asylum in Spain, according to the lawyer. When he was detained at the airport, without resistance, he refused to sign the return order. He doesn't want to go back to his country.
In his 44 years of working with migrants and refugees, Galparsoro had never met anyone who had managed to escape their country hidden in the belly of an airplane. The lieutenant in chief of Loiu airport, José Ignacio Pinedo, confirms that this is the first case of this type to occur at this facility. According to the Guardia Civil's internal border investigations service, this Egyptian person works at Cairo airport and "has access to restricted areas" that allowed him to sneak onto the plane that was going to fly to Bilbao.
Galparsoro says about his client: "He's fine, although a little scared. He's well taken care of in the non-admitted lounge [at Loiu Airport]. He is behaving well and says that he fled his country for reasons of religious persecution. He has insistently asked that he not be deported to his country. He is afraid, he fears for his life if he returns and he says he was receiving death threats."
The young Egyptian arrived dressed in a T-shirt and trousers. He was not carrying any belongings except a mobile phone, Lieutenant Pinedo said. "An Iberia employee who was going to unload the suitcases from the hold of the plane observed that, when opening the rear door inside, a person ran out," says this Civil Guard commander. He walked along the apron for the aircraft and arrived at the terminal. The agents and the private security of the airfield gave the alert to try to stop him. "He was quite excited," the lieutenant said, so he was assisted by an ambulance, although he did not need to be taken to a hospital.
The stowaway was handed over to the Immigration Service of the National Police and was assisted by a lawyer on duty, as well as Cear's lawyer. At first, the agents offered him to sign a return order on the same plane in which he had travelled to Cairo. That aircraft, which arrived in Bilbao at 14:20 p.m., was scheduled to return to the Egyptian capital at 15:30 p.m., although its departure was delayed because the aircraft had to be double-checked before the passengers who were going to fly to the African country boarded. Given the impossibility of returning him to Egypt on that flight, the possibility of sending him to his country on the direct flight scheduled for next Monday was considered.
The young Egyptian's statement to police officers and lawyers was made "in precarious conditions," says Galparsoro, who was present at the time. His statement was taken with a sworn Arabic interpreter "through a phone call and with a bad connection," Galparsoro said. This lawyer assures that the Egyptian citizen had his passport on his mobile phone and that all the identification data he had provided to the police "coincide with the documentation" he has on his phone. He did not adduce political or warlike reasons for claiming asylum in Spain, but for reasons of a religious nature.
"In the first instance, on Tuesday afternoon, they presented him with a pre-prepared deportation order," he says. He refused to sign it and applied for asylum in Spain. The National Police has officially informed Cear's lawyer this morning that the stowaway wants to request the international protection order, which could be formalized this Wednesday afternoon. This request must be processed before the Ministry of the Interior, which has four days to resolve this case. "From my experience and the characteristics of this case, there is a great possibility that he will be granted asylum," the lawyer confides.
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