The UNHCR Netherlands held a presentation ‘For ever fleeing’ on resettlement in the Humanity House in the Hague on the 13th of February 2013.

The Humanity House is a museum and theater about conflict and disaster, set up with European Union finance (partly) and partnership of the UNHCR. UNHCR NL, UNHCR Europe and the dutch refugee council gave this evening an overview of the resettlement procedure, the role of the states, local problems, figures and the integration of the refugees in the accepting countries. It was a positive story on the role of the UNHCR for a public that was interested in this subject. It was of course a coincidence that the UNHCR-film on resettlement Rain is beautiful (http://vimeo.com/47612730) shown started with a Somalian – injured during the hunt on blacks in Libya in 2011 – now I Choucha and on his way to Sweden for ressetlement.

All Included – Emmanuel and me – had asked twice for an appointment with the UNHCR NL on the situation in Choucha which was refused: Choucha is already in full attention of the UNHCR.

In the intro of the evening the head of the UNHCR (who had identified us in the public) brought up some telephone calls that the UNHCR receives. One of these was ‘Can the UNHCR do something for the people in Choucha that are not accepted?’ followed by a ‘no, everyone has had a fair procedure with an outcome depending on the circumstances fitting with the criteria for refugee status and resettlement’.

In the last half hour – for questions – Emmanuel and me started a discussion on Choucha. We put forward the demands and asked what would happen to these people after the closure and if the UNHCR felt responsible for this. We also asked if the dutch choice of the resettled – none from Choucha in the year after the arab spring and the Libyan war – was used as a political means to discourage migrants to use these routes for Europe. The highly irritated UNHCR-man accused us of portraying UNHCR and Choucha in an nonrealistic way, that we said that the UNHCR did nothing for Choucha – which we had not done – . And he said he trusted the UNHCR Tunis for the quality of the procedures.

We made a flyer on Choucha and the protests with us and distributed it to the public after the meeting. Some people refused the flyer, others were interested and asked questions. One woman – don’t know her background – was very angry about our ‘action’ on this occasion and ran out before we could talk to her.

Any way, we were very glad having realized to discuss Choucha with the UNHCR with public.

info@allincluded.nl
http://www.allincluded.nl

Plantage Doklaan 12
1018 CM Amsterdam
tel 020-3795236