A.H.C.S

sabato 16 giugno 2012

20 giugno Giornata Mondiale del Rifugiato? Di cosa e di chi parliamo?

Nei ultimi tre anni assistiamo al peggioramento anzi alla perdita della tutela dei rifugiati, i paesi industrializzati preoccupati piu a tutelare il loro tenore di vita, la loro econimia che spesso si regge sulle spalle dei nuovi schiavi moderni, la loro identita gia compromessa dal eccessivo invecchiamento della sociata con poca anataliat. Questo mondo piu ricco paga i paesi in via di sviluppo per tenere a bada i poveri, i disperati, i perseguitati che vorrebbero venire a bussare alle porte di casa Europa, U.S.A, Canada, Australia. Questi paesi sono disposti a pagare quelle nazioni dalle quali transitano migliaia di disperati, a blocarli la anche a costo di calpestare ogni loro diritti fondamentali, lo abbiamo visto da vicino nel Nord Africa, che tutto ora non stante le rivoluzioni le cose per i migranti sono peggio che prima.

Cosa celebriamo allora, il mancato rispetto delle convenzioni internazionali? basta vedere quello che oggi sta accadendo in Israele, ai profughi Africani, sono calpestate le piu elementari diritti ritenuti fondamentali per ogni essere umano. Anzi il modo tacce difronte alla violenze, soprusi, arresti, e incendi tutto a danno dei profughi Africani in nome della tutela di "Identita" ebraica? o nazionale Israeliana?! Il diritti di asilo negato a circa 60 mila profughi Eritrei ed Sudanesi, in Israele e pure il mondo tacce.

Sono migliaia di profughi nello Yemen in condizione di totale abbandono, molti trattenuti in carcere come se fossero dei criminali, senza cure mediche privati di ogni diritti in situazioni degradanti per la dignita umana.

Una giornata mondiale per i rifugiati, ci deve far riflettere che milioni di rifugiati sono messi in situazioni di pericolo la dove speravano di trovare protezione, il caso Sudan dove migliaia di rifugiati Eritrei sono in balia dei trafficanti in collaborazione di certi poliziotti rapiscono centinaia di profughi per venderli nel deserto del Sinai e estorcere loro denaro o ucciderli e vendere i loro organi. Quale senso dare a questa giornata di fronte alle tante persone che oggi chiedono piu protezione, i paesi fuautori delle belle convenzioni e trattati ineternazionali per la tutela dei diritti umani e civili, loro stessi sono protagonisti di accordi bilaterali che mettono a repentaglio la vita di migliaia di esseri umani bisognosi della protezione.

Da piu di due anni denunciamo il traffico di esseri umani e di organi nel Sinai e in tutta quella regione, spesso le vittime sono rifugiati in cerca di protezioni, abbiamo assistito alle tragedie nel Mediterraneo piu di 1500 morti in cerca di protezione, alcuni di queste perosne sono morte per a causa del ommissione di soccorso.

La giornata mondiale se deve avere un senso la comunita internazionale deve impegnarsi seriamente per togliere tutti gli ostacoli, che fanno si che gli strumenti legislativi gia esistenti per tutelare i diritti dei profughi non funzionino al massimo, le carenze di risorse finanziarie e quelle umane con competenza e compassione. La comunita internazionale deve anche impegnarsi ad abbassare il forte senso di egoismo che ha spinto nei ultimi anni all'emanazione di leggi che seriamente hanno messo in pericolo molte vite umane, in compenso hanno arricchito molti trafficanti di esseri umani.

Questa giornata ci deve spingere tutti quanti a chiedere piu rispetto e diritti a chi e costretto a lasciare la propria terra, chiede asilo. Quindi basta respingimenti di massa in mare come in terra, basta detenzioni di profughi criminalizzati senza nessuna colpa. Facciamo si che i rifugiati non arrivino piu, non perche hanno trovato le porte chiuse, ma perche finalmente possono vivere in pace nella loro terra.

don Mussie Zerai

mercoledì 13 giugno 2012

Eritrean and Somali refugees trapped under the bombs in Kufra.

Libya: Eritrean and Somali refugees trapped under the bombs in Kufra. Silence of the international community on refugee slaves in Sinai.

It aggravates the emergence of refugees arrived in Libya from the Horn of Africa and the sub Saharan region. Indeed, for migrants "blacks" - the news agency Habeshia - the new Libya, which has rebelled against Gaddafi dictatorship in the name of democracy and human rights, does not seem all that different from the previous one, blown away by the revolution. "Hundreds of young people - protested Don Mussie Zerai, president of Habeshia - are kept in conditions of slavery in Kufra, to forced labor under the threat of arms, without food or water, beating constantly, in a situation of total degradation to the dignity the person. " The same hell of time of Nasser, when "migrants from Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Sudan, Ghana and other African countries afflicted by tragedies - as ratchet wrote Maximilian in his latest essay on the historical contemporary Libya - just walked in Libyan desert were intercepted, detained and blackmailed by self-styled police force Jamahiriyya, often irregular, which lucravano on the human tragedy of these people. "The latest alarm about a group of twenty boys, all Eritreans, who are unable to contact by telephone Don Zerai for segnalargli their desperate plea for help. Fled from Eritrea, defying the prison and border guards shot the dictator Isaias Afewerki, after being repaired in Ethiopia and Sudan, were able to fly to Libya with an adventurous, painful journey into the Sahara, through the means of luck. Shortly after crossing the frontier of Fezzan, Libya's southern macro-region, were intercepted by a squad of militiamen near Mesrué, not far from the oasis of Kufra. Bring all under arrest at a command area, sixteen were transferred to the detention center at Kufra. Just one of these managed to put himself in communication with Don Zerai, telling their story. Of the other four - three women and a teenager - were to Mesrué, there has been no news.In Kufra the sixteen Eritrean refugees have found other prisoners, thirty, mostly Somalis, also caught in the Libyan desert, just this side of the border. The situation in the whole area is very dangerous. And 'being a real war between different factions of the militia and regular army, for supremacy in the territory: fighting with heavy weapons, close combat between rebels and government departments that are not recognized in the new Provisional Council, bombing . The detention camp for refugees is also an important military base, with a large cache of weapons, and has ended up becoming, therefore, one of the epicenters of conflict. Prisoners are often right on the line of fire, but have nothing to shelter, or have the opportunity to get away: living the nightmare every day that a bomb the local centers where they are locked up, making a killing. And when the fights are forced to cease work for the soldiers of the base. Many of them - has denounced the agency Habeshia - blackmailing them: they ask for a size of up to 800 dollars to take them to a safer place, usually Tripoli. "A real traffic based on fear - says Don Zerai - as in the days of Gaddafi. Who can pay not hesitate to give in to extortion. " The others are forced to stay under the bombs, at the mercy of the jailers, "often almost without food and drinking water without treatment or care for sick and wounded, victims of ongoing abuse."Don Zerai has launched yet another appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Union: "We must act now to rescue these refugees from the war zone. Europe must put pressure on the Libyan authorities to respect human rights and dignity of these young people. " The relations between European governments and the National Transitional Council took office in Tripoli are now almost daily. Agreements were renewed and expanded international trade treaties, agreements and economic policies, contracts of oil exploitation. Italy, in particular, has reiterated the substance of the treaty of friendship signed in his time with Gaddafi. Not that anyone has forcefully place, so far, the dramatic problem of respecting the rights of African refugees landed in Libya.It seems dropped a shroud of silence, while, on the front of the emergency of migrants from the Horn of Africa, the slave trade in the Sinai, from 500 to 2000 people, men, women and children, captured by gangs of marauding Bedouins asking up to 35 thousand dollars in ransom to free them and head to sell in the market for illegal transplants the desperate who are unable to pay. All unsuccessful appeals and requests for assistance submitted to the European Union and Italy from November 2010 to date. Almost two years of indifference by the international community to face this appears a real humanitarian catastrophe. Everything is also silent on the alleged massacre in Sudan in late May: at least 50 young people wounded by police near the refugee camp Scegarab. Young "guilty" only to have organized a protest to demand protection against the emissaries of international criminal organizations, with the mirage of a "step" in Israel, attracting migrants trapped in the desert of Sinai, then to deliver them to traffickers human.

lunedì 4 giugno 2012

An Open Letter to Israel: Eritreans are NOT Economic Refugees

Tricia Redeker Hepner

Do not be manipulated by the propaganda of a dying dictatorship.

The northeast African nation of Eritrea is today among the highest refugee-producing countries in the world. The central reason that Eritreans today are fleeing their country is related to “national service,” or what scholars, exiled Eritrean political leaders, and human rights organizations have identified as a campaign of forced labor or slavery.[1] The campaign, known in Tigrinya as warsay-yike’alo, was first implemented in 1994 and officially required 6 months of military training and 1 year of “service” to the state of all men and women ages 18-45, with very few exceptions. However, due to a variety of related factors – the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia, the Eritrean government’s failure to implement the ratified constitution, and an internal political crisis in 2001 that resulted in numerous arrests of political reformists, journalists, religious leaders and laypeople, and other imputed dissidents – the national service campaign results in indefinite conscription.

The majority of Eritreans would undoubtedly be proud to serve their nation in the official 18-month program. In practice, however, the warsay-yike’alo campaign has made life in Eritrea unsustainable. Conscripts are taken from their families at ever younger ages and held in service for many years; they are paid extremely poorly and cannot support their families or form family units of their own. They are subject to harsh military discipline that rises to the level of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. “Service” to the state often entails sexual servitude for young women and hard labor in mines for young men. Higher education has been devolved to the military, and leaving the country legally, even to visit relatives abroad, is almost impossible for anyone except the elderly and the very young. The fact of political repression in Eritrea today cannot be separated from economic hardship. Both are related to the nature of authoritarian dictatorship under Isaias Afwerki and the Peoples Front for Democracy Justice (PFDJ) regime. Both political repression and economic deprivation are operationalized through the warsay-yike’alo campaign.

Despite the enormous risks and the emotional and physical pain of separation from one’s country and loved ones, Eritreans have fled their country by the tens of thousands. For countries of first or even second asylum, particular stresses on political and economic resources, security concerns, and debates about cultural belonging can become very serious indeed. Yet, it is essential for host countries like Israel – a nation Eritreans view as a guarantor of human and refugee rights by virtue of its own historical foundations – to recognize that the situation in Eritrea is unique in several respects. Akin to Cambodia under Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge, or North Korea under the Dear Leader, Eritrea is ruled by a highly personalized dictatorship with a singular, mass militarized system of rule that renders anyone who resists a political dissident who may be imprisoned, tortured, raped, or extrajudicially executed.

Moreover, Eritrea has for decades been politically and economically sustained by a vast and diverse disaporic network of emigrants and refugees from previous political eras, many of whom have not lived in Eritrea since independence in 1993 and have remained loyal to the regime because it provides certain benefits, rewards, and a sense of belonging and pride. Such loyalists have accepted uncritically the propaganda of the regime and vehemently denied the empirical suffering of their compatriots in Eritrea.

The PFDJ party itself co-evolved with this vast and global diaspora as a decentralized network, itself comprised of party officials, cadres, loyalists, and seleyti, or spies. Embassies and consulates serve as the nerve centers of this vast network. What remaining legitimacy the PFDJ party commands for Eritreans is largely rooted in its ability to generate economic and political support from those outside the country. Those who deny, defend, or remain willfully ignorant of the current reality are actively consenting, and supporting, the PFDJ’s legitimacy. But where the PFDJ cannot rely on consent, it resorts to creative and pernicious forms of coercion and political-economic extortion. As my own research and that of other scholars has documented, this pattern developed in the 1970s and continues unabated today. Recent refugees and asylum seekers are subjected to multiple forms of interference designed to maintain the PFDJ’s power through fear and political manipulation. Families of refugees are threatened, imprisoned, fined or harmed; refugees or asylum seekers are pursued by PFDJ operatives wherever they are and often forced to sign forms of “regret” (te’asa) or letters and petitions against the UN Security Council resolution sanctioning Eritrea for allegedly supporting Somali extremists. They are harassed and insulted by supporters of the regime, threatened to keep quiet, and subjected to “meetings” with ambassadors and other PFDJ party officials, often at the behest of the host country governments who either do not comprehend the situation or believe the recent PFDJ propaganda that Eritreans are not refugees, but economic migrants.

The latter campaign is among the most damaging tactics deployed by the PFDJ regime to date, and not just for Eritreans. It is a campaign that intentionally makes rights-respecting countries complicit with the illegal and inhumane practices of the Eritrean regime, and it undermines the very basis of international human rights law on which refugee protection rests.

Ambassador Tesfamariam Tekeste’s statements that “there is no political issue nor is it a matter of political prosecution [sic], it is simply an economic matter,” and that Eritrean asylum seekers “just want to avoid military service” is part of a calculated strategy to manipulate host country governments and erode refugee protection generally. The Eritrean regime despises the very notion of human rights, and if successful, this current campaign will allow the PFDJ to make a mockery of the international human rights and humanitarian laws to which Israel and other host countries are signatory. The ambassador’s “invitation” for Eritreans to return home under promises they will not be harmed is similarly a calculated move to exploit the suffering felt by refugees and asylum seekers. It is the persuasive, innocuous face of a much darker reality in which PFDJ has abducted asylum seekers from neighboring countries and refugee camps, and imprisoned and disappeared refouled asylum seekers from Malta, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere.

And it is not only in Israel where this strategy is being tested. In Uganda, PFDJ party operatives are similarly trying to convince the Office of the Prime Minister that Eritreans are “economic migrants” and enticing Eritreans to return home to visit. And certainly some people will be able to do so, and will not be harmed: by making good on their offer for a select few, the PFDJ will further undermine the findings of scholars, the testimony of Eritrean asylum seekers, the critiques offered by human rights organizations, and the international concern voiced by the UNHCR that Eritrean refugees must under no circumstances be returned to Eritrea.

This effort to portray Eritrean refugees as “economic migrants” is part of the systematic, geographically decentralized and highly coercive apparatus of the PFDJ regime, cultivated over several decades. It functions in several ways: it disguises the brutality of the authoritarian regime and the bondage of national service from those loyalists who continue to embrace and promote the propaganda of the regime. It plays upon the fears and concerns of host countries towards refugee influxes by denying the political basis for their exile and casting them as “economic migrants.” It makes a mockery of the central principle in international refugee law of non-refoulment and manipulates host countries into violating this principle in contravention to their own obligations. It undermines the empirical findings of scholars and human rights investigators and contradicts the overwhelming testimony of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. In short, it attacks the very foundation of asylum itself. And it forms another facet in the evolving, adaptive strategies of the PFDJ to control the Eritrean population – wherever they may be - through fear and coercion disguised as benevolence and nationalist commitment.

To those nations and governments like Israel -- who ostensibly believe in the basic principles of human rights and dignity, who embrace democratic norms and the rule of law, who guarantee the rights and freedoms of their own populations, and have long welcomed refugees and exiles into their midst -- do not be misled. Do not play the fool for a brutal and insidious regime while its people look to you for protection. Eritreans are not economic migrants. Nor are they “draft dodgers” or military deserters. They are bona fide refugees who are clearly and incontrovertibly entitled to the basic rights under international law that they have been so systematically denied at home.

Tricia Redeker Hepner, Ph.D is associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, USA, country specialist on Eritrea with Amnesty International, Executive Commissioner with the International Commission for Eritrean Refugees, and country of origin information officer for the Fahamu Refugee Network. She is the author of Soldiers, Martyrs, Traitors, and Exiles: Political Conflict in Eritrea and the Diaspora (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), and co-editor (with David O’Kane) of Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development: Eritrea in the Twenty-first Century (Berghahn Books, 2009), and numerous articles and book chapters. She has conducted research with Eritreans for more than 15 years in Eritrea, Ethiopia, the European Union, and North America.

venerdì 1 giugno 2012

Death of 63 migrants in the Mediterranean: Complaint in France holds the French military to account

63 migrants morts en Méditerranée : l'armée française mise en cause pour non-assistance à personne en danger

One year after events that led to the deaths of 63 migrants in a boat in the waters off the coast of Libya, 4 survivors, with the support of a coalition of NGOs, filed a complaint in France concerning the responsibility of the French military for failing to assist persons in danger.

In March 2011, the chaos in Libya forced thousands of migrants to flee the country to escape violence. Amongst them were 72 people of Ethiopian, Eritrean, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Sudanese origin who boarded a dinghy bound for Italy during the early hours of 27 March. A few hours after their departure, a French patrol plane flew over their boat and informed the Italian coastguards of its location. The migrants’ voyage soon turned into a nightmare. They lacked fuel, food and drinking water and lost control of the boat. They managed to send an appeal for assistance by telephone that was picked up by Italian coastguards and passed on to boats in the area, indicating their location. These distress calls were repeated every 4 hours for 10 days. Military forces with sophisticated equipment were present in Libyan waters at the time. On two occasions, helicopters flew over the migrants’ boat. One of them even dropped a few bottles of water and biscuits for the passengers before flying off again.

Testimony of Dana Heile Gebre, one of the 9 survivors (in English)

9 days later, when many of the passengers were already dead, the migrants encountered a military ship. They signalled their distress and showed the bodies of the dead babies. Yet no-one came to their assistance. After drifting for 2 weeks, their dinghy washed up on Libyan shores. There were 11 survivors, 2 of whom died shortly after landing in Libya. 63 people, including 20 women and 3 children, were left to die.

This tragedy, which symbolises Europe’s indifference to migrants and refugees, is today the subject of a complaint lodged before the French criminal courts in the names of 4 of the survivors. With the support of several NGOs, a complaint “against persons unknown” was filed before the section of the Paris High Court (Tribunal de grande instance) specialising in military cases, on the grounds of failure to assist persons in danger. It will be up to the French courts to clarify the responsibility of the French military which, whilst intervening in Libya in order to protect the civilian population, failed to assist these individuals. Having received the distress calls, the evidence indicates that the French armed forces failed in their national and international obligations to protect lives.

Summary of Dana Heile Gebre’s testimony (with French subtitles)

The contempt and indifference with which those who, fleeing persecution and violence, attempt to reach Europe are treated is intolerable. This was recently affirmed by the European Court of Human Rights on 23 February 2012. Our organisations support the survivors of this tragedy and expect the French criminal courts to condemn this violation of the obligation to assist persons in danger. There is no justification for knowingly leaving human beings in distress to die.

The following NGOs have joined the coalition: Agenzia Habeshia, Associazione, Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana (ARCI), Boat4People, Coordination et initiatives pour réfugiés et immigrés (Ciré), Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH), Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés (GISTI), Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), Migreurop, Progress Lawyers Network, Réseau euro-méditerranéen des droits de l’Homme (REMDH)

Read the complaint (in French) : click here

Read the report of independent experts on the case (in English) : click here

http://www.fidh.org/Death-of-63-migrants-in-the

Stop Intolerance and the Criminalization of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Israel !

Express our concern and dismay at what is happening in Israel. A law that considers them 'infiltrators' and a hostile population. And 'this is the situation faced by African refugees seeking political asylum in Israel.Hostility against the Africans led to protests and even in physical assaults and damage to housing or employment of refugees in Tel Aviv, one of the most warm on the face of intolerance. IRIN reported the story of Nigerian migrants who found themselves the target of launching Molotov cocktails at their apartment.Migrants arriving in Israel (including many asylum seekers) pass from the Egyptian border and come mainly from two Sudan and Eritrea. To pay the Bedouins that traffic in human beings in the Sinai to spend a minimum of 3500 to peaks of about $ 60.000. Along the journey are not uncommon violence perpetrated by the traffickers, who are also coming to seize the migrants then asking families to pay a ransom.From different sources it was possible to reconstruct many aspects of the journeys of hope that can last more than a year and who depart from Juba, Khartoum and Asmara. The scariest part is that crossing the border. The smugglers abandoned the migrants to their fate at about a hundred meters from the fenced border with Israel since then migrants become targets of the Egyptian police pursuing it, so brutal, the national security policy (the killing has been documented in this way of at least 33 migrants since 2007). For those who do not feel like, waiting behind him is the same gun traffickers that does not allow further thoughts.The difference between life and death is a wild ride through the different series of fences that separate migrants from Israel. The soldiers of the Jewish state - was reported by migrants - and indeed often are not firing notice to the Egyptian cease-fire.As stated by Prime Minister Netanyahu, the "infiltrators threaten the security and the identity of the Jewish state." This is the concern that is motivating the construction of the wall on the border with Egypt, and the largest detention center in the Negev in the world, able to accommodate, they say, up to 10000 people. According to an Israeli defense official interviewed by Haaretz in March, but it would not be a prison: "Refugees (ed) can walk, have a space of 4.5 meters in their rooms. The common environment is very large "The fact is that in January this year, the Knesset approved an amendment to the 1954 Immigration, a meaningful title Prevention of Infiltration Law, which authorizes the detention for up to three years for anyone who is in Israel without a permit living room (which according to the text are precisely the 'infiltrators'). This may explain how late you are preparing the great center of the Negev.As highlighted by the report of the Feinstein International Center, the protection that Israel grants asylum seekers is limited to the guarantee to be repatriated to countries of origin, where their safety would be threatened, but no declines in any grant of rights or in an acknowledgment status of political refugee. Then a state of substantial insecurity and weakness, combined with a great legal uncertainty: it becomes difficult to distinguish between asylum seekers fleeing from situations of risk and migrants fleeing from poverty.For the Prime Minister of Israel, 99% of Africans in the country would be represented by migrants in search of fortune and therefore not refugees. Data whose accuracy has not been proved, but not verified before accepting the migrants at the border, if not by them access to asylum. Conflicting data with those in Europe, 99% of the Eritrean and Sudanese refugees are recognized refugees in Europe. One problem with the termination of the wall will be further circumvented. At the expense of refugees, of course.Other government officials are these days showing his fist hard against the Africans: for example the case of Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who said: "why should we give him a job? I've had enough of the do-gooders, including politicians. The work would allow them to settle here, have children, and this offer would only attract hundreds of thousands. The Zionist dream is dying. "In its annual report on human rights, including the Department of the United States has dealt with the case, concluding that Israel denies the human rights of African migrants, not recognizing refugee status and thus depriving them of access to basic services such as help healthcare. The report cites significant numbers to strengthen his case: the 4603 asylum applications in 2011, only one was approved, while 3692 were rejected and the rest remain pending.There are about 60000 immigrants arrived in Israel in recent years, many of which are finished in the suburbs south of Tel Aviv, the place of the recent attacks. Here crammed into small rooms or, if less fortunate, sleeping outside. For example, on the lawns of the Levinsky Park.In this area each day hundreds of migrants waiting to be recruited for jobs that typically last a few days and are paid below the minimum required by law. But "every day, only one, two or four people are being taken," says one of them. And starting at ten thirty in the evening the park is filled with people who sleep where they can, including under slides and other games for children.Now, among them the fear snakes: they have well-molded head the memory of protests in recent days, when the Israelis marched in the street yelling "Blacks Out".Of many of the tensions that you are experiencing is culpable policy: Likud Premier Netanyahu is closing ranks around in denouncing the presence of Africans as damaging to the identity of Israel, fully supporting policies on immigration and social exclusion .
The results of this political wall (and others) have so far been no coincidence that racist chanting and Molotov cocktails.He said that Israel retained the refugees 'policy of no policy HAVING'. Now, however, seems to have one: intolerance.
Fr. Mussie Zerai

MIGRANTI AFRICANI: GLI ‘INFILTRATI’ CHE ISRAELE NON VUOLE

Una legge che li considera ‘infiltrati’ e una popolazione ostile. E’ questa la situazione vissuta dai rifugiati africani in cerca di asilo politico in Israele.

Un’ostilità contro gli africani sfociata in proteste e addirittura in progetti criminali a Tel Aviv, uno degli scenari più caldi sul fronte dell’intolleranza. IRIN riporta il racconto di migranti nigeriani che si sono ritrovati bersaglio del lancio di molotov nel loro appartamento.

I migranti che arrivano in Israele (tra i quali anche tanti richiedenti asilo) passano dal confine egiziano e provengono soprattutto dai due Sudan e dall’Eritrea. Per pagare i beduini che gestiscono il traffico di esseri umani nel Sinai spendono da un minimo di 350 a vette di circa 7000 dollari. Lungo la traversata non sono rare le violenze perpetrate dai trafficanti, i quali arrivano anche a sequestrare i migranti chiedendo poi alle famiglie di pagare un riscatto, similmente a quanto accadeva (e accade) in Libia.

Da diverse fonti si sono potuti ricostruire molti aspetti dei viaggi della speranza che possono durare anche più di un mese e che partono da Juba, Khartoum e Asmara. La parte più spaventosa resta quella dell’attraversamento del confine. I trafficanti abbandonano i migranti al loro destino a circa un centinaio di metri dalla frontiera recintata con Israele: da quel momento i migranti diventano bersagli della polizia egiziana che persegue così, in modo brutale, la politica di sicurezza nazionale (è stata documentata l’uccisione in questo modo di almeno 33 migranti dal 2007). Per chi non se la sente, ad attenderlo alle sue spalle c’è la pistola degli stessi trafficanti che non permette ulteriori ripensamenti.

La differenza tra la vita e la morte sta in una corsa sfrenata attraverso le diverse serie di recinzioni che separano i migranti da Israele. I soldati dello Stato ebraico – è stato riportato dai migranti – non sparano ed anzi spesso hanno intimato agli egiziani di cessare il fuoco.

Ma la benevolenza di Israele sembra non andare oltre.

Come dichiarato dal premier Netanyahu, gli “infiltrati minacciano la sicurezza e l’identità dello Stato ebraico”. Questa è la preoccupazione che sta motivando la costruzione del muro al confine con l’Egitto, e il centro di detenzione più grande del mondo nel Negev, in grado di ospitare, si dice, fino a 10000 persone. Secondo un ufficiale della difesa israeliano intervistato a marzo da Haaretz, non si tratterebbe però di una prigione: “I rifugiati (n.d.r.) potranno camminare, hanno uno spazio di 4-5 metri nelle loro stanze. L’ambiente comune è molto grande”

Fatto sta che a gennaio di quest’anno la Knesset ha approvato un emendamento alla legge del 1954 in materia di immigrazione, dal nome emblematico Prevention of Infiltration Law, che autorizza la detenzione fino a tre anni di chiunque si trovi in Israele senza un permesso di soggiorno(che secondo il testo sono appunto gli ‘infiltrati’). Ciò potrebbe spiegare con quale fine si stia allestendo il grande centro del Negev.

Come sottolineato dal report del Feinstein International Centre, la protezione che Israele accorda ai richiedenti asilo si limita alla garanzia di non essere rimpatriati nei Paesi di provenienza, dove la loro incolumità sarebbe minacciata, ma non si declina in nessuna concessione di diritti né in un riconoscimento dello status di rifugiato politico. Quindi una condizione di sostanziale insicurezza e debolezza, unita ad una grande incertezza giuridica: diventa infatti difficile distinguere tra richiedenti asilo in fuga da situazioni di rischio e migranti in fuga dalla povertà.

Per il Primo Ministro israeliano, il 99% degli africani presenti nel Paese sarebbe rappresentato dai migranti in cerca di fortuna e dunque non rifugiati. Dati la cui veridicità è tutta da dimostrare e comunque non verificabile prima di aver accolto i migranti al confine. Un problema che con la terminazione del muro sarà ulteriormente aggirato. A scapito dei rifugiati, naturalmente.

Anche altri esponenti del governo stanno in questi giorni mostrando il pugno duro contro gli africani: è per esempio il caso del ministro degli Interni Eli Yishai, che ha affermato: “perché dovremmo dargli un lavoro? Ne ho abbastanza dei buonisti, inclusi i politici. Il lavoro permetterebbe loro di stabilirsi qui, avranno figli, e questa offerta non farebbe altro che attirarne altre centinaia di migliaia. Il sogno sionista sta morendo”.

Con la complicità del governo, i migranti stanno anche diventando oggetto di accuse per l’incremento della violenza e del senso di insicurezza, soprattutto in seguito ad un caso di stuproa Tel Aviv. La polizia dal canto suo fa invece sapere che il tasso di criminalità è in calo. Secondo Yohanan Danino, capo della polizia, ai migranti dovrebbe essere addirittura permesso di lavorare per scongiurare i rischi della criminalità, dato che ad oggi quasi tutti lavorano irregolarmente.

Nel suo annuale rapporto sui diritti umani, anche il Dipartimento degli Stati Uniti si è occupato della questione, concludendo che Israele nega i diritti umani dei migranti africani, non riconoscendone lo status di rifugiati e quindi privandoli dell’accesso a fondamentali servizi come l’assistenza sanitaria. Il report cita dei numeri significativi per rafforzare il suo caso: delle 4603 richieste d’asilo nel 2011, solo una è stata approvata, mentre 3692 sono state rifiutate e le altre rimangono in sospeso.

Sono circa 60000 i migranti arrivati in Israele negli ultimi anni, e molti di questi sono finiti nella periferia Sud di Tel Aviv, luogo delle recenti aggressioni. Qui vivono ammassati in piccole stanze o, se sono meno fortunati, dormono all’aperto. Ad esempio, sui prati del Levinsky Park.

In questa zona ogni giorno centinaia di migranti aspettano di essere reclutati per lavori che in genere durano pochi giorni e sono retribuiti al di sotto del minimo imposto dalla legge. Ma “ogni giorno, solo uno, due o quattro persone vengono prese” racconta uno di loro. E a partire dalle dieci e mezza di sera il parco si riempie di persone che dormono dove possono, compresi sotto scivoli e altri giochi per bambini.

Ora tra di loro serpeggia la paura: hanno ben stampato in testa il ricordo delle proteste dei giorni scorsi, quando gli israeliani marciavano in strada urlando “Blacks out”.

Di non poche delle tensioni che si stanno vivendo è incolpabile la politica: il Likud fa quadrato attorno al Premier Netanyahu nel denunciare la presenza degli africani come dannosa per l’identità di Israele, appoggiando pienamente le politiche in materia di immigrazione e l’emarginazione sociale.

I risultati di questo muro politico (e non solo) sono stati finora non a caso cori razzisti e bottiglie molotov.

Si diceva che per i rifugiati Israele conservasse la ‘policy of having no policy’. Ora invece sembra averne una: l’intolleranza.

http://www.meridianionline.org/2012/06/01/migranti-africani-gli-infiltrati-che-israele-non-vuole/

Legge Organica sul diritto di Asilo: Accanto all'accoglienza, serve l'integrazione

Il presidente della Camera: "Nuovi interventi in vista del Sistema Europeo Comune

di Asilo. Accanto all'accoglienza, serve l'integrazione"

Le parole del presidente della Camera Fini, aprono speriamo una stagione positiva per l'adeguamento della legislazione italiana in materia del diritto di asilo, "Con profughi e rifugiati l'Italia ha dimostrato capacita' di accoglienza me a' altrettanto vero che ora occorre un salto di qualita' che presuppone un intervento di tipo normativo, un quadro legislativo chiaro ed organico''. Lo ha detto ieri il presidente della Camera, Gianfranco Fini.

Da anni molte riorganizzazioni come la nostra impegnate nel sostegno ai profughi e rifugiati chiediamo che bisogna mettere mano a un impianto legislativo fragile e mette in condizioni di totale precarietà i rifugiati stessi, ora è una necessità resasi ancora piu' evidente dalle scadenze europee. I nuovi interventi vanno varati anche nell'ottica dell'imminente attuazione del Sistema Europeo Comune di Asilo per garantire uno standard comune di accoglienza nel territorio europeo.

Inoltre, è evidente che accanto al dovere di garantire ai sensi della Costituzione un'accoglienza degna di tale nome la questione che non puo' piu' sfuggire e' quella relativa alle forti carenze che si incontrano nella fase successiva, quella dell'effettiva integrazione dei rifugiati.Questo mentre l'articolo 34 della Convenzione di Ginevra ''dice in modo esplicito che il riconoscimento dello stato di rifugiato comprende anche l'assimilazione e la naturalizzazione''.

E' evidente che su questa questione le opinioni possono essere diverse ma anche che non ci si puo' limitare all'accoglienza sulla carta e poi omettere le politiche di una accoglienza reale e dignitosa, ma sopratutto di integrazione fatta con strumenti di accompagnamento, linguistico, lavorativo, abitativo, aprendo anche dei spazi sociali e politico che tocca anche la legge sulla cittadinanza. La questione Cittadinanza e' una questione che è stata elusa per molto tempo, che speriamo sia giunta l'ora di affrontarla con serietà, soprattutto se si considera che tra rifugiati e' in rapida crescita il numero dei minori. La speranza è l'ultima a morire, il nostro auspicio è che si faccia presto una legge organica, che tiene conto della dignità umana di questi rifugiati, sopratutto che non si facciano speculazioni politiche o economiche sulla pelle dei profughi e rifugiati.

Il sistema di accoglienza italiano deve essere rifondato e portato allo standard come nel nord Europa, speriamo che non si facciano dei calcoli a riabbasso a discapito delle persone che hanno un reale bisogno di protezione e accompagnamento vero una reale integrazione.

don Mussie Zerai