hunger strike and protest of asylum seekers in Slovenia
Hunger strike and protests taking place in detention Centre for Foreigners in Slovenia due to inhumane conditions and unlawful detention of asylum seekers.
Published by Slovenian initiative Ambasada Rog on Facebook (also copied in English below)
▻https://www.facebook.com/ambasadarog/posts/1237550896579544?notif_id=1597998208072700¬if_t=page_share&ref=notif
Published also in Slovene media (only in Slovene unfortunately):
▻https://www.mladina.si/200747/ustrahovanje-s-psi
▻https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/v-postojnskem-centru-za-tujce-naj-bi-gladovno-stavkali/533938
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Barbara Vodopivec, Slovenia
HUNGER STRIKE IN CENTRE FOR FOREIGNERS
Yesterday, new videos of the events in the Centre for Foreigners came to light, where a state of emergency continues to prevail. After the protest at the end of July, the situation did not improve, and asylum seekers want to warn the public with hunger strike about the unbearable situation. In the footage, visibly enraged asylum seekers point to a crippled person lying on the ground who is in need of medical attention. It was precisely because of the ignorance of the police towards such unbearable living conditions that some asylum seekers began with hunger strike. As the footage shows, the police reacted to the protest by entering the premises in the evening with police dogs, intimidating asylum seekers to go back to the containers.
What triggered the protest?
As already reported by the media, in June the Ministry of the Interior began with new practice of imprisoning asylum seekers in detention Centre of Foreigners in #Postojna. This led to an overcrowded capacity of the centre and creation of a special “container department” which is set up in a large, barred warehouse where asylum seekers are left without basic care, many still injured and without clean clothes, awaiting a decision from the Ministry of the Interior. They receive food through the bars and there is nothing done to take care of their health (it is by no means quarantine, as the common areas are sometimes shared by over 100 people, and new ones are coming all the time). Despite detention most of them do not receive any decision on deprivation of liberty which they could appeal and they do not have any access to legal aid. They wait for weeks or months without any information and any contact with the outside world. Some manage to begin asylum procedure during detention and wait for a decision from the Ministry of Interior, but the majority is deported to camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina through violent Croatian police. Many have already been beaten and robbed by the Croatian authorities, and testimonies about the confiscation of money and violence by Slovenian police officers are also becoming more frequent.
Such a regime of detaining asylum seekers is not implemented anywhere else in Europe, as it clearly violates basic human rights. If a foreign country kept European citizens locked up in containers for months while assessing their visa applications, it would undoubtedly be a major international scandal.
What do detained asylum seekers demand?
The message is simple: “We are not criminals, we just want to live normal lives”.
For several years, Slovenia has been returning them to inhumane camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, denying access to asylum procedures. Now, above all, they are being detained even during asylum procedure. The police does this arbitrarily, preventing asylum seekers access to legal aid and manipulating their statements in proceedings. They want fair and transparent procedures, and now they are imprisoned in inhumane conditions without a reason and without a decision, which they have not experienced in any other country. They will continue the strike until they are released.
Reçu via la mailing-list Migreurop, le 21.08.2020
#asile #migrations #réfugiés #Balkans #route_des_balkans #grève_de_la_faim #Slovénie