Occasional Victories |
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Life as a refugee support volunteer with it's occasional victories and frequent defeats. Occasional Victories is a place for links, news, rants and raves about Refugee related issues.
If you would like to contribute just drop me an email at carigeen(a)yahoo.com
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2004-01-26
Praise the Lord..... and pass the ammunition! The first fight of the New Year has started. L and her four children come from Belarus and applied for refugee status on the grounds of religious persecution. They are evangelical protestants and claim harassment by the state which is moving from having an atheistic state religion to having an orthodox state religion. Human rights in Belarus stink in a big way at the moment. Human Rights Watch (2000) says Respect for human rights deteriorated as Belarusian president Lukashenka maintained his grip on power and the government staged deeply flawed parliamentary elections. Another well-known opposition figure "disappeared" in July, while the year witnessed a spate of political show trials. L was not prepared and did not make a good case. She did not put in specific details of incidents affecting either herself, family or her church members. Her solicitor JMG did his usual trick of not putting her in for an oral hearing and the appeal was rejected by the RAT. Her application for humanitarian leave to remain was answered by a deportation order last week. She is very afraid that she will be imprisoned as soon as she returns to Belarus. Her church group here seems intent on making a fight of it so I've had three meetings with them during the past week. The last one ended at 11:00 last night. I gave them the British NCADC campaigning guide and lists of politicians names and contact numbers. Go for judicial review? This review is purely on the mechanics of the case and rarely succeeds. All that it will mean is a six-month delay before deportation. Lawyers are looking for fees of anything between 1500 and 6000 euro to take a case. Is it worthwhile? Anyway I'm to act as consultant to the church on the issue. If nothing else it will open a few more eyes to the reality of this system. 2003-12-22
Ups and Downs..... The week started well and then went downhill rapidly. The group had a great meeting on Tuesday night. Lots of projects running and the enthusiasm levels really high. The 'Living History' cookbook is about 90% complete, the strategic plan is well on it's way and we have support for setting up a professional information service in January. An interesting proposal for a 'language swop' program too. Then M from site phones me on Friday morning. The staff had organised a childrens Christmas party, Santa, presents, goodies, the lot for Thursday night. Some of the 'ladies' from a certain African country had decided that the presents were not of high enough quality and proceded to wreck the place, abusing and terrorising the staff. Things got so bad that poor MS had to run and lock herself in her office. We had planned on having a kids party in a school down town on Sunday but had to cancel it. If this sort of riot happened there it would be very public and we would never, ever, live it down. RIA has a 'solution' to these sorts of things, transfer the people involved to the furthest extremes of the country. I don't know if that has happened yet but I expect that it's just about to. I can see how the fustrations of living on site can boil over. The poverty, lack of work, boredom, the eternal asylum process that will, most likely, result in a refusal. Fustration will always be taken out on perfectly innocent parties too, people who are doing their best. Illich wrote about the undeniable joys of giving and the bitter taste of receiving. That's definitely the case here. As a group we can't and won't tolerate abuse of anyone, staff or residents. If there are problems on site that can't be resolved directly with site management then we will take it up with RIA and, if necessary, get the IRC and UNHCR involved. What to do? I think that I'll suspend my own personal support group activities until the meeting on 13th January. I'll let a few people know why too! 2003-12-10
Fields of gold... This job is always difficult and fustrating. Sometimes, in dark moments, I think that it's impossible. Then, there are those rare and wonderful days when 'we walk in fields of gold'. Sunday was one of them. D and her two teenage daughters are Moslems from Xinjang province in Western China. We had helped them get their status this year. They invited S and me to a postponed Eid party in their new house in Dublin. I think we met the entire Uighur community in Ireland, three families. We ate strange and wonderful food, drank tea and apple juice, talked and laughed in a mixture of languages for hours. This is the new Ireland. It's a privilige and an honour to be able to build it. 2003-12-04
Today's Guardian has ..... Aid decamped Nick Cater on the International Red Cross and its struggle to keep its head above water There is the danger of a sad end to a once-great organisation. The article very much reflects our experience with the Red Cross in Ireland over the years. Essentially the IRC is a branch of the Department of Defence. One government department cannot ever be seen to criticise another. This being a reasonably stable and unthreatned democracy, the Department of Justice has much more power then the Department of Defence. So we have the obsession with trivalities, such as first aid, and the steadfast refusal to get involved in any real issues. IRC has no membership of the Irish Refugee Council or Integrating Ireland. A year ago a man died on site and we were trying to get his body from Warsaw to his home village. I phoned the Irish Red Cross asking for help and was given the phone number of the ICRC in Geneva! 2003-11-25
Out-torying the Tories!.... Blunkett aims to axe asylum legal aid Asylum seekers may face health checks November 24: Ministers are close to a decision on the introduction of compulsory HIV and TB health screening tests for asylum seekers and migrants travelling to Britain. Repatriation planned for Iraqi refugees November 24: Iraqi asylum seekers could be deported back to Iraq to help with their country's 'reconstruction' under plans announced today by the home secretary, David Blunkett. Asylum children may be forced into care November 23: Asylum seekers will have their children taken into care in a Draconian attempt to force them to go home, under a government crackdown condemned last night as 'inhumane' by refugee groups. Words fail me! 2003-11-21
Well done Hari Kunzru! Author rejects prize from 'anti-migrant' newspaper Give cash to Refugee Council, he tells Mail on Sunday About time someone told the Mail, and the rest of the gutter press where to get off. 2003-10-28
It's always good to keep an eye on what's happening next door.... Generally the ROI authorities don't do anything new until it's been in action for a few months there. So now we have 15,000 families granted asylum Asylum amnesty for 50,000 heralds tough new measures Home secretary announces one-off exercise to clear backlog ahead of 'tough as old boots' new measures When can we expect a similar move? |