Friday saw a lof of movement concerning the struggle of people from Choucha Refugee Camp.
Press conference and continued protest
At two pm a press conference was held within the scope of the World Social Forum on which all four different groups of protesting Refugees participated and explained their demands to the audience.
Press Conference at the World Social Forum
Earlier that day the Tunisian Newspaper “le Temps” suprised by featuring a reportage on the struggle of Refugees from Choucha on page 1 and 3.
The Refugees whose cases have been rejected by UNHCR due to hasty procedures continued their protest at the entrance to the WSF. Spreading Leaflets explaining their struggle and showing banners with slogans like: “UNHCR finish your job”. A group of protesters also entered the WSF area and formed a small demonstration to spread their demands, which still are:
* Reopening of all rejected cases by an indipendent body
* Same rights for everybody in Choucha, concerning food and medical assistance
* Resettlement to a safe country, where refugees’ rights are being respected
Protest at UNHCR offices
Also the Refugees whose cases have been accepted, but who did not receive any Resettlement, continued their protest in front of the UNHCR headquarters in Tunis’ Lac-districts. They are still focussing on racism in the tunisian society, which makes local integration a very difficult task and which leads the protesters to the demand of Resettlement to a safe country.
Assembly of Migration
Two speakers of the Protesters from Choucha spoke on the Asssembly of Migration, where Choucha was one of the main topics. Other speakers referred to it and called on Europeans to put pressure on their governments to accept refugees from Choucha and to the Maghreb people to overcome racism against Subsaharan Africans.
This was a succesful last day of WSF for the Choucha protest. But still this struggle is not won. The protesters need as much support as possible to subjugate such a powerfull adversary as the “humanitarian” UNHCR is.
