By
Annie Slemrod
BEIRUT:
Some 15 Sudanese refugees have been on hunger strike for over a week outside a
U.N. office in Beirut, and they say that if their demands are not met they will
die under their cardboard shelters.
Among
the strikers’ demands to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is a
speedier process for determining refugee status, legal assistance for those
detained for illegal entry or stay, and quicker resettlement to third countries
for recognized refugees.
They
began their strike last Monday.
There
are no more than a few hundred registered Sudanese refugees in Lebanon, but
this does not count what could be thousands of others seeking refugee status or
simply in the country and off the books. Lebanon has not ratified the 1951
Refugee Convention, which means that refugees cannot legally stay permanently.
Those who UNHCR deems legitimate refugees must wait for relocation.
The
supine men are protected from the sidewalk and the sun by cardboard. After
surviving harrowing experiences at home, Lebanon has become a purgatory of
sorts for them. “We are not respected at all,” says Mohammad Abdul-Latif, who
describes the indignities of multiple families sharing one room and one toilet,
and the difficulties of finding employment.
“We
work cleaning toilets and streets, and that [in itself] is not a problem,” he
continues, explaining that it is the lack of worth afforded them that is
tiring. “They call us derogatory terms – chocolate colored. At school, they
tell [our children] they are charcoal.”
He
and the other men sharing pillows tell of random street attacks. Most, but not
all, of the strikers have refugee status, and some have waited as long as 10
years for news of when they can leave.
They
see the UNHCR as having shirked its responsibilities. “We are dying here in
Lebanon, and nobody hears us,” says Abdul-Latif. “This is the United Nations;
they are supposed to protect the people.”
UNHCR
spokesperson Dana Sleiman told The Daily Star that once refugees are cleared
for resettlement, the decision about whether and when this happens “is entirely
in the hands of the country.” Many Sudanese eventually go to the United States,
and she says this is because the country has a larger quota than other
countries for accepting refugees.
“Recently there have been security
checks that have delayed the whole acceptance or rejection process [in the
United States], which makes it even more frustrating for refugees,” she adds.
Sleiman
called the protesters’ frustrations legitimate, and although strikers say the
UNHCR employees shuffling in and out of the gate across the Jnah street ignore
them, Sleiman says “we know the protesters individually and they have been
counseled,” including by a senior protection officer who spoke to them at the
beginning of their campaign. She said UNHCR is currently “looking into their
cases.”
But
this assurance might not be enough for the protesters, three of whom were
hospitalized Sunday and later released. Two of those hospitalized have
pre-existing conditions that require medication.
Rola
Yasmine a registered nurse who examined the hunger strikers, said that there
are “lot of issues in terms of dehydration and people who are urinating
infrequently,” which could lead to severe complications.
The
strikers are drinking water, as well as powder that restores vital nutrients.
In general, she said people refusing food but drinking can last around three to
four weeks before muscle and bone mass begin to deteriorate, but “because of
the heat [the fast] could take its toll a bit faster.”
It
is not only the strikers who are paying the price of the strike. During the
day, wives, children, and supporters of the strikers also rest nearby. A group
of three wives were fired after their employers saw them on television
reiterating the strikers’ demands. Not all the women are from Sudan; Dora is
from Sri Lanka and says she can’t go home because her Christian family rejected
her decision to marry a Muslim.
Her
husband’s application for refugee status was denied in 1998. Hamed Mohammad,
who shows a bullet scar on his leg, fled Sudan after serving time for refusing
conscription, hoping instead to fight in a militia opposing South Sudan’s
independence.
But
now he sits in solidarity with men from Sudan, both North and South. Their
homes read like the datelines of news bulletins: Darfour, Abyei. Here, explains
Haroun Abdul-Aziz, once of Darfour, political and regional differences are
obscured. “All of us are suffering here ... it isn’t like people in the North
are safe, or in the South. The Sudanese here [in Lebanon], we don’t recognize
this division between us. We are all Sudanese refugees.”
Nearby, Abdul-Latif vows to
refuse food until his demands are met. He is composed, especially for a man who
hasn’t eaten in over a week. “I will continue until I die ... I can’t go
anywhere. I will die here.” A line of tired faces nods in assent.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-19/177302-sudanese-maintain-hunger-strike-in-beirut.ashx#axzz1yDcCuqbU
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