Solidarity with Fighting Refugees in Choucha / Tunisia

– facing unpayed labour and discrimination

A group of 34 Eritrean refugees departed in September 2012 from Libya with the aim of reaching Italy. As their boat got into distress and technical problems stopped their journey, Tunisian border guards rescued the refugees and brought them to Tunisia. After staying in prison for one week, the group was transferred to Zarzis, where UNHCR offered an asylum procedure to the 34 refugees. All of them received refugee status, and were pushed in the programm of local integration in Tunisia. Eventhough the refugees had no intention whatsoever to stay in Tunisia, they were moved by force to the southern town of Medenine, meant to be scattered in different places. After some arguments they could reach an agreement which would allow them to live together in two houses and to enjoy education in Medenine. Most of the refugees did not have any knowledge of the arab language, which made it hard to find any work. The ones that found work experienced circumstances of harsh exploitation, working for hours without receiving any payment. As the refugees stated, they were facing discrimination in Medenine, which limited their mobility a lot. After being cursed for being black christians, having words like “slaves” being shout at them, they stopped going to school or work, but instead decided to protest in front of UNHCR in Zarzis- stating, that local integration in Tunisia would not be an option for them – since their human rights can not be protected.

After one week of sit-in in front of the UNHCR offices in Zarzis, they didn’t get any solution offered to their situation. They joined the group of refugees from Choucha Camp, that are also meant to be locally integration. On March 29th 2013, they embarked together on a protest and hunger strike in front of UNHCR in Tunis. Finally, on April 17th they decided to leave Mednine and instead go to Choucha Camp, as other refugees. By this, they underline their refusal of the local integration, that they could not make work.

The programm of local integration is financed by different EU-member states. And is apparently used to prepare Tunisia becoming a “safe third country” in the eyes of EU, to which the EU – in this case cooperating with UNHCR – can externalize responsibilities.

The refugees experiences of forced “integration”, harsh exploitation and discrimination indicates clearly that UNHCRs programm of “local integration” is a farce.

The hungerstriking refugees are demanding Resettlement for all of them! Freedom of Movement and Settlement!

Twenty of the hungerstriking refugees went today to protest in front of the National Constitutional Assembly in Bardo, Tunis.

After 22 days of hungerstrike in front of the UNHCR offices in Tunis, the group of Refugees doesn’t cease to demand Resettlement to a country with an effective Asylum Protection. At 11 am today half of the hungerstriking group went to the Constitutional Assembly in order to protest and hand over a letter to the Tunisian Politicians. They are asking the Tunisian government to refuse the Programme of local integration, that UNHCR together with its partners, is imposing on the Refugees. Two representatives were invited to a conversation with a member of the Assembly. They were told that they would get an answer to their claims within the next days.

In order to create pressure on UNHCR and governments to resettle the group of 262 refugees from Choucha Camp and from Medenine, we are now collecting signatures of supporters. As part of the group is still on hungerstrike and as the camp will close soon, a durable solution for these people has to be found urgently. So, please sign the petition here and share the link!

In berlin there was also a small demonstration in front of the UNHCR-office. A delegation went in to talk to the UNHCR and hand them over the letter and demands. They discussed with the protesters for over half an hour and said that they will pass our concerns to the UNHCR-office in Tunis.

In the evening the Globale Film Festival opened with the film »Babylon«, which main protagonist is the Choucha Camp. Emmanuel Gatoni, Riadh Ben Amar and the filmmakers presented the film and the current situation in choucha. Afterwards an interesting discussion took place.

Yesterday at 3 p.m. a protest in solidarity with the hungerstriking refugees in Tunis from Choucha camp took place in Paris, France.
A delegation of FALDI (Forum of associations of democratic struggles of immigration) was received at the office of UNHCR in Paris to discuss with them about the situation of the refugees in Tunis.

Yesterday afternoon there was also a protest in Rabat, Morocco, to support the demands of the Refugees from Choucha. A delegation of GADEM, Conseil des migrants, ODT, AMDH, Coordination maghrebine des associations des droits humains, attac and ALECMA gathered in front of the UNHCR and handed over a letter in solidarity with the refugees of Choucha.

Today, April 11th of 2013, on the solidarity day for Choucha the dutch refugees in protest from the Flichtchurch (Amsterdam) and Flighthouse (The Hague) came together. Both empty churches were occupied after several protest camps through the country in the last two years. The Flightchurch houses some 200 mainly subsaharan undocumented migrants who have no right for any facilities from the state. The Flighthouse houses some 40 rejected refugees mainly from (Kurdish) Irak.
Today representatives of both strongholds declare their solidarity with the Choucha refugees and their demands. They want to express their respect for the difficult struggle.
The refugees in the Netherlands discovered many similarities in their position and that of the Choucha people. Both have no rights, no facilities, no equal position in society and both cannot move. Both groups and All Included – who initiated the solidarity meeting – ask the UNHCR urgently not to leave the Choucha people behind. They also ask the dutch government to take responsability in reinstall some of the Choucha people and to find a solution for the impossible position of the undocumented migrants in the Netherlands.

Today about 30 hungerstrikers from the group of the Refugees without Resetllment brought their protest into the City Centre of Tunis. At noon they started a sit-in in front of the Kasbah, where the Tunisian government sits. A letter with the demands was given to the prime ministry of Tunisia. An answer is expected in the next days. The protesters were holding up dozens of banners in different languages, stating their demands. Leaflets in English and Arabic were being handed out to the passersby. And many interviews were given to national and international journalists.

Also today, there have been protests in solidarity with the Choucha Refugees in front of the UNHCR in Rabat/Morocco, in Paris/France and in Berlin/Germany. Thereports from there will be posted, as soon as they reach us.

Support for Choucha refugees in a hunger strike in their peaceful protest on Thursday, April 11th, in Tunis

We are a group of 228 refugees from the Choucha camp of different
nationalities (Palestinian, Somalian, Eritrean, Chadian, Sudanian,
Ethiopian). Among us, there are also 52 children, 35 unaccompanied minors and 34 persons living in Medenine who have obtained a certificate of refugee status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR). We would like to inform you that we began a sit-in in front of the UNHCR office which has continued since March 26th; we have also been engaged in an unlimited hunger strike since March 29th.

We fled from Libya to the Choucha camp in Tunisia where we found refuge after the war and NATO airstrikes, fearing for our lives, leaving behind all that we had. We were surprised by the decision of UNHCR to separate our cases from the rest of the refugees by not sending our files to resettlement countries. We spoke to the head of UNHCR Zarzis, Mr Hovig, who confirmed the final refusal of his organization to transmit our files to resettlement countries. The UNHCR has decided to close the camp at Choucha and to impose on us the local integration program in Tunisia. As a consequence, we made clear our rejection of this program for the following reasons:

First: The daily difficulties that are linked to verbal and physical
violence coming from some tunisian citizens and some membres of the law enforcement forces.

Second: Tunisia is still undergoing a revolution and is not yet completely stabilized.

Third: In Tunisia, there is no law protecting and guaranteeing the rights of refugees, in terms of civil rights laws. The UNHCR condemns us, therefore, to an uncertain destiny without support for our issues.

After we made our position clear, an official of the UNHCR threatened to cut off water and electricity, and deprive us of basic health care for ourselves and our children in the Choucha camp, to push us to choose between a certain death and unconditional acceptance of this program. As a result, we decided to stay in the Choucha camp no matter the conditions or circumstances.

As humans, we also have the right to determine our destiny. Imposing on us local integration is equivalent to renouncing our fundamental rights that are guaranteed in international treaties and conventions, as well as by most socio-cultural customs and religions.

Therefore, we call on the Tunisian government to:

1 – Reject this programed integration of refugees and take into account our legitimate demands and align the decision of the Egyptian government, which has refused this type of program because of the lack of legislation to deal with such cases.

2 – Keep the Choucha camp open until a just and consensual solution is
found.

3 – Put pressure on the UNHCR to resume the initial resettlement program which was applied to the first refugees.

We hope for a quick response, given our challenging living conditions. We would also like to inform you that we began a sit-in in front of the UNHCR office which has continued since March 26th; we have also been engaged in an unlimited hunger strike since March 29th and we bring to the attention of the Tunisian authorities that an ambulance was prevented from rescuing the hunger strikers.

Therefore, we call upon the Tunisian people to support our cause and
participate in solidarity in the demonstration that we are organizing for Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 12:00 Kasbah in Tunis to bring our voice to the Tunisian government.

contact: 00216 27 415 558, choucha (a) riseup.net