The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has protested to the government of Moldova and called for an investigation in regard to apparent lapses in the proper implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and national laws relating to asylum, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a press release, the UNHCR says that several men from Bangladesh detained in the Migrant Accommodation Center (MAC) were in the process of being deported. The group included two individuals who had lodged asylum requests and were awaiting a final decision as required under the country’s laws and the 1951 Refugee Convention that forbids the forced return of persons fearing persecution. While authorities initially hindered UNHCR’s access to the two asylum seekers who were being escorted onto an aircraft at Chisinau airport, UNHCR eventually was briefly permitted to speak to the men. One asylum seeker, the only man who spoke English, claimed he had been physically assaulted by staff of the Bureau for Migration and Asylum (BMA) and forced to sign a paper retracting his asylum request. At no time in the process was an interpreter present, he said. After UNHCR confirmed that two of the three men being deported to Dhaka yesterday still wished to seek asylum and had not exhausted the appeals process, UNHCR intervened with the relevant authorities and two asylum seekers were escorted back to the MAC facility. “UNHCR is very concerned that Moldova’s asylum procedures were disregarded and allegations of serious violence reportedly occurred,” said UNHCR Representative Peter Kessler. “This incident must be fully investigated by the relevant authorities.” “The asylum process must be permitted to run its legal course as every person has a right under international law to have their asylum claim duly examined and appeals heard,” Kessler declared. Furthermore, over recent months it has been observed that officers of the Security and Information Service, although not formally associated with the asylum system, are in regular consultation with staff of the Refugee Directorate of the Bureau for Migration and Asylum and appear to strongly influence the outcome of the asylum process although the agency has no legal role in the asylum procedure. “This reported interference puts the civilian-led nature of the asylum process at risk as no unwarranted links should be made between refugees and terrorism or refugees and crime,” UNHCR’s Representative Kessler said. “The encroaching involvement of any agencies not formally associated with the asylum system endangers the independence of the legal processes UNHCR’s has been working to establish for the benefit of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons in the Republic of Moldova and the perception that the BMA can be relied upon to take independent decisions.” Moldova currently shelters more 2,200 persons of concern to UNHCR including some 200 refugees and asylum seekers and more than 2,000 registered stateless persons. UNHCR has been working in Moldova since 1997 and has spent some $20 million helping the government of Moldova to establish proper procedures to handle asylum claims and requests by stateless persons.