The Iraqis Mohammed and Marwan in Malmö, the Camerunesi Valentine and David in Berlino, the Senegalese Sane in Saluzzo. Daniela Sala recounts the lives of the “diniegati” between Svezia, Germany and Italy.
The Iraqis Mohammed and Marwan in Malmö, the Camerunesi Valentine and David in Berlino, the Senegalese Sane in Saluzzo. Daniela Sala recounts the lives of the “diniegati” between Svezia, Germany and Italy..
Svezia: “non vado da nessuna parte”
“I should leave Svezia in a week. Ma ho imparato lo svedese: sono qui da due anni ormai. I'm not going anywhere”. Mohammed is an Iraqi asylum seeker and lives in Malmö, the city in the south-east of Svezia that migrants refer to as “the two-ninth province of Iraq”. It's a Saturday at the end of July, and Mohammed is driving to the local immigration office. About 20 Iraqis have been camped here since July to protest against the increasing demands for asylum.
As one of Europe's most welcoming countries, Serbia has, in part at least, changed its orientation: in April 2016, in fact, Parliament approved a new asylum law. In addition to making it more difficult to obtain family reunifications and the right of asylum, from July 2016 those who have been granted permanent asylum no longer have the right either to asylum or to the economic support that was previously provided for the so-called “refugees”.
A decision motivated by financial considerations, the Social Democratic government has said, but it's hard to think that the European anti-immigrant climate hasn't weighed on it. Now, however, those who receive a definitive decision have two choices: leave the country voluntarily, or be repatriated. Many, however, opt for the third way: nascondersi.
Four years without Sundays
Camped under a tent in front of the immigration office in Malmö is Marwan. He is 35 years old and an Arab from Kirkuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan. He lives in Alvesta, a small town one hour from Malmö: he has been an illegal immigrant for six years, when the asylum application he submitted in 2011 was accepted. “When I found out about the decision”, Marwan recounts, “I was simply not present at the next meeting with the immigration office. I didn't even consider the idea of moving”. Some friends have hired him to work as a mechanic, in black. According to Serbian law, after four years it is possible to submit a new asylum application. And that's what Marwan has done: “Now I can only aspire. Ma sono stanco, e di sicuro non sono venuto in Svezia per vivere così: non ho una casa né un contratto, e a volte lavoro per 100 corone al giorno” [circa 10 euro]. “Sono sotto stress, non riesco nemmeno a pensare al domani”.
For George Joseph, who has worked for Caritas Svezia for about 30 years, Marwan's story is not surprising: “with us people”, he says, “who were born 12 years ago. They live in a kind of parallel society”. According to Eurostat data, in 2016 the number of new asylum seekers in Svezia was significantly lower: 28,790, compared to 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015. However, the number of asylum applications - and therefore of arrivals - is high: according to the data from the Swedish Migration Agency, 111,979 were processed in 2016, and 60 percent were accepted. “The number of undocumented migrants,” says Joseph, “has always been fairly stable, but with the increase in asylum requests and money, it has undoubtedly increased. If I had to make an estimate, I would say that in Svezia there are between 10 and 15 thousand irregulars”. Always using Eurostat data, in 2016 there were 1,200 people killed in routine checks and found to be irregularly present in Svezia. To give an idea of how many of the so-called “diniegati” who have not left the country are the data provided directly by the Svezia police: there are at least 12,600 people who have taken a flight, but who are now “unrecoverable”. In addition to the situation of migrants in the country, there was an attack in Stoccolma last April, when an asylum seeker was attacked and killed four passers-by in the city center.
Tobias Lohse is a member of Farr, the Svedese Refugee Council, and an activist with Refugees Welcome: “A year ago we helped refugees to get into Svezia”, he recalls with a sigh, “nowadays we help them to get around”. However, he doesn't say that others have better fortunes: “many people ask for help to get to Germany”.
A European question
In reality, Svezia has not done anything to follow the European trend set by the repatriation directive. As long ago as 2015, in a communication to the European Commission and Parliament on the repatriation pact, the Consiglio stated that “the repatriation of migrants who do not have the right to remain in the EU” was “essential to maintain the credibility of the European asylum system”. In the same document, it was noted that the number of migrants, both voluntary and forced, was very low. In 2016, 489,055 asylum seekers were sent from EU member states. The number of people actually repatriated was around half: 245,275 (17 percent more than in 2015), of which 75,815 were repatriated from Germany alone, mainly to Albania and Serbia. What happens to those who come from countries with which there are no bilateral agreements for repatriation?
“Se lasci che uccidano i tuoi sogni, sei morto anche tu”, says Valentine, 45, from Camerun, mentre osserva un giovane intento a sistemare alcuni computer . “È per questo che insisto con lui perché continui a fare volontariato”. Valentine belongs to the English-speaking minority of Cameroon, and arrived in Germany in 1998. When his asylum application was rejected, he spent ten years in detention. He was only able to obtain an asylum permit in 2009, when his son was born: “I was constantly under stress, it was hell”.
We met at the Refugees Emancipation office on the outskirts of Berlino est. The young man working on the computer is David, who is from Cameroon. He is an IT engineer and four years ago he decided to leave his country: during the 2011 election campaign, he created a website to support the People's Action Party, the opposition's grassroots action party. Not long after, he was hired: he tells of being saved by a miracle. Now he's living in an accommodation center in Potsdam, but in July he got a permanent job. Like Mohammed, he has no doubts: “I have the right to stay here. I'm not leaving anywhere”. With the money, his work permit has been revoked, but David - following Valentine's advice - continues to work as a volunteer at the internet point and at the computer courses for asylum seekers organized by the association. “They buy your sogni with 320 euros a month and then slowly kill your motivation”, says David, referring to the monthly subsidy that the government guarantees to those who opt for the “Duldung”, or temporary reprieve from deportation.
Germany: the security approach
Infatti, a differenza della Svezia o dell'Italia, in Germania chi rifiuta il rimpatrio volontario e per qualche motivo non può essere deportato non viene automaticamente allontanato dall'accoglienza, ma ottiene in genere il Duldung. Freedom of movement is restricted and the possibility of working is suspended, but the migrant does not become irregular: in practice he is tolerated. “L
’Germania's approach is a security one”, summarizes Karl Kopp, Pro Asyl's director of European Affairs, “the idea is to maintain control of the situation. At the same time, however, it's about creating an ever more ostile environment.”.
According to official data quoted by Der Spiegel, at the end of 2016 in Germany, 207,484 people were liable to be expelled, of whom 153,000 were “tolerated”, i.e. by the Duldung. Complessivamente, stando ai dati Eurostat le persone irregolarmente presenti sarebbero in tutto 370.555.
As in Svezia and in Italy, even the Belgian asylum law has been modified recently. Christoph Tometten, legal advisor to the Kub migrant center in Berlin, says that he has lost track of the changes over the last year and a half: “It's taken far too little time to discuss it in class and in civil society”. The most controversial aspect would be, according to Tometten, the introduction by law of a criterion for categorizing asylum seekers on the basis of the likelihood that they will remain in the country, “Bleibeperspektive”. In practice - as it says on the website of the Federal Office for Immigration - if the rate at which asylum is granted on the basis of the country of origin is statistically higher than 50 percent, the asylum seeker has access to services such as integration and job orientation programs that are denied to those who do not have this “good prospect”. A discrimination which, being based solely on geographical origin, according to Tometten would be “in contradiction with the Ginevra Convention”.
Kopp doesn't use different terms: “It's the new Tedesco ‘selfie’: ‘we are severe’. The government wants to send a message and make it clear that the policy of tight borders is over”. And he agrees with Tometten on the fact that the country of origin is the main discrimination: “If I'm Iraqi, I risk deportation from Svezia, but not from Germany. If I'm Afghan it's the other way around”. So migrants try their luck by moving from one country to another.
In Italy: “denied”, but with a contract
“Ad aprile mi hanno semplicemente detto che purtroppo dovevo andarmene”. Sane, 29, comes from the Senegalese region of Casamance and for the last two years has been living in Ivrea. His lawyer had mistakenly chosen the terms of the loan, so when the decision of the first-level court became final, the operators of the cooperative told him that he should leave the apartment. He was transferred to a few isolated people, with a friend.
Since June 2017, when we interviewed him, he has been working in Saluzzo, harvesting fruit in the fields. In spite of the permit he had obtained, the employment manager had signed him to a contract as a regional worker.
Sane has had some jobs, more or less salaried, even when he was granted asylum, but there is no possibility of converting the asylum permit into a permit for work purposes. This limitation has led a group of asylum workers to set up the Asylum Free Network. As Anna Bertrand, one of the camp's promoters, points out, “we were confronted with several asylum seekers who, despite having a work manager who was ready to take them on even for an indefinite period, refused the permit and actually became irregular”. Bertrand doesn't know for sure how the so-called “diniegati” will end: “We usually lose contact. After a while, some people tried to get into France, but when border controls are intensified, it's always more difficult”. Bertrand was not surprised to find many of them in Saluzzo or Rosarno.
In 2016, in the routine control process, the Italian police killed around 38,000 immigrants with non-registered documents. But the effective repatriations are only 5,715, because with many of the asylum seekers' countries of origin, there are no repatriation agreements. In Italy, unlike Germany and Svezia, voluntary repatriation is practically non-existent: the programs financed by Fami, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, are being withdrawn in 2016 after a year's halt. According to Iom, from July 2016 to August 25, 2017, 493 funds were repaid. Main destinations: Nigeria, Bangladesh and Ghana. As it says on the Senza Asilo website, the risk is that more and more refugees who have been denied asylum will be forced to work in the desert, exposed to all kinds of abuse.
A few weeks later, when the race is over, Sane doesn't know where she's going: “Probabilmente in Spagna. A boy who is with us is in Almeria, I'm thinking of getting him”. One thing is certain: “I will do everything I can to prevent my little brother [who lives in Senegal] from going through what I went through”.
Source: http://openmigration.org/analisi/dove-finiscono-le-persone-a-cui-e-stato-negato-lasilo/ 26.10.2017