<m2m-nl> Teken ajb Open Brief voor vluchtelingen in actie in Tunesie

[Jo van der Spek M2M]

doorgestuurd op verzoek van All Included:

Spoed

Momenteel is een 100-tal vluchtelingen uit UNHCR-vluchtelingenkamp Choucha
(in Tunesie nabij grens Libie) onderweg met bussen naar Tunis. Daar gaan
ze 3 dagen een kamp opzetten voor het kantoor van UNHCR en Europese Unie
uit protest tegen het onmogelijke situatie waarin honderden zich bevinden.
Het kamp ontstond na de vlucht van duizenden migranten uit Libie toen de
EU - Frontex operatie Hermes - met een verscherpt toezicht de deuren extra
sloot voor deze migranten (ook Rutte stelde dat zij 'in de regio'
opgevangen moesten worden). Nu gaat de UNHCR Choucha deze zomer sluiten.
Een groot deel vluchtelingen is via een UNHCR-status opgenomen in diverse
landen. Maar een deel is die status geweigerd en een deel kwam te laat
binnen voor de procedure. Tunesië kent geen asielwetgeving en wil deze
groep terugsturen naar Libie. Intussen is de keuken in het kamp gesloten.
Afgelopen zomer was er tijdens de Boats4people actie een delegatie naar
Choucha gegaan en zijn er banden aangeknoopt
(http://www.allincluded.nl/index.php/blog-boats4people-12/375-delegation-choucha)
om deze groep mensen te ondersteunen. Zie de onderstaande Open Brief - nog
niet ter publicatie - voor meer details over de achtergrond van de actie
incl. een 35-tal organisaties die reeds onderschrijven. En zie verder de
blog http://chouchaprotest.noblogs.org/

Wij steunen deze mensen in actie. Wil je de Open brief ondertekenen? Graag
vóór 11u maandagochtend (!) aan All Included terugmailen. Morgen start de
actie en gaat een parsbericht de deur uit.

Tevens is veel geld nodig (oa 3000 euro voor bussen, 1500 voor eten).
Stort op bankrekening 4864527 tnv 'all included' te Amsterdam.

Veel dank
All Included

Dear Mrs. Ursula Schulze Aboubacar, Dear Mr. António Guterres,

we are activists and observers from different parts of the world. We were
told by friends now in limbo in Choucha (with no hope either of settling
there or of leaving) that they were staging a protest in Tunis addressing
the UNHCR as well as the embassies of the US and the EU.
The protesters are refugees who have gone through Refugee Status
Determination (RSD) procedure and ended up not being recognised as
refugees. You call them "migrants" who don't match the criteria for the
protection mandate of UNHCR. They will thus be asked to leave the country
to
return to their countries of origin - regardless of whether they will face
persecution, civil war or poverty.
Some of us have met people who are denied access to food and medical
treatment by UNHCR since October. In addition, they risk deportation as
they have no regular stay in Tunisia.
We have listened to their account of the situation. There are massive
discrepancies between what they tell us about what is happening in Choucha
and what UNHCR would have us believe.
However, not even your own staff denies that interpretation during the RSD
hearings was inadequate. And you will certainly agree that it's
unacceptable to have refugees with no experience of interpretation,
interpret on behalf of other refugees - especially in a situation as
significant as RSD hearings which have considerable consequences for
individuals. We were shocked to hear from Choucha refugees that the staff
was unable to cope with processing their RSD applications. In many cases
UNHCR did not abide by its own guidelines on RSD hearings One example of
this was the way in which UNHCR have treated people who have raised an
objection to their first hearing owing to lack of an impartial
interpreter, resulting in a biased and only partial exchange of
information. They were shocked to confront the very same interpreter - who
was a member of the enemy faction in conflict - at their second hearing.
Such appalling
mistakes must not be made by the UNHCR if it aims to retain its good
reputation.
What's more, many of our friends in Choucha report unbearable living
conditions inside the camp and the fact that they feel abandoned and
socially excluded by UNHCR. We would like to remind you of the horrific
riots, the looting and the fire in May 2011 during which many people were
injured and re-traumatised due to witnessing their friends perish in the
flames.
UNHCR withdrew from the camp completely and failed to live up to its claim
to protect refugees.
We deplore the fact that, in the months following these events, UNHCR has
analysed neither the events nor their causes.
Another situation in which UNHCR and its partner organisation withdrew
from the camp because of "security related issues" was the workers' strike
in Choucha in early 2012. Obviously, UNHCR staff were worried about their
own security yet they simply left the refugees in a dangerous situation
with no official contact person.
We learned that the UNHCR's 2012 budget for the camp in Choucha has been
cut. Since there are fewer people in Choucha, there are fewer tasks to be
performed - which is why we do not understand at all how you could
introduce the "refugee-ID" and thus mark people as failed asylum seekers
who are excluded from access to food and medical care. Even infants are
not receiving milk. According to your definition, of course, you are not
responsible for these migrants: however, it might have come to your
attention that these people do not have the option either of going back to
Libya or returning their countries of origin.
Staying in Tunisia but outside the camp has already resulted in the arrest
of some. Thus remaining but rejected asylum seekers are de facto trapped
inside the camp. To deny them humanitarian aid in these circumstances is
totally unacceptable.
The Choucha camp will continue to exist until June 2013. This gives you an
opportunity to amend existing shortcomings and, above all, to respond to
the protesters' more than justified claims for a reopening of their asylum
applications under more appropriate conditions.
For these reasons we support the demands of our striking friends in Choucha:
· To reopen the asylum cases of all rejected asylum seekers!
· The recognition of everybody's right to stay at the camp, including:
· Access to food and medical care for everybody!
· Access to the resettlement procedure for everybody!
After the negligence of UNHCR in Choucha you ought finally to assume
responsibility and listen to the protesting refugees. In the name of the
organisations and individuals below, we demand that you respond to their
claims.

Undersigning / sigrantaires / Unterzeichnend:
· Achim Rollhäuser, Lawyer, Athens, Greece
· Afrique-Europe-Interact, International
· All Included Amsterdam, Netherlands
· Andrea Ciannavei, New York, USA
· boats4people, International
· borderline-europe - Menschenrechte ohne Grenzen e.V, Germany
· Café Exil, Hamburg, Germany
· Christine Poppitz, Rüx/Zettlitz, Germany
· Conseil des Migrants au Maroc, Morocco
· David Gerald Caudwell Landau, London, United Kingdom
· Eva Weber and Helmut Dietrich; Research Center on Flight and Refugees /
Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration e.V., Germany
· Flüchtlingsrat Hamburg, Germany
· Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen, Germany
· Flüchtlingsrat Wiesbaden, Germany
· Free movement - network, Finland
· grenzenlos | leipzig, Germany
· Hermann-Josef Hardt, Flüchtlingsrat Hamburg, Germany
· Ivan Jurica, Austria and Slovakia
· Karina Brinkhoff, Germany
· kein mensch ist illegal hanau, Germany
· Kornelia Metzing, AK Ausländer und Asyl Freiberg e.V., Germany
· Manuel Junghans, Freiberg, Germany
· Nadine Henkel, Germany
· noborder ffm, Germany
· PrekaerCafe, Austria
· Ralph-Eric Berg, Arzt, Berlin, Germany
· René Rumpf, Germany
· Sandro Mezzadra, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy
· Solongo Baldandorshijo, Germany
· Stiftung :do, Germany
· Ulrike Beudgen
· welcome2europe, International
· Yael Dilger (M.A.), Hamburg, Germany

info at allincluded.nl
http://www.allincluded.nl
Plantage Doklaan 12
1018 CM Amsterdam
tel 020-3795236


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