Wel, this one spans across the Atlantic, that's why I decided to post
it as a joint issue. Absurdity obviously knows no borders :-)
Jack
Stone
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/02/20/inside-story.php
Detained American brothers face deportation
By Ond=F8ej Bouda Jan P=F8erovsk=FD/THE PRAGUE POST
Jon Moore, 31, and Joseph Carrano, 32, say the extent of their
problems is the result of racial prejudice.
Moore and Carrano say they have nothing to go back to in the United
States and they want to stay here.
Many foreigners living in the Czech Republic have found themselves
worrying about the new visa rules that came with entry to the Schengen
zone. But one particular story of two Americans is more extreme than
most. Earlier this month, numerous headlines started surfacing about
two men from the United States who had been detained for overstaying
their 90-day visa limit and sent to a refugee camp. Such reports left
a number of questions unanswered -- namely why they were detained and
why they want to stay in the Czech Republic. On Feb. 15, The Prague
Post traveled to the Po=B9torn=E1 detention facility in south Moravia
where they are being held to get their side of the story. The detained
Americans are brothers Joseph Carrano, 32, and Jon Moore, 31. They say
they came to the Czech Republic in search of their native Czech
parents, from whom they were separated as children. Instead of a
family reunion, the brothers found themselves arrested, locked up and
awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings. Still, there's no
mistaking their desperation to avoid a return to the United States.
"If I have to go back, I think I'll kill myself," Carrano said.
Speaking in a meeting room at the Po=B9torn=E1 detention center, the
brothers started their story from the beginning. Their father is Czech
Roma, born in Ostrava. He left the country in 1967, met their Polish
mother in France, and the couple moved to the United States. There
both brothers were born. Because the family was poor social services
took them away. Despite attempts by the parents to regain custody of
the two boys, they were placed in two different foster homes and lost
contact. The brothers' respective childhoods were difficult -- both men
shudder to remember the physical and sexual abuse they suffered in a
series of foster homes.Their separate lives mirrored each other's.
Both boys were adopted, earned high-school diplomas and were accepted
to college. Both also had to drop out of school when they couldn't pay
tuition fees. In the 1990s, Moore started a search for his biological
parents, and learned that their name was Lakatos and they lived in New
York. After calling every Lakatos in the phonebook, he found a distant
cousin who told him his parents had returned to the Czech Republic.In
2002, the brothers were reunited, and Carrano decided to locate their
parents. He left for the Czech Republic and spent nine months with his
family in Prost=ECjov, central Moravia. While staying with them, he kept
his passport current -- as did many foreigners -- by crossing the border
every three months to get a fresh stamp. "My parents begged me to
stay," Carrano said. "But I had to get my brother to come." Because he
couldn't afford a flight to the United States, he went to local police
and begged to be deported. At first they were reluctant, but in the
end they locked him in the same internment camp that he is in now
before putting him on a plane. Carrano said he spent the next year
back in the States, running a restaurant. He and Moore kept in touch
with their new found family by phone. But the brothers' luck took a
nose dive, and they found themselves flipping burgers at a McDonald's,
which didn't even pay their rent. They both ended up living on the
streets and eating out of garbage cans. Slowly, they managed to save
some money, and their mother sent them the rest needed for new
passports and tickets to Prague. Last October, they returned to their
parents in Prost=ECjov. For the first time in 30 years, the whole family
was united. The brothers met their siblings and spent Christmas at
home.In January, they realized their tourist visas would soon run out
and wanted to leave and re-enter the country to get a fresh passport
stamp. When they found out that the Czech Republic had entered the
Schengen zone, they were ecstatic at first, thinking the border drop
meant they could stay indefinitely. However, they went to the local
police to make sure and learned that the Schengen Agreement allows
travelers without visas to spend three months out of every six within
EU borders. At first, the brothers say, the local police wanted
nothing do with them, and told the family not to show up again because
they'd have to arrest them.Wanting resolution, the brothers made an
appointment with the foreigners' police instead. On the day of the
meeting, however, they say local police dragged them out of their beds
at 7 a.m. and arrested them. They spent 10 hours at a police station,
where they say the officers made fun of them because they are
American. They were told that unless they could prove they have a
family in the Czech Republic they would be deported. But the brothers
say no such papers exist, claiming even their birth certificates had
been altered to list their adoptive parents. The police told them that
the only way to avoid deportation was to ask for asylum, which both
brothers did, thus ending up in the Po=B9torn=E1 detention center. Carrano
says their problems stem from racial prejudice. "We didn't do anything
wrong. We went to the police for help and instead they arrested us. I
am convinced that it is because our parents are Gypsies," he said.
"But we were not brought up like that. I want to be a productive
citizen." Carrano said that he'd liked to open a small pizzeria in the
Czech Republic, and had been offered a job as a cook at a Prost=ECjov
hotel but was arrested before he could start. He also reasserted, "I
am not a criminal."Late last week, the brothers were advised that
applying for asylum would only make their case look bad, so they are
instead appealing the decision for deportation.
Outside opinion
In terms of punishment for the offense of overstaying the visa limit,
Foreigners' Police spokeswoman Kate=F8ina Jirgesov=E1 clarified the point.
"The law calls for barring entry for a period of zero to 10 years,"
she told Pr=E1vo. "That means that with minor offenses no action has to
be taken. However, in the case of serious crime taking place or a
repeated offense the punishment can be severe."For his part, the
director of the detention center, Emil Pochyl=FD, questions the
necessity of the brothers' confinement. "I usually deal with people
that have no ID whatsoever," he said. "These guys have their
passports, they are causing no problems, and their case could have
been dealt with differently."The U.S. Embassy in Prague did not
comment by press time.As for the two brothers, they are set on
remaining in the country. "We have nothing to go back to in the States
and everything to live for in the Czech Republic," Carrano said. "It
took us 30 years to be reunited with our family and now they want to
separate us. Our father is very ill. If we are deported we might not
see him again. We are not millionaires and cannot afford to jet back
and forth all the time. They want to return us to a life on the street
and eating garbage when we could live here with our family."The
brothers' appeal process could take several months, and the outcome
remains uncertain. In the meantime, Carrano and Moore sit in the
detention facility, putting their trust in a higher power. "It was God
who brought us all together. Without his help we couldn't have found
our family after 30 years over 4,000 miles away," Carrano said. "We
pray each night before going to sleep for this ordeal to end and to be
reunited with our family.
Ond=F8ej Bouda can be reached at obouda@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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