Sunday, April 27, 2014

Switzerland Government, Stop Deporting And Discriminating Ethiopian Asylum Seekers. This petition will be delivered to:Switzerland Government, UNHCR, International Red Cross, EU,AU, US Pres. B. Obama and Amnesty International

World Wide Ethiopian Refugees Rights Advocate Group USA 
    1.  
   Switzerland Government (Immigration)Stop Deporting And Discriminating Ethiopian Asylum Seekers. 
   April 27, 2014 Dallas, Texas U.S.A

    Switzerland, we the internationally recognized human rights activists, Ethiopia and Ethiopian-Americans and the peace loving people from around the Glob, are asking you to grant Ethiopian Asylum Seekers a legal refugee status unconditionally and accordingly. And we have attached their names which includes their ID# given to them by your office of immigration as evidences. And free (release) all Ethiopian refugees from the so called Emergency Centers immediately. 
      Ethiopian refugees in Switzerland are suffering a great deal since the introduction of the April 2004 restrictive and inhuman asylum law by Swiss government. Ethiopian asylum seekers have been simply abandoned and left in the streets without any means to live on. Some have spent the winter in public toilettes. And Imprisoned just for attempting to go to another country after they were left on the streets.  Denied fair trial and the right to have interpreters when appearing in court. Denied medical treatments. All these inhuman treatments are done by Swiss government on Ethiopian refugees in Switzerland. We strongly appeal to Swiss government to show its human face. Norwegian Government has signed an agreement with Ethiopia to deportEthiopian asylum seekers.
      The Swiss Asylum Act recognizes the basic principle of the Geneva Convention of 1951 relating to the status of refugees. The article 3 of the Asylum Act reads as follows:   “Refugees are foreigners who in their native country or in the country of last residence are subject to or have a well-founded fear of serious disadvantages because of their race, religion, ationality,  membership of a particular social group or political opinion.considered as serious disadvantage are viz. a threat to life, physical integrity or freedom as well as measures exerting an unbearable psychological pressure. Flight motives specific to women are to be taken into account”.
      In Switzerland if application for asylum was rejected, an F permit can be issued as provisionally admitted foreign national. According to the Federal Office for Migration, these permits are issued «to  persons who are to be expelled from Switzerland, but cannot be sent to their home countries because the enforcement of this order has proved inadmissible (violation of international law),reasonable  (concrete endangerment of the foreign national) or impossible (for technical reasons of enforcement).» Theoretically the F permit is issued for the duration of 12 months, but it can be extended.

      Provisionally admitted foreign nationals are also restricted in their right to travel as of December 2012.In the mean time, one can get employed and earn his/her living using the F permit. Contrary to these facts, Ethiopian asylum seekers in Switzerland have for so long been treated differently.
      Due to our relationship with international media and human rights organizations, our organization have received from Geneva, a list of names and ID # of Ethiopian refugees in prisons and centers, and according the list as evidences, some of the Ethiopians asylum seekers have been living in Switzerland for more than a decade, because of negative decisions. Which means, they were neither granted a refugee status nor a provisional permit. The least the Federal Office for Migration of Switzerland could have done was to grant a provisional permit to Ethiopian asylum seekers at least to fulfill the requirements for it. Based on our investigation and fact finding, the harsh treatments that the Ethiopian asylum seekers are receiving is beyond ones imagination. It is just unbelievable. 
    What does living with a negative decision in Switzerland mean? First of all, if her/his asylum request were  rejected he/she would be kept in a camps called an emergency centers. This means, she/he will lose all the available social benefits as an asylum seeker. The emergency centers are characterized to be crowded. In such camps, the person gets the minimum provisions required to survive or better say to stay alive. The living condition might differ from region to region(Canton). In some of such centers they offer breakfast, lunch and super in their “restaurant”. Hence, one has to quell three times a day to be able to eat. Other centers give 9(nine) Swiss Franks a day, which is very minimal considering the living expense of the county. A cup of coffee in Star bucks costs 4(four) Swiss Franks. One can imagine how much difficult it is to live with 9 Franks a day. The third category is more harsher than the others. There are centers where they are closed in the day time.  Every morning one has to leave the camp with a 10 Frank voucher spend the day anywhere, even if it is a brutally cold winter. This is just inhuman treatment that should be condemned. The other characteristics of these so called emergency centers in Switzerland is that they are mostly located far away from cities and towns. One has to use transportation to go to a nearby town or city.
      Based a tangible documents from human rights community in Geneva, Zurich and the Asylum Seekers, and international journalists, with an earning of nine Franks a day no one can afford to make living/Ethiopian refugees are straggling in order to Survive. we could go on and on to describe the severity of the living situations in such centers.
     A person with a rejected asylum request is officially addressed illegal. The emergency centers issue identification cards indicating the holder is illegal, deliberately creating a moving target for harmful consequences. if such individuals are found on the streets the police can mercilessly detain them for at least three months. Or, will be forced to pay a fine, as if he/she got the money to pay, for being illegal in Switzerland. Most importantly, the holder of this type of identification paper is not allowed to work anywhere in Switzerland.     Enough is enough.  1. See more information from Ethiopian human rights activist in Switzerland  in 2005 :
2.  two years a go. www.change.org/petitions/the-ethiopian-asylun-seekers.          
 Yeharerwerk Gashaw, Dr. Mankelkilot H. Silassie,                           Dr. Gashu Habte,Mr. Mesele Kelel, Mr. Michael Gibson,Mr. Nebyu Damte,
        Board of Directors.