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
