Solidarity with Fighting Refugees in Choucha / Tunisia

The suffering and the unknown fate of shousha refugees

We are 228 refugees from different nationalities (Sudan – Somali –Eritrea – Ethiopia – Chad ) who got the refugee status from UNHCR, and living in shousha camp, the total number of our files are 157.

Some of us fled from the conflict in Libya and reach the camp before September 2011 and others at end of November and arrived at shousha camp in December, we had got the refugee status under the mandate of Geneva convention but unfortunately the UNHCR informed us that they will not refer our files for resettlement in third country instead they told us we will be integrated locally in Tunisia but we not see this as tangible solution due to the following reason:

1:- Racial discrimination that we had and still experienced in Tunisia in many area of the life even in the most humanitarian place in the country which are the hospitals.

Also what happen in may 2011 when the local Tunisian citizen came to the camp and burn the tents beat the refugees and kill some of them is the biggest evidence of racism against the refugees.

Also what happen in 5^th of march in city of Aram when Tunisian national guard and the military stop the refugees and prevent them from going to Tunis and beat them use racially insulting terms like Negros – dirty refugees -slaves and other bad words .

2:-The lack of the security and safety in the country due to instable situation of the country .

3:- There is no law that protect our right in Tunis as the right of family reunion right of travel document and other rights

So these are some of the reasons that make us refuse the local integration in Tunis.

This is what happen in Aram.

In 5-3-2013 we were prevented in city called Aram to go to the capital by Tunisian army and police after that they left us in the road for about 24h without any food or water, by the way we were 52 refugees 14 children, 13women, 9 unaccompanied and 16 men. After that we were beaten and oppression by Tunisian police and forced to go back to the camp they use racially insulting terms like (you are dirty slaves – wasefan this is Tunisian word mean Negroes and we were treated like animal but we don’t know why, because according to the international law the refugee certificate allow us to move freely within the country also that’s what the UNHCR told us too, and we still suffering from what happen until now we have children they couldn’t sleep, bedwetting they screaming all night and some women too. So this is what happen in brief.

Our only demand is to have equal chance to send our files to resettlement countries, like other refugees live in shousha camp where we will be respected and treated like human been.

We need just to live normal life like human been that’s our only demand.

Now we are protesting in front of UNHCR office in Tunis and we want you to come and sport us we have women and babies.

Please go to www.facebook.com/refugees.shousha to see more thing.

Another group of refugees from Choucha Refugee Camp has been protesting in Tunis today. The asylum claims of these refugees have been refused by the UNHCR in a hasty and unfair procedure, thus they are not allowed to the Resettlement Programme nor to the local integration in Tunisia. Today, Wednesday, a group of 70 persons has been protesting outside the EU-Delegation offices in Tunis. They are demanding to be received by the European Union, in order to get protection and to be allowed to “live a normal life”, as one of them explains.

Protests of such big groups also need funding for transportation, food, blankets etc. You could support the struggle by donating to:

FFM Berlin
Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin
Account number: 61 00 24 264
Bank code: 100 500 00
Keyword: “Choucha”

or find us at the World Social Forum: boats4people-stall, Ville Migratoire, Zone B.

The group of recognized refugees from Choucha refugee camp are continuing their protest in front of the UNHCR office in Tunis. Today the group counted 41 persons, that demand to be accepted to the Resettlement Programme. As the Choucha camp is due to be closed in the coming months and it is said that water and electricity will be cut off at the end of April, the situation of the refugees still living there is becoming more and more precarious.

A delegation of the protesters joined the World Social Forum in the afternoon of Wednesday. They are trying to get in touch with humanitarian organisations and journalists, that are willing to support them in their struggle. To get in contact with them you can call our supporters group: (00216) 21114547 or choucha (a) riseup.net

Today, 26th of March, Refugees from Choucha started a protest outside the UNHCR office in Tunis. The protesters are part of a group of recognized refugees, that are not allowed to the Resettlement Programme as the rest of the recognized refugees. Instead they are meant to be integrated into the Tunisian society, which they refuse. More information about the protest and reactions will follow soon.

The Meeting of the Choucha Solidarity Group will take place on Wednesday, 27th March at 6.30 p.m. at the cafe in the Migration Village (Campus El Manar).

On Monday evening, the tunisian police and military blocked 130 refugees from Choucha Camp to leave from Ben Guerdane to Tunis. The refugees were supposed to travel on three busses to the capital in order to attend the World Social Forum and its opening demonstration on tuesday. In the next days there are several workshops and actions planned concerning the situation in the Choucha Refugee Camp. In order to allow the refugees to attend these activities, they obtained permissions from the Ministery of Defense and invitations from the FTDES for the WSF. One of the refugees says: “The authorities are playing with us!”

We condemn this unaccaptable manner of Tunisian authorities and demand freedom of movement for everyone in Tunisia and beyond!

One of the main topics of this years World Social Forum commencing this week in Tunis is migration. Everybody participating and sympathysing with the WSF is urgently asked to support the travel of Choucha Refugees from Ben Guerdane / Choucha to Tunis!

Forgotten in the Tunisian Desert?

Show your solidarity with the refugees from the Libyan war in Choucha camp!

Two years ago, on 19th March 2011, a coalition, led by France, Great Britain and the USA, started bombing Libya, and on 31st March, NATO officially declared war against the Gaddafi regime. Hundreds of thousands of people had to flee Libya, among them were many migrant workers and refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa, who were suspected of being of Gaddafi’s mercenaries. Tunisia left her borders open and accepted about half a million refugees. Most of them were accommodated in private houses, however a few thousands were placed in Choucha camp. It is situated in a desert-like region
close to the Libyan border, and was opened by the UNHCR at the end of February 2011. At times it was hosting more than 20.000 people (most of them Sub-Saharan Africans).

By now, most of these refugees have left Tunisia. The majority returned to their countries of origin, not all of them really voluntarily. Some of them returned to Libya, where the rights of migrants are still being violated every day. Others tried to reach Europe by boat, risking their lives. About 2600 people were accepted by
some European countries, the US, or Australia thanks to a so-called “resettlement programme”. But states that took part in the war, like France and UK, allowed only one or two of these refugees to enter. As the participation in the war by NATO countries was justified with the purpose to protect civilians – which is for many reasons a doubtful argument, especially because wars always worsen the situation of
normal people – it seems rather two-faced not to take responsibility for the fate of Sub-Saharan refugees, who are trapped in unbearable conditions as a direct result of NATO intervention.

More than 1300 people from 13 different countries, predominately from Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad and Nigeria, still languish in the Choucha camp, which the UNHCR wants to close in June 2013 at the latest. Most of them are waiting for resettlement. About 400 people have been recognised as refugees, but did not get
access to the resettlement programme, because they arrived after December 2011, when the procedures were terminated. The UNHCR wants to integrate these refugees locally in Tunisia using funds which were donated by the German government rather than allowing them to go to Europe – a perfect example of the EU carrying out its policy
of externalising refugee management! At the end of February, the refugees launched a protest at the UNHCR office in Zarzis, demanding resettlement to a country with an asylum system. They do not feel safe in Tunisia and were not awarded a legal status,
because Tunisia does not yet have laws concerning asylum.

More than 200 people, who have been denied the status of refugees because of procedures that included inappropriate interpreters and other flaws, are now deprived of food and basic services in Choucha camp and separated from people recognized as refugees. The UNHCR declared itself not to be responsible for these people and puts pressure on them to leave the camp and go back to their countries of
origin or to Libya, where they are threatened by persecution. Pushed to the limit, they choose to go to Tunis at the end of January to carry their demands to the UNCHR, the European Union and the Tunisian authorities as well as any country that may provide protection. After one week of protests and negotiations, their demands remain:

– To reopen the asylum cases of all rejected asylum seekers

– To grant international protection to all those who have fled
the war in Libya

And together with those refugees protesting in Zarzis, they demand:

– To resettle all the refugees from Choucha camp and other
places in Tunisia in safe countries with effective systems of protection

We, groups and networks from Europe and several African countries, support these demands. We wrote a letter to the UNHCR, organised a fax campaign and some actions at UNHCR offices in Europe.

We encourage all participants of the World Social Forum to support these demands, to join the Choucha refugees’ struggle and think about actions to show their solidarity in their respective countries!

We call on the UNHCR and the European governments, especially those who intervened in the war in Libya, to take on their responsibilities and to provide protection and a life in dignity for all these refugees in Europe instead of externalising refugee management to poor and unstable countries like Tunisia!

More information on the protesting Refugees’ blog: www.voiceofchoucha.wordpress.com

and on these websites:

www.ffm-online.org
www.afrique-europe-interact.net
www.borderline-europe.de

We invite all people, who want to support the Choucha refugees, to a meeting during the WSF in Tunis to discuss together with the refugees what we can do in Tunisia and in our respective countries.

The first Meeting of the Choucha Solidarity Group will take place on Wednesday, 27th March at 6.30 p.m. at the cafe in the Migration Village (Campus El Manara).

Transnational Choucha Solidarity Group

with members of the following groups and networks:
Afrique-Europe-Interact
all included
Article 13
borderline europe
CeTuMA
FFM
FTDES
Welcome to Europe

Which space for asylum in Tunisia?

During the evening hours of February 27th about thirty refugees of Eritrean nationality, including six women and a child, went to the headquarters of the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zarzis in the south of Tunisia. They are part of a group of “boat people” who arrived from Libya in September 2012. They were initially accommodated at a youth centre in Zarzis and entered an integration programme organised by the red crescent in Tunisia. Despite the fact that they were recognised as refugees by the UNHCR, they were denied access to the resettlement programme. It allows people to move to a country with a functioning asylum system and adequate safety. They were told that the resettlement programme which existed in Tunisia was terminated and not accessible to anybody who arrived after December 2011.
The refugees demand access to the resettlement programme, in order to be protected by a country with a functioning asylum system. Effectively the refugee status they were awarded by the UNHCR does not grant them any rights as Tunisia does not currently have laws concerning asylum procedures. What’s more is that the refugees denounce the fact that the local integration programme does not allow them to live under adequate conditions. According to the refugees’ testimonies they are constantly threatened by racist violence, which may occur during their training or while at work. Which is why they refuse to integrate themselves in Tunisia which to them represents a country that rejects them and by which they feel threatened.
Facing the mobilisation of these refugees, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) attests that the UNHCR’s efforts to integrate refugees in Tunisia have failed. The FTDES considers the “integration” policy an attempt by the European Union to externalise asylum procedures for refugees who Western governments could not find any solutions for to Tunisia. The FTDES also condems the fact that these integration programmes were initiated whithout offering a legal status to the people affected by it in Tunisia, thus leaving them disenfranchised. The FTDES appeals to the UNHCR and the respective governments to assume their responsibilities in order to protect these political refugess who depend on international protection. The FTDES reiterates their request to the UNHCR concerning all refugees: to allow them access to the resettlement programme so they can leave Tunisia and obtain effective protection by countries that do have an aslyum system. Ultimately the FTDES appeals to the entire Tunisian civil society to take a stand in favour of the refugees demands and to show their solidarity.

Abederhmane Hedhili
President of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
Tunis, 28/02/2013

After six days of protest with our negotiations and demands still intact. We did not quit our claims, neither give up nor surrender on our struggles. Our demands has to be met by the UNHCR. We are not “MIGRANTS” under Tunisien, but “ASYLUM”seekers under the UNHCR and we are demanding an asylum protection from the responsible (UNHCR), to re-install our normal services, just like everyone, general resettlement for everyone in a safe country counting effective system of protection.

Friday 1st/02/2013. We extended our manifestation to the European Union delegation building with our banners indicating ”EUROPEAN UNION, FINISH YOUR JOB” after some minutes one of the secretary came to us saying, the ambassador is having a meeting and after the meeting they need the representatives to come in for a meeting. Though the ambassador was busy, but in her place was, Mr Giahamorea Villa the director of human rights (political issues), Mr Michel, social affairs, Mr Abdelaziz Lyamouri (refugee affairs). This three board members of the delegation hosted the meeting in place of the ambassador, after the introduction the meeting commenced with Mr Michell asking a brief analysis of why we are here, we explained and he asked, what is our demands. Firstly we asked the delegation not to turn deaf ears to our plights, that they already know and also they are among the decision makers and they have to intercide on our legal status under the UNHCR and, affair asylum protection/general resettlement, among theses were are our demands. The three different board members asked other questions, that we answered to. In conclusion they said the first measure they are going to implore is to have a delegation meeting with the UNHCR about the files review, talk to members of state and the Tunisien government to see to our critical conditions in the camp. And a delegation meeting with members of the E.U states and a letter to be addressed to their head office in Brussels. Finally they said, the EU delegation here will get back to us in a short while.

After all the negotiations, we came back to Choucha 02/02/2013(Saturday)

We keep our struggles intact until our demands are met and our individual files justified.

Nach sechs Tagen Protest und Verhandlungen stehen unsere Forderungen immer noch im Raum. Wir haben sie nicht zurückgenommen noch haben wir unseren Kampf aufgegeben oder kapituliert. Wir sind keine „MigrantInnen“ unter tunesischem Recht, sondern Asylsuchende unter der Zuständigkeit des UNHCR und wir fordern Flüchtlingsschutz von den dafür Verantwortlichen (UNHCR), die Wiederaufnahme der üblichen Versorgung für uns wie für alle anderen und ein generelles Resettlement für alle in einem sicheren Land mit einem funktionierenden Schutzsystem.

Am Freitag, den 1.2.2013 haben wir unsere Protestkundgebung (bisher vor dem UNHCR-Sitz, d.Ü.) zum Gebäude der Delegation der Europäischen Union in Tunis ausgeweitet, mit unseren Transparenten „Europäische Union, beende Deinen Job!“. Nach einigen Minuten kam einer der Sekretäre zu uns und sagte, der Botschafter habe ein Treffen und nach dem Treffen sollten VertreterInnen von uns zu einem Gespräch hereinkommen. Da der Botschafter anderweitig beschäftigt war, luden drei Vertreter der Delegation zu dem Treffen ein: Herr Giahamorea Villa, Direktor für Menschenrechte (zuständig für politische Fragen), Herr Michel (zuständig für soziale Fragen) und Herr Abdelaziz Lyamouri (zuständig für Flüchtlingsfragen). Nach einer kurzen Einleitung fragte Herr Michel nach einer kurzen Analyse, warum wir da seien, wir erklärten das, und er fragte, was unsere Forderungen seien. Als erstes baten wir die Delegation, keine tauben Ohren gegenüber unserer Notlage zu haben und dass sie bereits darüber informiert seien und unter denjenigen sind, die Entscheidungen treffen, und sie hätten sich für unseren legalen Status in Zuständigkeit des UNHCR einzusetzen, für Flüchtlingsschutz und generelles Resettlement – dies seien unsere Forderungen. Die drei Vorstandsmitglieder der EU-Delegation stellten noch andere Fragen, die wir beantworteten. Als Schlussfolgerung sagten sie, dass die erste Maßnahme, die sie erbitten wollen, ein Treffen der Delegation mit dem UNHCR zur Überprüfung der Fälle sei, außerdem Gespräche mit Vertretern des tunesischen Staats und der Regierung, damit sie unsere kritischen Bedingungen im Lager wahrnehmen. Und sie schlugen ein Treffen der Delegation mit Mitgliedern von EU-Staaten und einen Brief an ihr Leitungsbüro in Brüssel vor. Schließlich sagten sie, die EU-Delegation werde sich demnächst wieder bei uns melden.

Nach all diesen Verhandlungen kamen wir am Samstag, den 2.2.2013 nach Choucha zurück.
Wir machen weiter mit unserem Kampf, bis unsere Forderungen erfüllt sind und unsere individuellen Fälle Gerechtigkeit erfahren.