Fighting, untill we are free from food packages and pocket money!‏

http://refugeecampvienna.noblogs.org/post/category/refugees-speak-up/
for german version see: http://akweb.de/ak_s/ak578/36.htm

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### 21.12.2012:
### Fighting, untill we are free from food packages and pocket money!
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International – The ongoing protests of asylum-seekers in Austria are
the biggest ones in the more recent past

By Clifford Agathor

I am a 32 years old male, a father, a Nigerian and have lived in the
city of Vienna since I came into this country almost 9 years ago. I
can’t imagine why the people think I shouldn’t have come here at all.
“When Did You Come To Austria?” or “Why Did You Come Her, Why Not
England or America?” These are the questions I am been asked almost on
regular basis, even more than “How are you doing?” These questions in a
whole portrays how unwelcoming some people can be. But I often give no
answer except that I sometimes chose to reply with a simple counter
question, which is “WHY NOT HERE?”

I have often asked myself the question “Who Bears the Burden Most?” The
asylum seekers, refugees or the other immigrants with different kinds of
legal status. We all have series of problems, starting from our home
countries and then through the various routes of the journey we took to
get here. The reasons behind our decision to come to Austria are of
different magnitudes too. Now that we are here in a completely civilized
society, where the rights of humans are supposedly respected and
protected. A society of people who has also seen what suffering means,
whose freedom is now exactly what the word really mean. If we can’t get
the support we need to better our lives and give something back, what
would it mean to have been born into this world?

There is love in sharing, they say. After 3,171 days of hard living in
Austria, I felt it is time to talk about what is necessary that has not
been shared yet. In spite of the unforeseen issues facing people who
decided to take refuge in other countries, I do not know why the United
Nations has been silent on millions of people who are now destitute in
various countries all over the world. The United Nations has only been
visible in war ravaged communities and in areas where natural
catastrophe strikes. I may have been quiet for 8 years, 8 months, and 4
days probably because I thought that help was on the way. I thought back
then that I was already favored the moment I found myself here within
the country, I was positive things will begin to get better when I wake
up the next morning. But the only thing that happened the next morning
was a big Stroke of Reality.

I told myself it has been a dream. Since that moment onward, the
struggle never seems to fade away at all. But today, I am awake, awoken
from almost 9 years of slumber. I now see how much breath this fortress
Europe (like a suction device) can rip off you. The situation is
obviously not the same with everyone, and since I am not talking about
the successful people in life, I’d so appreciate it if you hold back
your questions and grudges for a while. It may have been that I was too
lazy, too undetermined or probably not strong enough to confront my
fears all along. But why do we have limits to what we can achieve? Why
are we mainly objects of ridicule and subjected to precarious living
conditions, discriminated against, segregated from the citizens by all
mean necessary? I don’t know!

Life is hard: Life is much harder to live as a refugee in a system with
high-tech mechanisms that propagates high level discrimination and
inequality within the human race. Here’s what the system does, it brands
us as Illegals (Illegal Migrants). We are treated as criminals in the
refugee camps. They take our finger prints and keep it forever. They
forbids us from going out of the country. In Austria, they even restrict
us to a 5 kilometer radius as well as give us packet food and put us in
a 10sq2 meter room with 4-5 other people amongst whom are also
physically and mentally sick people. In Vienna, you will be given 5 €
per day for your feeding and 40 € pocket money per month. You will also
have a public roof over your head as well as general health insurance.
When you really look at all these provisions with a narrow mind, the
only thing you see is luxury. But when you look deep with an open mind,
you will see how impossible it is in a monolingual society such as this
to learn the language. We are expected to go to German language classes
which is of course a good thing to do. But we need to buy our monthly
tickets from the 40 € we get monthly. If your other needs deter you from
buying your Wiener Linien ticket, you will be caught and the penalty
comes in two different folds. You either get the ticket or at worst
cases, you get arrested by the police for such minor violation.

Freedom, liberty, rights to literacy, rights to expression, rights to
live, do we know what it is anymore? I am sure you do and we do too. The
fact that we do is the same reason we have asked questions like why do
you have to deport people to Mali when there is a civil war in the
country? Why do you tag all Nigerians as drug dealers and why would a
city Mayor from Carinthia pronounce that Chechens and Blacks are not
wanted in his city and no one dears to question why? Why are Somalis and
Ethiopians not given the rights to stay in Austria?

It is now time for us to ask more importantly for our rights in this
country and the whole Europe. Over one hundred Somali men, women and
children took to the streets between October 10th to 13th 2012 to
demonstrate and camp in front of the Parliament for three days in the
cold for the purpose of demanding for their rights to asylum, a lot of
Austrians camped with them to emphasize real solidarity and so much so
helped the Ethiopians to demand for the general rights of the whole
refugees living in this country, right in front of their nose. The
government till today did not respond in any way or manner. Doesn’t that
mean how much disregard the politicians and respective authorities have
on the foreigners and citizens in this country? Is this just practically
what democracy is about? If a politician is wise enough to tell the
entire country in a national television that asylum-seeking is to ask
for protection within a period of time, he should have also mentioned
that while here as a refugee in this beloved old Austria, the refugees
are supposed to be treated with warmth instead of propagating continuous
racism, repression, inequality and human rights violations.

How about a look into individual cases like a Sri Lanka man who came to
join the demonstrating refugee camp at the Sigmund Freud Park in Vienna.
Just to share his own plight with us. He has been in this country for
fifteen long years and still has no decision reached yet on his asylum
procedure. How long does he has to wait more? No one knows! What can we
say about the Sudanese man who came to Austria over 10 years ago with
his blood brother? He also has also till now received no positive
decision from the Bundes Asyl Amt. What is funny about his case is that
his brother has since long become legal as far as already in possession
of the Austria nationality. I can’t understand why these people can fail
to identify who is due to stay in the country for any reason what so
ever. I have met a lot of people who has been in this country for years,
who also speaks good German and has never had any problem with the
police. This is the only country within the E.U. where Dublin II accord
is most effective. The issue of undocumented labor is also at full scale
in Austria. Asylum-seekers are used in Traiskirchen as translator for
other refugees without being paid for the service. Does not it sound
awkward? If a European does the translation, they get paid. If an
asylum-seeker does it, it’s for free. There is always a limit to how
much an asylum-seeker can receive monthly for whatever job or else there
will be consequences from the Fund Soziales Wien without considering the
service you did to earn such amount of money, even at 5 € per hour or
sometimes less.

The camp in Sigmund Freud Park in the 9th district of Vienna simply
signifies that, each time you ball up your fist, you intend to hit
something or someone with it. It also did not happen by accident and
nothing can change the fact that refugees protested from Traiskirchen to
Vienna and camped for over ten days in Sigmund Freud Park. The reason
why they are often give resident permit easily to persons with serious
health issues is quite unclear to me. I am into this refugee movement
with abundance of energy to put into it. We will never stop the struggle
until we become free from package foods and pocket money, 40€ pocket
money can’t guarantee a safe future for my little kids. With this words,
i charge you all to do what’s right! Now or never.

Clifford Agathor is a political activist, boren in Nigeria and is living
in Vienna since nine years.

German version published in ak – analyse & kritik – zeitung für linke
Debatte und Praxis / Nr. 578 / 21.12.2012
http://akweb.de/ak_s/ak578/36.htm