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Africa: Migrant Rights Updates
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Aug 6, 2010 (100806)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"An astounding 100 deportees a month come to ARACEM [in Mali] for
shelter, food and clothing. They are expelled from Libya, Morocco
and Algeria as they make the way from Central and West Africa in an
attempt to find work. These three North African countries have
signed agreements with European countries to act as external border
control agents to prevent migrants from reaching Europe."
As indicated by this report (included below) from Nunu Kidane and
Gerald Lenoir, the issue of rights for African migrants is not
limited to the better-publicized cases of those trying to reach
Europe by sea from West Africa or across the Mediterranean, or
those targeted by xenophobic violence in South Africa. Almost every
African country may be simultaneously a destination country, a sending country, or
one with migrants stranded in the middle. And, in Africa, as in
Europe, North America, and other parts of the world, the rights of
migrants have been sidelined in policy debates largely limited to
the range from xenophobia to technocratic debates about "managing"
migration.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains two reports by Kidane and
Lenoir, one on the deportees in Mali, and the other on the
formation of the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights,
which held its inaugural meeting in Bamako in July. It also
contains a short report from Human Rights Watch on the situation of
Eritreans in Libya.
Sources for additional background on migrant rights include:
People's Global Action on Migration, Development, and Human Rights
http://www.mfasia.org/pga/index.html
Migration Information Source. Migrants' Human Rights: From the
Margins to the Mainstream
http://www.migrationinformation.org /
direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/2b59gvx
United Nations, International Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cmw.htm
International Resource Center on the Rights of Migrants
http://www.december18.net/
Another AfricaFocus Bulletin released today on the web, at
http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/xeno1008.php, but not sent out by
e-mail, contains excerpts from and links to an extensive new report
on xenophobia in South Africa. That study is based on case studies,
focus groups, and surveys, and includes descriptive reports,
analyses of structural bases for the violence, and studies of
responses from different sectors of South African society,
including civil society organizations of the migrants themselves.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on migration-related issues,
visit http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php
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Note: AfricaFocus Bulletin will be taking a break for the remainder
of August and early September, both for vacation and for necessary
upgrading and maintenance of the AfricaFocus website. Publication
will resume the second week of September.
The website (at http://www.africafocus.org) will continue to be
available during this period, as will the other websites edited by
the AfricaFocus editor: http://www.noeasyvictories.org and
http://www.mysteryplaces.net
Thanks to readers who have recently sent in voluntary subscription
payments to support AfricaFocus. And a reminder to those who
haven't that AfricaFocus depends on support from readers. More
details, along with links to contribute on-line or to print out a
form to send in with your check, are available at
http://www.africafocus.org/support.php
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note++++++++++++++++++++
Migrants in Mali
http://blackallianceblog.blogspot.com/
Bamako, Mali, West Africa
July 17, 2010 [posted on blog July 24, 2010]
Gerald Lenoir, Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just
Immigration (http://www.blackalliance.org) and Nunu Kidane, Director of
Priority Africa Network (http://www.priorityafrica.org) were in Bamako,
Mali to attend the inaugural gathering of the Pan African Network
in Defense of Migrant Rights hosted by Institute for the Research
and Promotion of Alternative Development (IRPAD) and funded by Open
Society Institute, West Africa (OSIWA). The following blog
describes the conditions of African migrants who are deported from
North Africa and end up in Mali.
We went by taxi more than 10 miles from the center of Bamako across
the Niger River to meet with Ntamag Francois Romero, the director
of the Association des Refoul‚s d'Afrique Centrale au Mail, or
ARACEM (Association of Deported Central Africans in Mali). The cab
let us out on a main street where we were met by an ARACEM staff
member who led us the one block down a potholed dirt road muddied
by the morning rain.We entered the gate of the rust brown,
adobe-like two-story building that housed offices and a shelter for
deportees. The shelter residents greeted us with handshakes and
"Bonjours" as we entered the courtyard. We made our way into
Ntamag's office where we introduced ourselves and told him that we
were interested in knowing about the migration and deportation
experiences of the people who come to the shelter. He graciously
told us his own story and about the work of the ARACEM.
Ntamag himself left his home country of Cameroon six years ago. He
was deported to Mali from Morocco four years ago. He and other
migrants who had experienced deportation founded ARACEM in July
2006. It is funded by Caritas, a Catholic relief agency, and other
international funding agencies. The funding is often inadequate to
feed and pay for unexpected expenses such as hospitalization when
one of the refugees is ill. The center therefore requests donations
to purchase additional rice and supplies to feed the increasing
number of individuals that depend on it.
An astounding 100 deportees a month come to ARACEM for shelter,
food and clothing. They are expelled from Libya, Morocco and
Algeria as they make the way from Central and West Africa in an
attempt to find work. These three North African countries have
signed agreements with European countries to act as external border
control agents to prevent migrants from reaching Europe.
Ntamag told us that migrants come to the shelter at the first of
the month and in the middle of the month. They have been stripped
of their money, identification papers and all of their possessions
by the police or border patrol and dropped in the middle of the
desert on the border with Mali with no food or water. Some are
extremely traumatized by the entire experience, having spent
several months and even years in detention before being deported.
The difficulty of their situation is too much for some and they
"lose their heads," unable to cope.
The supposed three-day stay usually gets extended to up to ten days
after which they must leave because the staff has to make room for
the next group of expelled migrants. This leaves the young men in
desperate situation with no ability to get resources or
identification and no hope of going back or forward. While they are
"free" to leave the compound and to look for employment, they have
no way to sustain themselves. The government of Mali is one of the
few that does not incarcerate refugees in detention centers and
they can remain within the country if they so wish.
Many of the migrants are ashamed to return home after being
deported and will try desperately to find their way to Europe
again. Their families are often destitute and are depending upon
them to reach Europe, find work and send part of their earnings
home. So they spend their three to ten days weighing their options.
If they decide to return home, the staff of ARACEM helps them to
contact their family and figure out how to get back to their
country--Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic or another
country. Some find a way to earn money in Mali and try again to
reach Europe. Others, like Ntamag, remain in Mali.
When we asked Ntamag why he left Cameroon, he pointed to government
corruption and the exploitation of the natural resources of
Cameroon by multinational companies from France, the United States
and other countries of the West. Although the vast majority of the
people of Cameroon are poor, "Cameroon is not a poor country,"
Ntamag tells us.
"The young never have hope," he says. "You go to Europe to take
care of family."
As we ended our visit, we discussed with Ntamag a project to
document the abuses suffered by migrants and a process from them to
take their collective cases to the African Union's Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights and other international and governmental
bodies. We agreed to work with him on developing the project and to
help to seek justice for people whose only crime was to cross
borders.
To hear Ntamag in his own words, click on the link and view the
videotaped interview on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8nzAkoPlTM
Pan African Network on Migration Formed
Bamako, Mali, July 18, 2010
Four years ago, in an international conference on migration in
Brussels, a small group of activists from various African countries
gathered to compare experiences and share stories about migration
within and out of Africa. Two years ago, at a similar conference in
Manila, a larger group of African civil society members gathered to
affirm a similar commitment and hold the first meeting focused on
African migrants' rights.
Another meeting was held in the city of Bamako, Mali in West Africa
four days ago. Representatives from over 40 organizations from
Africa as well as allies from Europe and the U.S. gatheredto
establish the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrants' Rights.
Priority Africa Network and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration
were honored to have been invited to this historic gathering which
was coordinated and hosted by Mamadou Goita from IRPAD-Afrique
(Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives for
Development) with a grant from OSI-WA (Open Society Institute West
Africa).
One of the key missions of the Network is linking the discourse on
the effects of globalization in Africa to the current reality of
migration and displacement. The first Africa-focused and
coordinated migration network will work to bring to international
forums the voices and challenges of migration in and out of Africa
and increase the visibility of the expulsions, exploitation and
abuses that are currently ongoing in Africa, Europe and the U.S.
One of the issues discussed at the meeting was the current
bilateral agreements between European and African governments to
collaborate in the expulsion of African migrants. In essence, a
country in Africa - for example Nigeria or Cameroon - sign an
accord with France, to deport all the individuals - back to the
poverty and persecution they fled from in the first place. In
exchange, the Africa country receives "development aid"
compensation which never reaches those most in need, especially not
the migrants. These agreements are never transparent and are often
times in violation of human rights conventions.
The single exception to this criminal policy of bilateral agreement
is Mali which has, thus far, not signed an agreement to accept
expelled Malians from Europe. The holding of the first Network
gathering of African migrant rights representatives is therefore
very fitting.
If there is a single country in Africa with the highest number of
incidents of repression, it is Libya. In the least known bilateral
agreement (also never made public), Libya and Italy signed an
accord to prevent and return migrants off of the coast of Libya and
across the Mediterranean.
The most recent demonstration of this abuse is Libya's detention
and expected deportation of some 245 Eritreans from a nation known
for the imprisonment, torture and death of its citizenry. These
refugees are currently fighting for their lives and asking for
international support.
http://www.hrw.org / direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/27mfmgm
Other participants in the historic gathering and formation of the
Network were members of a deported group of Malians who had
organized themselves into a strong grassroots advocacy front. AME
(Association Malienne des Expuls‚s). Similar organizations all over
Africa are setting new trends of mobilization of those who have
been the primary victims of the most harmful policies. Over the
coming months, the Network will ensure that abuses against migrants
will not go unnoticed, unreported or unheard. It will bring
unprecedented collaboration from organizations who are doing
similar work but have not shared and coordinated their work before.
At the conclusion of the gathering, participants affirmed to bring
an Africa perspective to the next World Social Forum on Migration,
scheduled to be held in Quito Equador (October 8 -- 12, 2010), the
next People Global Action on Migration and Development in Mexico
City (November 3 - 5, 2010) and the next World Social Forum in
Dakar Senegal (February 6 - 11, 2011).
For more information contact:
Nunu Kidane, Director, Priority Africa Network,
priorityafrica@yahoo.com, http://www.priorityafrica.org
Gerald Lenoir, Executive Director,
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
gerald@blackalliance.org, http://www.blackalliance.org
Libya: Do Not Deport Eritreans, Allow Access to UN Refugee Agency
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org | direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/2cg2u2a
Libyan authorities seem to think they can get away with these
terrible abuses after stripping UNHCR of its ability to protect
refugees and asylum seekers. - Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch
July 2, 2010
(Geneva) - Libyan authorities should immediately stop apparent
efforts to deport a group of 245 Eritreans, some of whom have been
severely beaten by guards, Human Rights Watch said today. Human
Rights Watch said that Libya should grant the United Nations
refugee agency immediate access to the group, who were recently
transported from the Misrata detention center to another detention
center at al-Biraq, north of Sabha town.
"It's bad enough that Libya is brutalizing these detainees," said
Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch. "But
deporting hundreds back to Eritrea, knowing full well that they
could face torture and ill-treatment at home, would be a flagrant
violation of Libya's legal obligations."
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recommended that
host governments refrain from forcibly returning even rejected
asylum seekers to Eritrea because of the risk that returned
Eritreans will be subjected to detention and torture. Libya
threatened several times to close the refugee agency's office in
Tripoli and then expelled the agency's Libya representative on June
7, 2010. In recent days, the government permitted UNHCR to resume
extremely limited activities, allowing it to work only with
refugees and asylum seekers previously registered by the agency.
The Eritreans had been held in the Misrata detention center in
Libya's coastal region west of Tripoli. Tensions mounted after June
7 when the refugee agency's workers stopped visiting the Eritreans
held there. Eritrean detainees in Misrata have managed to inform
Human Rights Watch that over the past few weeks Libyan officials
forced them to complete bio-data forms in the Eritrean Tigrinya
language provided by Eritrean embassy officials and to be
photographed. Fearing that these steps were taken in preparation
for their deportation, some detainees tried to escape on June 28,
resulting in a confrontation between detainees and guards.
According to credible sources, on June 30 Libya transported 245
male Eritreans from Misrata to a remote detention center at
al-Biraq, near Sabha, a town with an airport in the center of the
country in the Sahara desert that has been the site of previous
deportations to Sub-Saharan African countries. About 80 women and
children remained behind in Misrata, some separated from male
family members. Witnesses informed Human Rights Watch that the
Eritreans were jammed into three shipping containers mounted on
trucks for the 12-hour, non-stop journey through the desert.
Detainees told Human Rights Watch that Libyan guards severely beat
them in the confrontation in Misrata, as well as on the way to
al-Biraq; some were taken from Misrata to hospitals, while others
arrived at al-Biraq with broken limbs. The detainees said they were
given no food or water during the journey and no medical attention
in al-Biraq. They also said that Libyan guards told them they would
be deported to Eritrea.
"The brutal beatings, denial of food and water, transport through
the desert in overcrowded trucks, and the imminent threat of
deportation all appear to be punishment for the Misrata uprising,"
Frelick said. "Libyan authorities seem to think they can get away
with these terrible abuses after stripping UNHCR of its ability to
protect refugees and asylum seekers." Both the Convention against
Torture and the African Refugee Convention forbid Libya from
sending individuals to countries where they face a serious risk of
persecution or torture. Libya is also a state party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
which, under article 13, prohibits arbitrary expulsion and entitles
foreigners to an individual decision on their removal/expulsion.
The Human Rights Committee has interpreted article 7 of the ICCPR
to forbid refoulement - or forced return - of persons to places
where they would be at risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment. Under customary international
law, Libya is also obliged not to return anyone to places where
they may face persecution or where their lives or freedom would be
at risk.
Background
Human Rights Watch reported in January that the Libyan authorities
had given Eritrean officials access to Eritrean migrants and asylum
seekers detained in Libya, including at the Misrata detention
center, violating the right of asylum seekers to keep their refugee
claims confidential from their home governments. Human Rights Watch
warned then that granting officials such access suggested that the
asylum seekers might be in danger of being forcibly returned to
Eritrea.
Increasing numbers of Eritreans are fleeing the indefinite national
military service imposed by the Eritrean government and pervasive
arbitrary detention and torture. Eritrea routinely imprisons
individuals caught trying to flee the country and has "shoot to
kill" orders for anyone crossing the border without permission. If
the government identifies someone who has successfully crossed into
Ethiopia or Sudan, it subjects their family members to large fines
and sometimes imprisonment. On April 26, 2009, Libya's justice
minister, Mustafa Abd al-Jalil, told Human Rights Watch that Libya
would not deport Eritreans or Somalis, in line with Libya's 1969
Constitutional Proclamation, which says that "the extradition of
political refugees is prohibited," as well as Law 20 of 1991, which
says that "the Jamahiriya [Republic] supports the oppressed
and...should not abandon the refugees and their protection." In
September 2009, Human Rights Watch released a report, "Pushed Back,
Pushed Around," which documented frequent abuses of migrants while
in detention in Libya, as well as the general practice of detaining
migrants for indefinite periods of time. Libya has not signed the
1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and has no asylum law
or procedures. There is no formal mechanism for individuals seeking
protection in Libya. The authorities make no distinction between
refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants. Libya has, however,
ratified the African Refugee Convention.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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