This is a copy-&-paste of a letter that I posted to the website of Casa Robino in Amsterdam.Dear friends. I hope some of you there remember me and my vegan summer pizza. But anyway this is not about me or pizzas, it's serious stuff and please open up your ears.My time in Iceland has come to an end, and not in the best way possible. The only organic coop-café Iceland has ever had closed about 3 weeks ago, due to the current crisis and a criminal landlord. My group of co-workers and friends also got involved in some activism concerning refugees and asylum seekers in Iceland. You should know that although Iceland has a really tiny number of asylum seekers compared to other European countries, nearly all applications in the past 20 years have been rejected. But there is more underneath this fact: asylum seekers, who mostly got stranded in Iceland after having been rejected by Canada, are put in a sort of hostel in Keflavík, close to the international airport and in the middle of nowhere. They are given something like 10€ a week, and food and shelter. It doesn't sound so bad, compared to the filthy prison-like building where they are secluded in countries like Italy, Greece and Spain; but in fact, they are in a prison, and they are only in theory free to move, since with the money they are given they cannot even buy a return ticket to Reykjavík, where they could get someone to talk about their case. Many speak no English and cannot do anything to help themselves. They just sit in there, waiting for the police to deport them to the first Schengen country they arrived to after fleeing from their own countries. In many cases they can wait for years before their case gets processed by the Directorate of Immigration, during which time they are neither allowed to work nor go to school. Nobody knows the criteria according to which the Directorate decides to deport someone.This is the story of Nour, a 19-years old rapper from Baghdad. He got deported to Iceland 14 months ago, and spent most of this time in the "hostel". He and his family fled from Iraq about 3 years ago, and he wandered about in Syria, Turkey and Greece, before trying to get to Canada. His father was killed by some terrorist group, because he was collaborating with the US administration. Finally, thanks to some activists, he managed to spend some time in Reykjavík and get the media talk about him, about the fact that he could have been deported back to Greece any time, without notice. Slowly, I managed to get him a job at the organic café, and eventually he got a temporary permit to work and live in Iceland, lasting 6 months. After the café closed, he was already going to start a new job, and maybe one day he could have taken a language course and finish high school. In spite of all this, a couple of weeks ago the Directorate decided not to grant him refugee status, and that's a decision that no lawyer or humanitarian organization can change. 4 days ago the police broke into his home and told him "time to go". They tricked him by saying that he could pick up his stuff and his last paycheck from the café later, and that he had to go with them first. He could make no phone call and after a few hours was put on a plane to Germany and then to Athens. He spent the night on the floor in a prison cell, and the following day he was set "free", i.e. put on the street, from where he could be pulled off any time and deported to Iraq, where he has no family anymore and he would risk his life. He has no money with him and no hope for the future. The chance that he can get any humanitarian support in Greece are really few, given the high number of asylum seekers and migrants there. The decision of the Icelandic government to deport these people esp. to Greece has been criticized by my group of activists because of the evident basic human rights violations that have occurred in that country recently. The situation is very similar in other places where usually asylum seekers get deported, like Italy and Spain. And I specify that I'm talking about a government that defines itself "leftist", "progressist" and "green", and that put a woman as a ministry of Justice, who goes around giving speeches about human rights and stuff, but then from her office sends people off to die.It is extremely important that, if you know anyone who is in Athens right now and could care for this issue, you tell him about Nour and try to help him. He needs a place to stay, I think he can manage with food, but first of all he needs to regain love for life and hope. This is his e-mail address: smdel_992006 [at] yahoo [dot] comHere you can read more about this issue:http://this.is/nei/?p=4566http://aftaka.org/2009/10/16/bref-fra-noor-al-azzawi/http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/search/news/Default.asp?ew_0_...http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/News-In-Limbo
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