The
group added that many were deported, some to face interrogation in
their homelands.
'Global
Spotlight'
The
group charged that U.S. officials "arbitrarily and
indiscriminately arrested immigrants unconnected to terrorism or
crime".
"By
asking the United Nations to shine a global spotlight on the U.S.
government's indiscriminate round up of immigrants, the ACLU warns the
government that it cannot escape justices through secrecy," the
ACLU said.
"Many
of these policies remain in effect and there is a substantial danger
that they will be applied again ...," it said.
Anthony
Romero, ACLU executive director, said that hundreds of Muslims had
been arrested and detained "using race, religion and national
origin as proxies for suspicion".
"With
today's action, we are sending a strong message of solidarity to
advocates in other countries who have decried the impact of U.S.
policies on the human rights of their citizens," said Anthony
Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, at the Geneva press briefing.
"The
ACLU will go where it must to seek justice for the men who were
unfairly detained and deported by the U.S. government after September
11," Romero added.
Most
were from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, followed by nationals of Jordan,
Yemen, India and Saudi Arabia, according to the group which has also
filed cases in U.S. domestic courts.
Equal
Treatment Violation
U.S.
policies violated detainees' rights to equal treatment under law and
to due process, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the ACLU said.
The
U.S. government has 90 days to respond to the complaint. The U.N.
working group, composed of five independent legal experts, reports to
the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
Khurram
Altaf, one of the 13 plaintiffs, was deported to his native Pakistan
in summer of 2002 two months after being detained at home in New
Jersey and questioned about any links to Al-Qaeda, which he
strenuously denies.
Altaf,
who arrived in the United States in 1985, worked at a trucking company
and had applied for a permanent residency card.
His
three children are all U.S. citizens. His daughter Anza, who was born
deaf, remains in America for treatment, while his wife and other two
children have joined him in Islamabad.
"My
two children in Pakistan are struggling with school and the
language," Altaf said.
Washington
also faces a heavy dose of criticisms upon holding hundreds of people
in Guantanamo base in Cuba without detention.
