“Safe Passage” vs dehumanization

Hello, dear people. Thank you for this opportunity. I am not an expert on the refugee matter in Europe. I would like, however, as a street priest, to witness from the reality that I am facing regarding the situation of asylum-seeking people here in Iceland.

As you know, generally speaking, asylum-seekers and refugees are often dehumanized. When we see photos of boats filled with refugees, when we watch videos in which thousands of refugees are walking holding small children, to borders, who can say that kind of situation is humane?

I have friends who are asylum seekers, and many of them have been living in Europe for 8, 9, or even longer than 10 years without sufficient civil rights. Is this situation humane?

Two Syrian refugees in Iceland are now about being deported to Bulgaria, just because they have come here through Bulgaria. Is this decision humane?

No, not at all. They are dehumanized. Maybe, this dehumanization of asylum seekers is not an accident. Dehumanization is a method we use when we don’t want to confront violations against humanity and want to leave the problem as it is.

Last Wednesday, a couple from Africa got negative answers from the appeal committee. They were in Italy and therefore Dublin-refugees. They came to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea on a boat as we see in the news. The husband lost his brother in the sea.

The ministry of the Interior gave a guideline last December, regarding sending refugees back to Italy. It says: “the living conditions for refugees in Italy are not good enough for delicate people such as children or ill people.” (Personally I insist to stop sending people back to Italy totally. This is the ministry’s view.)

Of the couple referred to the husband has infection in the lungs with very much pain and he has been on medication for nine months now. The decision from the appeal committee says, though: “The husband is a 29 years old man in good health, so his condition does not make him an ill person”.

The wife is expecting a baby in 5 months. She has miscarried three times before, including once when she arrived here. The decision from the appeal committee says: “The wife is in a delicate condition. Nevertheless she had got permission to stay in Italy, thus she has access to the health system there in Italy. It is, therefore, all right to send her back there”. Oh, she doesn’t have even a house to stay in Italy.

This is one of manifesting forms of the dehumanization that the asylum-seeking people are facing today, here in Iceland. Whatever the situation of each individual is, the authority has already decided to say “NO!”

We need to break down this dehumanization of asylum seeking people, if we want to insist The Safe Passage and make it come true. The attitudes that the Directorate of Immigration and the appeal committee are showing are not the consensus of the Icelandic people, I believe.

So, I ask you, dear people, to watch the things we are supposed to watch, hear voices that we are supposed to hear in order to recognize what is happening in our society, and finally to make an action that we are supposed to make.

Otherwise, we cannot defeat the cold blood evil of dehumanization. Let’s make The Safe Passage come true, by humanizing the dehumanized.
Thank you.

- At the gathering "Safe Passage Now" at the Lækjatorg, February 27th 2016-

(Prestur innflytjenda) 

Veitum Eze Okafor dvalarleyfi á Íslandi!

Petition: Veitum Eze Okafor dvalarleyfi á Íslandi!

Eze Okafor (32) er frá Nígeríu. Heimaþorp hans er innan stjórnarsvæðis Boko Haram og var bróðir Eze myrtur í áras hryðjuverkasamtakanna. Eze var líka stunginn með hnífi og tekinn til fanga. Hann var neyddur til þess að vinna fyrir Boko Haram en tókst sem betur fer að flýja úr höndum þeirra.

Hann flúði Nígeríu og sótti um hæli í Svíþjóð árið 2011 en fékk synjun. Í Svíþjóð var fjöldi flóttamanna það mikill að Eze fannst að umsókn sín hefði ekki fengið sanngjarna umfjöllun og því flúði hann frá Svíþjóð.

Hann kom til Íslands í apríl 2012 og sótti um hæli hér. Útlendingastofnun neitaði að taka málið til efnislegrar skoðunar vegna Dyflinnarreglugerðarinnar og Innanríkisráðuneytið staðfesti úrskurð Útlendingastofnunar í júlí 2014. Meira en tvö ár höfðu þegar liðið frá því hann sótti um hæli hér en samkvæmt lögum er það of langur biðtími til brottvísunar á grundvelli Dyflinnarreglugerðarinnar.

Eze kærði málið til íslenskra dómstóla. Í apríl á þessu ári verður Eze búinn að vera hér í fjögur ár. Á meðan hefur Eze aðlagast íslensku samfélagi og eignast marga vini. Hann fékk kennitölu síðastliðið haust og byrjaði að vinna. Eze hefur þegar byggt upp sérstök tengsl við íslenska þjóð.

Engu að síður tilkynnti Útlendingastofnun Eze um að honum yrði vísað úr landi þann 28. janúar 2016. Brottvísuninni hefur ekki enn verið framfylgt en örlög hans liggja í bölsýnni óvissu.

Hvers vegna verður fórnarlamb voðalegs ofbeldis Boko Haram að þjást á þennan hátt á Íslandi?

Til hvers er klausan ,,dvalarleyfi á grundvelli mannúðarsjónarmiða“ í útlendingalögum ef hún fellur ekki að tilfelli Eze? 

Hvers vegna vilja yfirvöld íslenska ríkisins vera svona hörð við þennan saklausa einstakling?

Við skorum hér á Innanríkisráðherra að afturkalla synjun um efnislega meðferð á hælisumsókn Eze Okafor og veiti honum dvalarleyfi án tafar.

 

1. febrúar 2016, Reykjavík

Stuðningshópur við Eze Okafor

Tengiliðir:
Helga Tryggvadóttir
Guðbjörg Runólfsdóttir
Toshiki Toma
Kristín Þórunn Tómasdóttir