GO BACK to where you came from

Jul 2nd, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

In this groundbreaking three part TV series, six ordinary Australians agree to challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by embarking on a confronting 25-day journey. Tracing in reverse the journeys that refugees have taken to reach Australia, they travel to some of the most dangerous and desperate corners of the world, with no idea what is in store for them along the way.

Deprived of their wallets, phones and passports, they board a leaky refugee boat, are rescued mid-ocean, experience immigration raids in Malaysia, live in a Kenyan refugee camp and visit slums in Jordan before ultimately making it to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, protected by UN Peacekeepers and the US military. For some of them it’s their first time abroad. For all of them, it’s an epic journey and the most challenging experience of their lives.

It’s compulsive viewing for the same reasons the debate on refugees is: there are no easy answers. And the search for what scraps of truth and meaning in the debate is never predictable. Here is a television show that mixes documentary insights into the life of refugees with the character drama of the best shows going around. The only difference is, it’s not scripted. Certainly not forced.
“Go Back to Where You Came From” takes six ordinary Australians – a life guard, a horsewoman, a country music singer, an unemployed woman and so on – and asks them to go on a confronting journey in reverse. From meeting refugee families that have settled here in Australia, by boat and otherwise, and then tracing the steps back to Africa, Jordan and Iraq, through Malaysia.

Importantly for the credibility of the show, not everybody will change their minds. But they do change their perspective. Volunteers start the show visiting settled refugees in Australia, on their couches and in their homes. It’s an easy transition into what is to come: a leaky boat journey from Darwin, witnessing an asylum seeker raid in Malaysia and navigating the vast refugee camps of Africa and the horrid injuries of bomb survivors in Jordan, where many Iraqi refugees have fled. There are real moments of tears, for the volunteers and likely for most of you watching at home.

Click here to watch online: http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/goback

EU Court of Human Rights: Against Deportation

Jul 1st, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

On 1 July “Somali National Day” since 1960, but not much to celebrate, Martin Jones emails APRRN:

The European Court of Human Rights has recently handed down an interesting judgment in the matter of Sufi and Elmi v. UK.  The case concerned the legality of attempts to return Somali failed asylum seekers to Mogadishu.  In determining the case, the Court made interesting findings of fact about the situation in Somalia and Kenya (the latter, for Somali refugees).  The judgment raises numerous interesting factual and legal issues.

In relation to Dadaab, the Court found that conditions in the camp violated the Article 3 requirement that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”  Specifically, the Court found that the risk of violence from Kenyan police and criminal gangs within and outside the camps; overcrowding; lack of adequate water; and restrictions on freedom of movement cumulatively resulted in inhuman or degrading treatment.  I have appended the operative paragraphs on this subject below.  This finding may be useful in your advocacy attempts – particularly against “warehousing” in such camps (as I think the same analysis would result in a similar finding in most refugee camps with which I am familiar).

The Court also made some observations about human rights reports relying upon quotations from anonymous individuals (in this case, commissioned by the UK government and reliant solely upon conversations with third parties within Somalia).  The Court finds that such documents can be used to corroborate other evidence but that it is almost impossible for them to independently establish facts.  The Court’s analysis might be useful for those of you facing UNHCR’s use of such “internal” reports (or government reliance upon similar reports from itself or the UNHCR).

The full judgment can be found here: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2011/1045.html

The Rule of Law without the State: http://mises.org/daily/2701

CIA World Factbook – Somalia: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html

Homeless with our refugee friends

Jun 26th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Street sleeping is illegal, however, every refugee is forced to break this law at some point. To mark World Refugee Day, Vision First’s staff went homeless for one night with five members who slept rough for months – two of them through the winter! Their friendly manners and tidy clothes neatly disguise a vagrancy we didn’t fully appreciate until dawn. This experience requires psychological preparation. It is one thing to hear their stories and quite another to break through the embarrassment these urban outcasts conceal to the casual observer. It’s a sobering fact that almost all VF members endured this fate at various times: running out of cash upon arrival, abandoned by smuggling agents, before meeting compatriots, before obtaining ISS support, evicted by landlords and, most frequently, when released from CIC (Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre).

In the overly bright lights of Peking Road McDonald’s, it became apparent this wouldn’t be a walk in the park. There was new ice that needed to be broken. Hardly a word was spoken over dinner by guys who always chat amicably, which made us realize we were pushing the outreach envelop into awkward territory. We wondered what prompted this uncomfortable silence. Perhaps they wanted to pull out. Maybe they had second thoughts about showing exactly where and how they slept in the open, which was quite understandable. These are proud young people who haven’t been humiliated by sleeping in the streets before seeking sanctuary in HK. One thing for sure, the first months are the toughest for any refugee, presumably worldwide, as they crush relentless even their lowest expectations. The adjustment to be made is huge.

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2010 Global Trends Report

Jun 25th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report released today reveals deep imbalance in international support for the world’s forcibly displaced, with a full four-fifths of the world’s refugees being hosted by developing countries – and at a time of rising anti-refugee sentiment in many industrialized ones.

UNHCR’s 2010 Global Trends report shows that many of the world’s poorest countries are hosting huge refugee populations, both in absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies. Pakistan, Iran and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million and 1 million respectively.

Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each US dollar of its per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison, Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.

Overall, the picture presented by the 2010 report is of a drastically changed protection environment to that of 60 years ago, when the UN Refugee Agency was founded. At that time UNHCR’s caseload was 2.1 million Europeans, uprooted by World War Two. Today,UNHCR’s work extends to more than 120 countries and encompasses people forced to flee across borders as well as those in flight within their own countries.

The 2010 Global Trends report shows that 43.7 million people are now displaced worldwide – roughly equalling the entire populations of Colombia or South Korea, or of Scandinavia and Sri Lanka combined.

“In today’s world there are worrying misperceptions about refugee movements and the international protection paradigm,” said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile, it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”

Reflecting the prolonged nature of several of today’s major international conflicts, the report finds that the refugee experience is becoming increasingly drawn-out for millions of people worldwide. UNHCR defines a protracted refugee situation as one in which a large number of people are stuck in exile for five years or longer.

Click here to download  2010 Global Trends report or read the Interactive Version.

The man with no country who nobody wants

Jun 19th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

South China Morning Post, 19 June 2011, by Chris Ip

Stuck in Hong Kong, Michael, who lost his home and his nationality when he fled a war-torn country to make his way to Samoa, has become a stateless person – someone no country wants and who even the UN cannot help. After fleeing a former Soviet state, one man’s journey to the only place that would take him stalled in Hong Kong. Five years on, he’s still here, with no passport.

In the dead of night, without time to say goodbye to friends and family, and carrying only a backpack stuffed with clothes, Michael set off on a journey from his ex-Soviet state to Samoa. But soon after going through Kazakhstan, into Xinjiang and across China by train, he hit roadblocks in Hong Kong that have kept him stuck here for the last five years. While in Hong Kong, Michael received a presidential ordinance telling him he was no longer a citizen in the land of his birth. That made him stateless; a citizen of no country. Without a valid passport, or even a state that will claim him as its own, he cannot go home even if he wants to, let alone to any foreign country. Michael would not reveal his home country for fear of being identified, and his name has been changed.

Even before he was deemed stateless, the New Zealand and Australian governments refused to let him transit via their countries on his way to Samoa, the only country he could escape to without a visa. Coming from a war-torn and unstable country, they feared he might claim asylum. “I couldn’t go any farther and I couldn’t go back,” he says. Though he would not discuss the details of his departure out of fear for his family’s safety, he says he has been imprisoned, beaten and had his life threatened for his political views. Michael’s third quandary is still ongoing – trying to get recognised as stateless and hopefully getting some semblance of freedom with it. After over 20 appointments spanning three years with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is mandated to protect stateless people, he was told his case was closed without explanation. “They never asked me how I left, why I left, what is my problem, how I feel, what kind of problems I have.”

Now he is pushing the Immigration Department to grant him protection, which they are required to do as Hong Kong is part of the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a key agreement in setting rights for stateless people. So far, the government has told him that the certificate revoking his citizenship – with the signature of the state’s president – is “insufficient for drawing a conclusion” of statelessness. While the UNHCR can investigate a person’s identity and brand them stateless, they say it is up to the government to give them a new identity. “If the person is truly stateless then generally speaking the solution would be to gain nationality in the host country,” said Ambrose Chiu Chun-ki, assistant resettlement officer at the UNHCR. “Ultimately it is the state’s sovereign right to decide who’s theirs, but they do have an obligation under the 1954 convention.”

Stateless people in Hong Kong are few and far between. The UNHCR has only referred one case to the government in the past five years. However, Chiu said he knew of around three potential cases arising in the same time span, and Cosmo Beatson of NGO Vision First said he knew six other cases from areas like Palestine who could have stateless claims. The Security Bureau did not say how many stateless people had come to Hong Kong in time for print. Stateless people allegedly from Lesotho and Southeast Asia have previously received Hong Kong identity cards from the government. But only a new government will allow Michael to return to his country. “If things change the way I want – I need – I will go back. But I think it will take years, if not decades.”

HK Magazine “Place of no refuge”

Jun 16th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

By Grace Tsoi – published in HK MAGAZINE, June 09, 2011

Let’s call this young man S in order to protect his identity. Five years ago, S was an innocent high-school student in Sri Lanka. His life was supposed to center around school, friendship and romance—but because he was a heavily persecuted ethnic minority in a Southeast Asian country, his people had to fight for their own land. Worried about his safety, S’s mother hired an agent to help her son escape a deadly fate. At the age of 15, S left his family behind and embarked on a one-way journey away from home. 

S made his way to Hong Kong three years ago—but it has not been the sanctuary he hoped for. “I don’t like anything here except the safety,” S says. “My future is denied in Hong Kong.” Since Hong Kong doesn’t grant citizenship to asylum seekers, their only hope is to get resettled in other countries. However, it takes more than five years on average for the authorities to determine a refugee’s status and to arrange resettlement. That means refugees have to spend years waiting in the city, with limited access to the opportunities and services it has to offer. Hardest of all is the uncertainty: they never know whether their application will be rejected, or when they’ll be resettled. 

For these residents, Hong Kong is the worst kind of limbo. Instead of the freedoms extended to most of the SAR’s denizens, refugees lead a very restricted life in Hong Kong. The government does offer assistance, but it’s minimal. Asylum seekers receive food assistance every ten days, and they are given a $1,000 subsidy for accommodation. (To put the amount into context, keep in mind that a partitioned room in Sham Shui Po now costs more than $2,000 per month.) They are also not allowed to work; technically, it is even illegal for them to perform any form of volunteer work in the city.

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Drum, Dance, Drink for Duvalld

Jun 15th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Why aren’t Togolese refugees recognized in HK?

Jun 15th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Dear VF members –

Hello! I am Peter from Togo and I have been in Hong Kong for three years. When I left my country in 2008, because of my political activism, I hoped to find asylum and a new future in Hong Kong. When our political party was violently broken up by the government, some of my colleagues went to Belgium, others to France and Holland. Their stories of persecution and their evidence were the same as mine and other Togolese who came to HK. However, six months to a year after arriving in Europe, my colleagues were accepted by the those governments (through the Immigration Department). Instead, here in Hong Kong not one single Togolese has ever been recognized by the UNHCR – Why?

It is commonly known that Togo was brutalized by President Gnassingbe Eyadema from 1967 until his death in 2005. At his death he was the longest ruling dictator in Africa and that was not thanks to his democratic ideals, but because he was ruthless. There was no surprise when his son continued the ‘family business’ after his death. Faure Gnassingbe’s power is still unchallenged today. In my view, these 44 years of brutality, torture and assassination caused more deaths than the 20 year war in Somalia. Everyone knows Somalia is lawless because there is no government, but Togo is even more dangerous because there is one – an evil government.

This link tells about a student demonstration that was violently dispersed yesterday 14 June 2011:
http://www.diastode.org/Nouvelles/nouvelle4055.html
Citizens are killed every night. For example, the famous political activist Gaston Vidada was shot dead in May in his Lome home. The government said they would make an inquiry into his death. He was shot with a rifle and in Togo only the government has guns. They will cover up this assassination like they have done hundreds before and surely more in the future. Even France, who covertly rule Togo since 1918, cannot control the President’s family, which is why opposition parties win the elections, but are never recognized with the true results. There is no political freedom in Togo. There are no civil rights or human rights. There is no justice and there is no future for ordinary citizens, which is why many seek sanctuary abroad. The world knows what is going on in Togo, but we refugees cannot be recognized in Hong Kong. Why?

CIA World Factbook – Togo: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/to.html

“One too many” video

Jun 15th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Victims of sexual trafficking

Jun 12th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

My name is Dorothy and I’m from Uganda. I would like to tell you about black young girls on Hong Kong streets caught in the criminal web of sexual trafficking. Most of these girls are from East Africa, i.e. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. I have become friends with many who consider me their mother as I was a social worker and I understand their plight. Now I want to help them break away from the slavery of prostitution. When you look at the streets 70% of the black girls are from this region as visas are granted upon arrival in HK. It’s so sad when you see them working the streets, desperately trying to find men so as to be able to earn money for the African pimps who control them. These girls dress seductively and very provocatively in order to capture people’s attention. In fact, they are so convincing  that you are tempted to talk to them and see what they are trying to sell to you. Most of these girls are brought to Asia by very greedy and manipulative ‘businessmen’, who are actually conmen in suits, who disguise their human trafficking agenda until they reach HK. These tricksters promise beautiful, young girls in Africa that in Hong Kong they will obtain working visas for employment in supermarkets, hairdressers, trading companies and the like. They prey on the naïve and as long as work remains scarce in this countries, they will always find new victims to fool with a convincing employment lie. The job offers come with high salaries, benefits and a promise that life will be so much better than what their ‘targets’ have known back home. Little do these hopeful girls know their dreams will all come crashing down!

CIA World Factbook – Uganda: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html

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