picture by Lorena Torres

With the coming to power of the new government, immigrants in general and asylum seekers in particular had their hopes raised. It was a new daybreak after a long wait for asylum seekers hoping for re-consideration of their situation. But then the government acted quick. They formed a task force to look into the possibility of asylum seekers living outside the camps, and the possibility to have the right to seek work. That team set up in late 2011 is concluding its mandate on 15 May, but so far asylum seekers, who will be affected by whatever outcome of their reports have not been consulted.

by Zach Khadudu, Spokesperson for the campaign dubbed ´Out Of The Camps´ organised by Trampoline House.

Of prominent concern is the proposals made from various quarters that those rejected asylum seekers who are not cooperating with the police to be deported, should not have the mentioned possibilities: to live and work outside the camps. This according to asylum seekers and proponents of refugee rights, is not just discriminatory, but also an injustice to the affected rejected asylum seekers. The ´cooperation´ that rejected asylum seekers are expected to have with the police is absurd in fact and sense. Rejected asylum seekers are asked to agree to be voluntarily deported, and to this extend they are supposed to sign with the police to agree to be deported to the countries they fled from. This not only beats logic but is also an unnecessary pressure for asylum seeker who believe they have well founded fears of persecution, threats and or death if they return to their countries.

People do not flee their countries simply for economic reasons or for a better life. Leaving family and familiar backgrounds to seek for peace abroad takes sweat and blood, mental and physical strain. Therefore asking a rejected asylum seeker to sign to be deported is handing them a noose to hang themselves. It is no wonder therefore that majority of the rejected asylum seekers do not sign, and the few who sign do so not out of personal conviction and will, but due to unfavourable inducements from the police.

Authorities cut down on the living allowances of the rejected asylum seekers in the hope that this will frustrate them and make them cooperate. But people whose very own life is in danger in their home countries cannot be induced by money cut-down. Anything for them is better, as far as they are not in their countries. When this tactic fails, the rejected asylum seekers who still refuse to sign for deportation are refused any opportunity to have job placements, ´praktik.´ Their life remains one of desperation, hopelessness and anxiety. Unsure of what the next day holds. If they still remain resilient, they could be picked up from their centers of residence and locked up at Ellebæk prison awaiting deportation.

But questions are bound as to the mental and physical health of people, who fleeing from danger zones, find themselves living in camps and ending up either deported or granted asylum. The fact is, after spending some months in the asylum centres, one comes out of them worse than they were: mentally and otherwise. Whether they receive asylum or are rejected, life is never the same for them. This is due to the fact that life in the asylum centres is not normal life. Having to live in isolated areas from the rest of the citizenry and interacting only with equally disturbed people on daily basis breaks even the strongest of spirits. The denial of the right to seek paid work, gives the asylum seekers a sense of deprivation of an essential fundamental right.

On the flip side however one question remains, can the situation be better if the government makes good its promise to allow asylum seekers live and work outside the centres? Well, absolutely. An efficient asylum system should build people and make them better. It should be a safe haven, where having witnessed horrors and wars from their countries, they can sigh with relief in their host countries.

The opportunity to live outside the centres for all asylum seekers will not only better their personal situation, but it will also enable them actively contribute to the growth and prosperity of their host country – in this case Denmark. Many asylum seekers who withstand tough and rough conditions to reach here are able bodied persons who with a little mental and physical support can be as productive as anybody can be. Locking them up in centres not only denies the country the talents and abilities that they possess, but it also makes the asylum seekers a burden to the host country.

The scepticism expressed that such opportunities will make Denmark a prime target for influx of asylum seekers is immaterial. People do not flee danger and war-zones to seek employment abroad. Infact asylum seekers who flee to Denmark will not necessarily compete for same job offers and opportunities with the native. On the contrary, they will supplement the existing workforce by offering additional human capital. As for now, asylum seekers wholly depend on the taxpayers. Living and working will allow them fend for themselves, contribute to the national common basket in taxes and other levies, and give them the human sense of dignity of working.

But where do we go from here? The report from the task force looking into the possibility of living and working outside the centers is due soon. The asylum seeker has not been consulted so far. But all is well that ends well. That is why it is of utmost importance that even in this dying moments, the little voice of the asylum seeker is heard. Before time lapses and the proposal discussed in parliament, the asylum seekers see the need to come together with like-minded Danes under the umbrella of Trampoline Cultural house to voice their concerns.

We have chosen to stand in solidarity on Sunday the 13^th May to speak in one voice. ´Everyone means Everyone´ is a phrase coiled to call upon the government to consider in its proposals and discussions, to include everyone in the hopeful decision to live and work outside the centres. Everyone including the the rejected asylum seekers who are not willing to give their signature to be deported to back to their countries where they believe they are not safe. Work and living in community does not just point to human rights, it point to the very purpose and spirit of humanity. The dignity accorded to individual persons, even in their vulnerable moments. Wars and instability are here as long as humanity exists and in essence asylum seeking also is, but the promotion of human dignity and prosperity of the society will not be judged on how well the privileged majority are treated, but on how well the vulnerable few are cared for.

af visAvis

I dag påbegynder 18 afviste syriske asylansøgere deres fjerde dag på sultestrejke. Sultestrejken er en reaktion på deres tilværelse i asylsystemet, hvor de nu er tvunget til at blive på ubestemt tid i en såkaldt limbo-position, der betyder, at de hverken kan sendes tilbage til det krigshærgede Syrien, få ophold i Danmark eller søge asyl i et andet EU-land.

De 18 syriske kurdere er en sammensat gruppe fra tre forskellige asyllejre i Danmark, der har samlet sig uden for asyllejren Sigerslev. De opholder sig lige ude foran lejrens hegn, hvor madrasser er blevet placeret under en pressening, der skærmer for regnen. De giver alle udtryk for afmagt over ikke at kunne handle, ikke at have nogen vished om fremtiden og ikke at blive hørt. 

visAvis var i Sigerslev onsdag for at snakke med de sultestrejkende og følger situationen. De nedenstående statements er de uredigerede udsagn fra de sultestrejkende, da visAvis mødte dem tirsdag:

“We feel that the hunger strike is the only option left. Most of us are in phase 3, and we have been waiting for many years. Because of the war in Syria we cannot return, but we are not aloud to stay either. Our wish is to have a normal life in Denmark while the war is going on. Maybe the war will last five, maybe even ten, years. We cannot stay in the camp without knowing anything about our future and with no possibility to live a simple and normal life.

The center is like a jail. It’s far away from the city, from everything. We are human beings, but the only things we see out here are pigs and other animals. Nobody hear us, instead they treat us like small children, the dogs here have more rights than we do, they take more care of the dogs, than they take care of us.

Our bodies are tired, our souls are tired, we are in a total mess. In Syria the putted us in jails, but here our souls are being killed, day by day, as our situation only is about waiting and waiting. We feel that we have been sent from one prison to another.

You hear so many good things about the European democracy. But is this democracy? We are loyal people, we didn’t make any problems and we will not make any. The only thing we want is to be seen, to be heard. We just want our simple rights as human beings.”

Billeder af Nanna Katrine Hansen

Here we bring a shortened version of a transcription of a Public Hearing, held on Friday the 10^th of February 2012 in The Trampoline House. The Public Hearing was the starting point of the campaign OUT OF THE CAMPS! which points in the direction of a more just and humane asylum policy in Denmark. The demand is that after six months, every person seeking asylum should have the right to live and work outside the asylum camps. The document is divided into key themes and is a selection of stories and thoughts especially from people living in asylum camps in Denmark.

by The Trampoline House

Why seeking asylum?

 “Normal life is when everyone is able to have what he or she needs: a land to cultivate, a school of own choice, a job, a family life, a woman or a man of own choice, a child, physically a good condition and an acceptable social status … Let’s talk about the invisible thing, which guides us in our daily life and gives us great satisfaction and a sense of inner security: affection, tenderness, family dialogue, love, education, freedom of choice, participation in a society, being regarded as a human being, having a voice in society, protection of families. This is what all refugees want. This is what they deserve.”

“Around the world, people seeking asylum arrive in a state of anxiety, after surviving the horrors: wars, massacres, genocides, ambushes, earthquakes, famine, natural disasters, epidemics, harassment, imprisonment, rape, torture, insults, rejection by society because of their religion, ethnicity, tribe, sexual orientation or poverty. Let me mention drought, lack of care for a serious illness, lack of appropriate treatment for an illness or any handicap, but once they arrive to the country of asylum, the first thing that appears in their minds is: ‘Finally it’s over, I will live well.’ Unfortunately it is an error to think this.”

“Of course we know that not all people who come here need protection. I know, I’m an African, I come from Africa. Some people try to come to Europe for a better life. Economic immigrants. We understand that. But not everybody. Because a few are coming as economic immigrants, they are taking that as an excuse to turn away everybody. That does not make sense. What we are proposing is: Try to listen to the cases. Take these people to a safe place. Interview them. You can always draw a line between who is an economic immigrant and who is an asylum seeker. Instead of just turning away everybody, bring them in and try to listen to the story of each person. Then you can decide what to do, what you think is best.”

“People are running away from Libya to live here, or wherever there is a problem. And you get them at the sea. You don’t talk to them. You try to turn them away. People are running away from their own lives. So what do people do when they are pushed back? Like people before told us, they try to jump overboard. So many people, hundreds of people, women and children get killed at sea. Just because they are trying to run away from a problem, and they think that is the only way of survival. This has to change: interception at the sea, trying to stop people to come into European borders.”

Waiting

“I am from Sudan. They cannot deport people back to Sudan because it’s dangerous and there is war. I cannot go back. I coorporate with the police. I do not feel like an active person. I get money to eat, but I cannot go outside, I cannot do anything. Now I have stayed for 2 years. I do not feel that I have a life. I cannot do anything. I do the same things every day. I can’t make a family, I can’t do anything. I don’t feel I am alive.”

“Then going back to your room. Then waiting for lunch in the Sandholm cafeteria. Then going back to your room again. Then waiting for dinner in the Sandholm cafeteria. This day in and day out, not knowing when it will stop. And not going back to your own room, but to a room that you share with maybe 3 or 4 other people who maybe speak languages that you don’t understand, who are maybe not able to sleep at night and are awake when you want to sleep.”

“It is very important that we get some maximum time limits. One limit for a final decision. You should not wait forever to know if you have a positive or a negative answer. The next definition should be – how long time can you wait after a rejection. As it is right now 68 people have waited for more than 10 years. And some have waited for up to 16-17 years. That is just insane!”

“The government has talked about moving people out of the camps after 6 months, and I think we all agree that this will improve things a lot. I hope that they will make something similar to the Swedish system. In Sweden people are living all over the country, in normal houses with normal neighbors, normal schools and everyday lives. It works in Sweden. They have more than 10 times as many asylum seekers per inhabitant than we do, so I am sure we can make it work!”

“We have to have deadlines! You go to an interview, they tell you they will get back to you in 3 months. You go back to your camp, you get your name on the post, you have to move away from there. Your case is finished. You wait one month. Two, three, four, five, ten. 1 year, 2 years. We too have dreams. We have visions. It is better for the guys who are prisoners. After four months, maybe, your sentence is over, while we, in the camps, you stay there and you never know! Sometimes I think they even forgot about me, you know.”

“You never see letters, you never see anything. We need to have an efficient asylum system. They need to tell people: “it’s three weeks”, then I’m expecting a letter in three weeks. One week is allowed, maybe four weeks. But give me my answer! I need to know, so that I can think about my next day. Waiting forever just kills you more.”

Isolation

“Loneliness is silent suffering. You are silent. You keep your suffering to yourself. There is great loneliness and isolation among people living in refugee camps.”

“It is a most common choice for the government to place a refugee camp far away in a forest or another abandoned location, far from all and every relation to life. People start living as monks during meditation or as lonesome elderly in a retirement home. A person who was rejected in his country, comes to be rejected a second time and is turned away from the circle of life.”

“When families are united after a long period of separation, it is not easy to take control. People have become strange to each other, things are beyond us, and people change. Time or that long period destroy everything. There may be no love anymore, no tenderness like before. Eventually we lose our lives forever. People who loved each other before the separation, are no longer able to love each other, nor to communicate.”

“So what are we saying? We are saying: Ellebæk is NOT for asylum seekers, it is for criminals. But people are suffering there who are NOT criminals.”

“Detention of minors, children, is just – I try to get a better word to say it – but it is just crazy. It’s abnormal. Young children, children who are 15, 16 years old, who are separated from their families. Having a lot of problems. You put them in detention. Why? Because they are here without papers, or because they are here to seek asylum?”

“What about those people who said they wanted asylum and were arrested in Kastrup and taken to Ellebæk for four months? Serving a sentence for nothing. Because they are here to seek asylum.”

Skills, Ressources and Human Interaction

“It really takes courage and trust for people to build up relations and friendships. We should all think about in our daily lives to get people inside, into the local associations for instance. Practice your skills, practice your Danish, practice your Farsi if you’re a Dane. Or whatever. But include people. And it can really be done anywhere if we want to.”

“We people in the camps are very frustrated and we feel like we are useless. Anyone in any country feels that he or she must be utilized. And not to be put to waste. We want to do something. We should be utilized somewhere. We need a promise from the government that they are going to do something soon, that they will take some positive action regarding our cases.”

“Our system is a system of exchange. You receive something and you have to give something. How can you be a part of this system if you are not allowed to put your resources into value? Everybody has these resources.”

“Most people in Phase 2 have lived here for more than 6 months, but the government hasn’t enforced their promise yet. This is a problem, and we have discussed that the right to live and work outside the camps should include all the people in the camps, especially the people in Phase 3 who have been rejected. There are many people who are in Phase 3, and if we include them we are treating them as humans and give them their human rights. We should not allow this for some people and not for others. Maybe, I am wrong and saying words that might be impolite, but this is the reality for me and so many other people in the camps. I hope that no one is frustrated with me speaking for many people. If we help the people get their education, this would be very good, and it should not be specified on what they have to study. I am very glad, very happy that the government of Denmark paved the way for me and that I can study here and have a higher education and have supported me in different fields of study. I really appreciate that. But, I am the exception. There may be a few people here who are studying to get their higher education, but that is also a small number. We must not just think about two or three people, but so many others here.”

“We have a lot of people with skills and talents in the asylum centers. However, they cannot implement these skills and talents because they are stored in small and quiet places.”

”Thank you very much. I want to say that we people in the camps are very frustrated and we feel like we are useless. Anyone in any country feels that he or she must be utilized. And not be put to waste. We want to do something, we should be utilized somewhere. That is a real factor that makes people sick.”

 Lack of Health Care

“To be honest the health care system within the asylum camps is very bad. If you have a health issue and go to the doctor,the first recommendation from both the doctor and the nurses is: ‘Drink some more water.’”

“For example I had to see the dentist; and she told me to just eat with one side – the good side – of my mouth and wait until it is your turn. And then I go to get the bad side fixed, but then I have to come back to get the other side fixed, and it becomes a very time-consuming process. And while you wait the nurses will just prescribe you some painkillers.”

The Problems of the Asylum System

“If a person has a problem in his country and comes to Denmark, why does the government feel that his case is fake? Why don’t they believe him?”

“We are also human beings. We need family, we need relatives, we need friends. We are proposing, an idea, I think it is a reasonable proposal: Those who have families in European countries and want to seek asylum in that country, then you should be allowed to seek asylum in that country.”

“The problem starts when we come from Africa, or you come from Afghanistan, or Middle East and you try to get to Europe. We come by various means, we come by plane, by ship, we come by boat. We come through very dangerous paths to get over here for asylum, and the first thing that has been done in the past few years is to try and intercept, to put patrols at the Indian Ocean, at the Canary Islands, in Spain. To try to turn us back. “

“They need to establish a common European asylum system. For all of Europe. So that it can be integrated, so that things like family reintegration can happen. So we are just saying, like in Denmark, because Denmark is president of the European Union right now: do something. Start from here. Try to remove this problem that needs to be set right. So start here – we want to see changes in Denmark. They are saying that we will move out of the camps. We want to see those changes. We want to see cases being done at speed. We want to see changes as soon as we can.”

“There has to be access for NGOs, lawyers, counselors in asylum centers. For people who are in prison, like in Ellebæk, who are going to be deported, or some people who have just arrived it is very hard to even contact a lawyer, because we don’t have phones, we don’t have any form of communication. NGOs who want to help should be allowed to have access. We are saying: regarding those people you are putting in prison, those who will be deported, maybe something else comes up, maybe they have new evidence for their cases. But how can they present this evidence if we don’t allow lawyers, if we don’t allow counselors, if we don’t let NGOs in there to talk to them? Open up for NGOs, for lawyers. Give people these options!”

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was signed and adopted by several countries in Paris, December 10, 1948 Article I says: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. Is this true? For some other people it’s just a dream.”

“People can only take our rights if we allow them. If we sit down, and allow governments to do whatever, governments can do anything. If we stand up, speak with our voices, with our actions, peacefully we can change something. This is a start. I challenge us. Let’s go for it. This is our year. If it doesn’t happen for us, if it doesn’t happen for you and me, if we are deported or something, we will have done something, right?”

For more information about the campaign go to www.outofthecamps.dk

Read the statements form the first Public Hearing in The Trampoline House on http://www.visavis.dk/archives/992

]]> http://www.visavis.dk/archives/1656/feed 0 http://www.visavis.dk/archives/1645 http://www.visavis.dk/archives/1645#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 11:51:57 +0000 liv http://www.visavis.dk/?p=1645 [Full story >>]]]> picture by Thomas Elsted

Speech by The Trampoline House at the 1^st of May ANTIFA demonstration, “Live more, Work less”.  The speech is written and performed by Liza, Izabela and Keiko 

We are asylum seekers. And right now we live in Center Sandholm, and we are members of The Trampoline House. We are from different countries, but we have the same problem: We have plenty of time and no right to use it. We see a paradox: On the one hand we have a society of people working so hard – and on the other hand we are forced to do nothing. Believe us: it is easier to work hard than to be forced to do nothing.

So why don’t we share?

Most of us are young active people with different skills, highly motivated and in our best years. We used to be students in our home countries. Then we had to run away from horrible injustice to find a place where we can feel safe and equal. But from the beginning the asylum system showed us that we are not welcome here.

In our home countries we have already been isolated from the society, because of our nation, our beliefs, our religion and our political views. We came here to build a new life, but what we found is total isolation. We have not been accepted by our own society, and now we are not accepted by the new society. We are still strangers and don’t have any rights. No, we are not starving, not under bombing right now, but we are living inside the camps like animals in cages. Most of the time we just eat and sleep, uncertain about our future. We are fed up with never-ending free time. This time is killing us, because we are not allowed to do anything – having no rights to work, to get money, to education or the simplest right for self expression.

We go deep inside our terrible memories. We stay alone with our fears, with our past. We get depressed, passive, and after this long waiting time we have lost all hope, we have lost our self-confidence. This time can last for 5, 6, even 20 years! We ask ourselves, what have we done to become prisoners?

The women in the camps are isolated in a double sense. They are isolated, also inside the camp. Many women who run away from suppression find the same situation in the isolated camps. There are many women who never gone outside Centre Sandholm from the day they arrived.

We don’t want to abuse the Danish society – we want to enrich, to support, to build a new, colorful future together in harmony. To bring new power. New skills. New views. New possibilities. We want to feel useful. Some of us have very important knowledge. We can bring the best qualities from our cultures to the Danish culture, and enrich the society. We just need to have a chance to do it. We need to have the right to action.

The only way for refugees to become a useful part of the Danish society is to let us live and work outside the camps.

The Trampoline House is a mixed community of refugees and other residents of Denmark, building a new community together and supporting one another in the difficult process of integration. The Trampoline House is a user-driven community and culture house, where we break down the barrier between them and us. And we create an alternative community, which is not the isolating camp and not the excluding society. It is a place where we work as equals. Here we are faces instead of numbers and we are creating a new colorful society.

 The government will soon come out with a proposal and allow asylum seekers to live and work outside the camps, but we are worried that they will exclude some of the asylum seekers: Rejected asylum seekers and especially rejected asylum seekers who will not cooperate with the police about deportation. That means that people who have spent the longest period inside the camps will not be included.

 That is why we are running a campaign where we demand that all asylum seekers will have the right and possibility to live and work outside the camps after 6 months. On May 13, we are having a big manifestation where we walk out of the camps… TOGETHER!

For more information about the campaign visit www.outofthecamps.dk

Read Mohamed’s 1st of May speech from 2011: We need you, but I think you also need us!

Illustration by Christian Sylvest Simonsen

visAvis brings a personal account from one who had her first visit in a danish refugee camp.

by Stefania Kromydaki

The bus stops. The doors open. As I pass through the gate, I see small grey and white buildings outlined in the quickly receding dusk light. After a 50 minutes’ bus drive, I feel a bit disoriented and I try to recover by taking a look around.

There’s nothing much to look at, unfortunately. The place looks deserted. The buildings have this sort of impersonal look which suggests that they are not intended for long-term stay. I notice that all the windows are covered by heavy curtains which block out the light. In the middle of the round empty yard a Danish flag is hanging, stirred only slightly by a chilly breeze.  As I stare at it, an airplane flies above my head.

This was my first contact with Kongelunden’s refugee camp, built in a sparsely inhabited area in the south of Amager, 15 kilometres away from Copenhagen. My impression of temporary stay wasn’t quite right, however. As I learned later, the people who inhabit this place have not been granted asylum. Yet, they can stay there for months, and even years, while the slow bureaucratic system work on their cases. Even so, most of the times the answer is negative; and they are being deported.

It is amazing how little information there is about the asylum centres in Denmark. Elsewhere there is even less I suppose. But searching through the internet I couldn’t find even one picture of the camp, let alone its inhabitants, and no data about the number of people who live there, the available facilities, the activities they might engage into. Nothing. These people probably exist even less than me during the 3 months I lived in Denmark without a CPR-number. No wonder that none of my Danish friends knew anything about this place.

As I come closer to the house, I see a couple of broken toys on the lawn. About the time I reach the door, I think I can make out the singing or mumbling of a child’s voice. Then the door opens and in front of me there’s a small and stout Indian woman with the friendliest smile. A little boy, presumably her son, is peering to us behind her skirts.

Her name is Binderpal, and she’s the reason of my visit here. A common friend of ours, an Indian refugee who lives in Iceland, asked me to meet his ‘sister-cousin’ who is lonely and sad since her husband died.

Waiting for an answer 

Binderpal is preparing a dinner for us. The adolescent who is now in charge of the kitchen is introduced to us as Loveleen, Binderpal’s 13 year old daughter, but she’s obviously shy and she avoids eye contact.

While Binderpal moves around in the little apartment, I suddenly realize how tiny it is. I sit in the sofa and try to occupy as little space as possible. Binderpal sits next to me and she’s very open and talkative.

She is 34 years old and she moved from India to Denmark due to a local conflict  that made her and her husband fear for their lives. They fled to Denmark with their little daughter, Loveleen, while Binderpal was pregnant with her second child.  After a long and difficult journey they arrived to Denmark, which they had chosen as a destination because of their friend network here, which they thought would help them out in starting a new life.

The little family spent 3 months in the Sandholm refugee camp in the north of Zealand. In Sandholm the situation was very difficult, because this camp works both as a reception for the new comers and a temporary residence for people who have been refused asylum and are awaiting deportation. This combination of hope and desperation creates a grave atmosphere which is not suitable for a family with small children. Soon after they moved to Kongelunden, waiting for an answer on whether they can stay in Denmark or  will be deported back to India.

This was back in 2006. Soon after they moved Binderpal’s son, little Tanveer, was born. Not so long time after, Binderpal’s husband dies.

“He was taking a stroll with his friend to take some fresh air, because he said he was feeling heavy on his chest” Binderpal explains. “He had visited the doctor because of these symptoms some days ago, but he was dismissed. While they were walking, he simply fell flat on the ground”. His friend called for help but the ambulance reportedly arrived only 45’ minutes later. By then, he was dead.

Pills to keep her calm

Binderpal explains how depressed she felt after her husband’s death and that she’s been to the doctor’s because of frequent faints and a case of nervous breakdown. The doctor prescribed some pills which she takes daily.

“I don’t know what will happen with us. I lived here for many years but every day can be the last. Any time they can send me out. What will happen with my children then? They don’t have a father.’’ She says.

What kind of solution can anti-depressant pills provide for that? I wonder. Just to keep her calm until she gets an answer. But when will that happen? After 1 more year, 5 years, 10 years?

I leave from the warm house with hugs and promises of coming back soon.The more the time passes, the more I feel like my recent experience in the refugee camp was a dream which is fading fast. “Next week I’ll definitely go there again”, I think. Will I? ■

Pictures by Lisbeth Rasch

The following travelogue takes us to southern Mexico, where – just as in the Trampoline House – there is a steady fight going on for the right to migrate. Migrants committed to this fight create new communities and find ways of defining themselves as more than “just migrants”

by Lisbeth Rasch

Half-buried in a giant heap of old women‘s clothes, sweating like a pig and listening to the ever-present tones of Mexican marriachi music, I am suddenly carried back to the culture house ‘Trampoline House’ in ever-grey Copenhagen.

I am volunteering in the migrants’ shelter at Ixtepec, Mexico, and the dusty, dry surroundings do not exactly resemble the grey streets of Nørrebro, Copenhagen. Here, the Central American migrants, I have met, do not have to fight with the same sort of unjust and complex asylum system, as the asylum seekers who use and create the Trampoline House face in their everyday life, and I am amazed with how little it takes to create a sense of community and humanity in both places. As we stand here sorting out the donated clothes – a bunch of volunteers, some of us Mexican, others European, but most are Central American – I realize what I like the most about places such as the Trampoline House and the migrants’ shelter…

From military chef to volunteer, from dish washer to activist

Claudio used to be a chef in the Guatemalan army. Lesbia was working as a paramedic in Honduras. Marcelo used to be a police officer in Guatemala, before he made it to the United States and worked for eight years as a dish washer, only to return to Guatemala for his father’s funeral. Kevin was working as a stylist and won “Miss Revelation” of Guatemala City just a few months before he decided to leave. They all became part of the ceaseless flow of Central American migrants that travel through Mexico on the rooftops of the old freight trains, taking them on a dangerous journey all the way to one of the world’s best surveilled borders where they try to cross by foot. Just another migrant in that never-ending stream of hopeful men and women of all ages, driven by some illusory “American Dream”.

A spiring community at the railways

The migrants’ shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, in southern Mexico faces the railways, and every day when the old trains stop here, dozens of migrants jump off the rooftop and enter the courtyard of the shelter to get some food, water, a shower and a bed for a night’s rest. But, as Alberto Donis, who has been working at the shelter for the last three years, explains: “We also go further than that. We fight to improve the conditions on the journey for the migrants, and we always seek to spread the message about all the cases of injustice that are committed against the migrants”. Just as Claudio, Lesbia, Marcelo, Kevin and many others, Alberto came to the shelter as ”just another migrant”.  And just as the others, he soon started to help out with different practical tasks at the shelter and soon felt part of the community, ”the family” at the shelter. A couple of days’ rest turned into weeks, and while the work of the shelter inspired feelings of solidarity and humanity in Alberto, he was also filled with frustration at witnessing the systematic injustice done to the migrants. ”I’ve seen so much injustice on the migrants’ route. Almost 99 % of the cases remain unpunished, and a great majority of the crimes are committed by the police”.

Travelling with the old freight trains, everyone is reduced to the category of a ”migrant” – stripped off his or her former identity, life and aspirations. But at the migrants’ shelter, people get a chance to join a community that not only entails safety and new friends, but most importantly gives them the chance to become more than ”just another migrant”. And by joining the fight to improve the conditions on the migration route and to stop the systematic crimes committed towards those who migrate, volunteering turns into activism with a greater purpose: ”For me, this shelter has been like a school”, Alberto states proudly.
Working at the shelter, I found myself not only moved by the feeling of humanity and friendship in midst of the emotional stress that people brought with them on the uncertain and dangerous journey. I was most of all impressed by how categories of ”volunteer” vs. ”migrant” – between those who apparently were ”helpers” and those who were ”in need of help” – were blurred.

From Mexico to Copenhagen: fighting for the right to migrate

Exactly this undoing of categories and this sense of community and friendship echoed what I had experienced at the Trampoline House of Copenhagen. Both at the Trampoline House and at the migrants’ shelter in Ixtepec, I was furthermore moved by the sense of pride that was so evident in all our daily work. A pride motivated by the notion that this was not only a shelter to eat and sleep, or a culture house to do yoga, theatre or learn Danish. These are important steps in a universal fight for the right to migrate – and more importantly, maybe: for the right to define yourself as more than just another migrant, wherever you are!

Read more about the migrant’s shelter:

www.hermanosenelcamino.org

And about the Trampoline House:

www.trampolinehouse.dk

Drawing taken from a collection of children’s drawing from Darfur

In a letter to the Minister of Justice, rejected Sudanese refugees in Denmark explain why they will demonstrate in front of the parliament Friday, March 23rd.

Dear Morten Bødskov

On behalf of all Sudanese asylum seekers in Denmark we appeal to you personally as the Minister of Justice in Denmark and to the Danish Government as representatives of a democratic country that respects Human Rights and protects its minorities.

With this letter we will pass on information about the current situation in Sudan, which Immigration Service unfortunately has totally misjudged. Sudan is still an unsafe area due to the ongoing battles between government and opposition forces. Going back would mean putting our lives in danger. A thorough investigation of the situation or a fact-finding mission in the country, will without anydoubt lead to the necessary reopening of our cases.

We are 20 rejected asylum seekers in total. 18 have got their final answer from the Refugee Board while 2 have received the first answer from Immigration Board. The underlying cause is supposedly: The war is over, Sudan is a safe country to return to. However, all of us originate from Abyei or Darfur where heavy fights are still going on.

It is well known that Sudan has a long history of bloody conflicts andthat ithas been torn apart because of war. The Danish immigration authorities have probably made their conclusion on the basis ofpeace agreements, but these agreements are weak and absolutely unreliable. Allow us to inform you about the Doha Agreement which specifically concerns the home region of the majority of our group, Darfur.

The Doha Agreement is not supported by the most important oppositional leaders. The claimed peace is not a reality onfirmground. The president of The Liberation and Justice Movement, Tijani Sese, who signed the Doha Agreement, does not at all represent the opposition in Darfur. The most influential leaders, Gibril Khalil from The Justice and Equality Movement, Abdel Wahed Mohamed al Noor from Sudan National Liberation Movement, and Mani Arko Minawi from Sudan Liberation Movement are all against the agreement. For that reason the agreement is insignificant and withoutimpacton the political developments in Sudan.

The unstable situation in Sudan is the evident proof of the failure of peace agreements in Sudan. Last year the government attacked highly populated areas in North and South Darfur and killed and injured many civilians and displaced more than 70,000 people. Sudan was officially divided in July 2011 between Sudan and South Sudan and the new border zone has since then been an area for ongoing armed battles. As stated in the weekly UN reports February 2012: “Armed clashes between the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement continue in parts of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.” This violence escalated heavily on the 26^th of February and resulted in 200 killings on the 27^th of February 2012 at the border of the south of Kordufa.

The president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, and several ministers in the government of Sudan, are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the 1^st of March 2012, the ICC issued a warrant of arrest against the Minister of National Defence of the Sudanese Government, and the President’s former Special Representative in Darfur, Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein on 20 counts of crime against humanity.

We are a small group of asylum seekers in this country. We have lived many years in Danish asylum centers without any future prospects. For that reason we bring this request to you as democratic chosen leaders: Help us reopen our cases by correcting the information on Sudan available at the Immigration Board and Refugee Board. Our cases were rejected only due to the misjudgement of the situation in Sudan. Going back means risking our lives!

We will peacefully demonstrate on Christiansborg Slotsplads Friday, March the 23 between 2 and 4 pm. We will be happy to meet you there and exchange more information.

Yours sincerely,

Group of Sudanese Refugees in Denmark

See the other drawings from the Darfur Children’s Drawing Collection Here!

Read about earlier demonstration supported by visAvis on visAvis.dk: Report from the Afghan asylum seekers’ demonstration and their Statement 

Me and my brothers from the camps, came to Denmark from Syria to regain our lives. As Kurds in Syria, we encountered a lot of oppression, not being able to speak freely or educate ourselves. I have now been in the Danish asylum system for more than a year and a half.

I asked of you, Helle Thorning Schmidt, to visit the asylum centers. There are problems in all of the centers. I hope that the Department of Immigration will not let this matter wait for long. Many refugees like myself are exhausted and troubled and cannot endure more waiting. You and your government are not aware of what is happening to us, while we wait for answer.

I hope to see you in Camp Sigerslev, where i live, and speak with you about this matter.

- Hassan M. Said.”

This weekend a young asylum seeker has committed suicide due to the tough existence in the camps. Read the article on tv2.dk: http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-48799874:oprør-på-asylcenter-efter-muligt-selvmord.html

by visAvis

From the beginning of the making of visAvis, it has been of great significance for us not to see Danish asylum and migration policy as an isolated Danish matter. The national policies must be understood in an European as well as a global context. The national border controls have been moved farther and farther away, for instance to the outer European borders, The Mediterranean, and into the African continent where economical agreements are made with both African governments and private actors, like airlines and security forces.

However, this sense of community regarding outsourcing border patrol and preventing migrants from seeking asylum in Europe, does not reflect a similar community feeling when it comes to sharing ‘the asylum burden’ between EU member states. National sovereignty is still the safe haven, not at least for a Northern country like Denmark. And the collapse of the Greek asylum system is considered an exception, a specific Greek phenomenon in the periphery of Europe. From our point of view, it should rather be seen as a symptom of a crisis in the heart of the continent.

The Chronology of asylum and migration policies in Europe provided by Migreurop and made by Alain Morice, gives an unique insight into the desperate measures to control people’s movement on an European level. These are the very same measures that, according to the Chronology, lead to unjust detention and repression of migrants. The chronology is both a historical account and a warning: The continuation of these political trends can lead us to nothing less than “a new version of apartheid on a worldwide scale”.

The Chronology offers a time-framed comparison of the evolution of the legal framework in Europe’s asylum and migration policies (columns A1, A2, and A3) and the developments in the public discourse and very significant events related to asylum and migration (columns B1 and B2). The table will be updated twice a year.

See the chronology here: http://www.migreurop.org/IMG/pdf/Chrono_ENG_UpdateSept_2011.pdf
Read more about the Chronology on Migreurop’s website: http://www.migreurop.org/article1961.html?lang=fr

by The Trampoline House

In the course of the spring 2012, Trampoline House will be launching and running a political campaign, aiming at two things: Urging the politicians to keep their promise to let ALL asylum seekers work and live outside the asylum centers after a period of six months. And to influence the politicians and the public opinion in the direction of a more just and humane asylum policy

On the day of Friday the 10th of February 3-6 pm, a public hearing will take place, being a mobilizing initiative and the first event in a line of many in a campaign which hopefully will bring about some necessary changes. The public hearing will be divided into different themes, each of them with a small presentation by a user of Trampoline House. The idea is to have people living in camps speak up about their situation and wishes alongside with a common open discussion

▹ 15.00-15.15 Introduction to Trampoline House / Introduction to the Spring Campaign and the Public Hearing.

▹ 15.15-15.30 How do you know you are alive when you are not seen or heard in the society? Discussion on the problems of isolation.

▹ 15.30-15.45 Prisoners know when they are released – how come asylum seekers don’t? Discussion on the problems of waiting.

▹ 15.45-16.00 Coffee break

▹ 16.00-16.15 Why isn’t everyone given the opportunity to contribute? Discussion on skills and resources in the camp.

▹ 16.15-16.30 What if I can’t even say: At least I have my health? Discussion on the problem of health care in the camps.

▹ 16.30-16.45 Coffee break

▹ 16.45-17.15 What would You change? Open discussion on how to reach a more just and humane asylum policy.

▹ 17.15-17.45 Future prospects for the Spring Campaign: Where do we go from now? Make your ideas useful and join the campaign!

The public hearing will be followed by dinner and chill out from 6-11 pm. Everyone is most welcome to stay!

Read the account from last year’s public hearing in The Trampoline House on visAvis.dk: Testemonies from The Trampoline House 

Read about The Trampoline House on http://www.trampolinhuset.dk/