Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By now, everyone who is interested in Somalia knows
the United Nations has declared that this small
country houses the worst refugee crisis in Africa.
We know that nearly a quarter million people have been
displaced from Mogadishu alone, and we know that the
southern route to the refugee camps in Kenya has been
cut off by the Kenyan military. But what happens
to the people who make it out of Somalia? Where
do they go and how are they treated?
One of the most common refugee routes leads people
north from Mogadishu to Bossaso, Somalia. Here
people fleeing the violence of their hometown must pay
as much as $2,000 to take a raft across the Gulf of
Aden to Yemen. From Yemen, they can take a bus
through Saudia Arabia, but then they must walk through
Syria and Turkey. This journey often takes place
at night and usually requires two weeks of hard, quick
walking. Amal is 19. She was pregnant when
she left Somalia. She and her husband could not
afford to pay the smugglers for two passages, so they
thought it best if Amal were to have her baby in what
they thought would be the safe harbor of Europe.
For this part of the walking tour, the pregnant Amal
had to pay the smugglers $550. All through the
journey they pushed and shoved the young woman,
threatening to leave her behind if she could not keep
up. When she reached Izmir, Turkey, Amalís
child was born. From there, Amal had to pay the
smugglers another $1,000 to cross the Aegean Sea.
There were 18 people on the inflatable raft that
carried Amal and her baby away from Turkey. The
smugglers forced her to get out of the raft before it
reached shore, because they did not want to get caught
by the Greek Coast Guard, so the terrified Amal had to
carry her child over her head, while she struggled
through the waves toward dry land. Then she had
to carry her baby over a mountain, with the trees
tearing at her clothes. On the other side of the
mountain, Amal was captured by the Greek police.
Nearly all refugees are captured by the Greek
police, but one would think that this would be fine.
After all, Greece is part of the European Union, where
the Geneva Convention is recognized, as is the
European Declaration of Human Rights.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Almost
no one is granted asylum in Greece. In order to
apply for asylum, a person needs a job. To get a
job, you need a work permit, and to get a work permit,
you need to have applied for asylum. There is no
way to break the cycle of bureaucratic requirements.
Ali Hussien, of the Greek Refugee Council, told us
that between 2000 and 2005, the Greek government
granted refugee status to a mere 114 people.
This works out to be 23 a year or about two a month.
In fact, the European Union has sanctioned Greece for
offering asylum to less than 2% of the people who
Instead, what Greece offers refugees, after it has
held them in detention for anywhere from one week to a
month, is a card that tells them to leave the country
within 30 days or be arrested. The authorities
held Amal in detention on an island for 18 days.
In detention, she was given only adult food for both
herself and her baby. Many people report being
beaten in detention, as the police try to determine
the identity of the smugglers. When she was
released, Amal was put on a ship that took her to the
mainland and Athens. Amal was expected to pay
her own fare. She had no money, so other
refugees had to pay her way.
Because they are denied official status, Amal and
other Somali refugees are told to leave the country,
but if they try to leave, Greek authorities will
arrest them for traveling without papers, and if they
actually manage to get on the plane, the authorities
in other countries will send them back to Greece
because of the Dublin Regulations. The Dublin
Regulations hold that when a refugee enters Europe, he
or she must remain in the country through which he or
she first entered the European Union. The EU is
clearly using border countries like Greece as a
barrier to the rest of Europe.
So Amal is being told that she cannot travel to a
country that will recognize her rights as a war
refugee, and she is also being told that she cannot
work in Greece. How is she supposed to care for
her baby? She canít even earn money for baby
food. Her husband, who is still in Mogadishu, is
prevented by the war from earning any money.
It is true that a Christian organization, Helping
Hands offers food to Somali refugees once a week.
However, its goal is ultimately to convert the Muslim
Somalis. Moreover, the Somali women are afraid
to go there, and one meal a week is hardly enough to
relieve the horrible plight the refugees face.
The situation for Somali refugees in Greece is really
desperate. We witnessed several flophouses where
30 to 50 Somali refugees must live. Here the
same room serves as living room, bedroom and dining
room. People can stay in the flophouses, only if
they have friends or relatives who will send the 3
euros a night required to rent a tiny space in these
rooms. Otherwise they will become homeless.
We interviewed several Somali people who sleep in the
Finally, some men are able to work illegally
picking farm produce. Abdirizak has been in
Greece for four years. He works on the farms
when he can. The work is intermittent, and he is
paid much less than white people. Like other
Somali farm workers, he lives in abandoned housing and
saves his money so he can buy a ticket to another
European country, where he hopes to be treated more
humanely. While he works in Greece, he is abused
and called racist names, but every year when he tries
to leave, the authorities inevitably send him back.
They never return the price of the ticket, however, so
the process of being homeless and working for low
wages must begin all over again.
The Somalis in Greece need the help of the Somali
Diaspora and of good-hearted people around the world.
They cannot work, and they cannot leave.
Consequently they are cut off from the means of
helping themselves. We need to help these
refugees in at least two ways: first of all, we need
to draw attention to the injustice of the Dublin
Regulations. From European wars, people have
been able to seek refuge all over the world. It
is unspeakably unjust that many Africans are now
unable to seek refuge from their wars in Europe.
However, as we are lobbying to change the legal
barricades to Europe, we must also find a way to care
for the Somali people in Greece, such as Amal, who are
prevented from taking care of themselves.
Perhaps we can raise funds that would create a
sanctuary for Somali refugees. There is a crying
need for a place that offers housing and food to
people, who would otherwise be desperate.
The refugees themselves could be paid to cook and
maintain the sanctuary, and if everyone also knew that
he or she were free to leave whenever he found a way
out of Greece, then perhaps we could save people from
the dangerous, dignity-stealing way of life to which
they are currently being subjected.
Somali Documentary Project