America.Aljazeera.com: The immigration interview: A moment of truth for migrants, refugees

From: Berhane Habtemariam <Berhane.Habtemariam_at_gmx.de_at_dehai.org>
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 21:21:58 +0200
by Yermi Brenner @yermibrenner , Silvia Giannelli @giannellisilvia , Michael Keller @mhkeller , D. Parvaz @dparvaz
October 18, 2015 8:00AM ET

For the 700,000 migrants who have arrived in Europe, surviving the journey is just the beginning.

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Although the majority of the news coverage given to the refugee and migrant crisis focuses on the perilous journeys they take to reach European shores, the fact is, for many of the more than 700,000 who have arrived by land and sea since the start of the 2015, surviving long enough to reach the EU is just the beginning.

What comes next is dealing with a maze of regulations — applications, interviews, rejections and appeals — mostly in languages they do not speak. 

The flow of people leaving countries such as Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and elsewhere is described by United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups as mixed flow or mixed migration. This mixed group includes asylum seekers hoping to get refugee status as well as migrants — economic and otherwise — who have left their homes voluntarily or under duress for better lives or more security.

The demographics of those arriving at various European countries differ, depending on location. For instance, roughly 40 percent of those seeking asylum in Germany are from Kosovo, Albania and Serbia, whereas arrivals from those countries are a minority in other European countries. 

According to the U.N. refugee agency, nearly 70 percent of migrants and asylum seekers reaching European shores are male, although when it comes to overall global migration patterns, women make up half of those who are on the move. 

The following are profiles of migrants who have gone through the interview process to receive refugee or asylum status in Germany and Italy. Al Jazeera asked these men to recount the process of the interview and to recall their testimony. 

Hassan Mehboob

From: Chakwal, Pakistan (2012), Libya (2014)
Sought asylum in: Italy

Interview details
Questions: Name, country of origin, family members, reason for leaving the country
Length: 40 minutes
Result: Denied (2014); appeal pending

Recounting of the interview

I told them that I started my college studies and I completed two years but my father couldn’t afford to support my studies anymore. For this reason, I tried joining the Pakistani army, but I failed one test, so I couldn’t go. I tried to join the police, but they told me that I had to give them money if I wanted to enter. So I decided to leave and went to Libya. I also told them that in Libya I was happy, I had a job and my family was happy, because I could send money back home, but I had to leave because there were bombings every day, stealing, fighting. We couldn’t go out, apart from work. It was dangerous to stay out. They would try to steal from us and beat us up. This is why I had to leave.
Djordje Buric

From: Belgrade, Serbia
Sought asylum in: Germany

Interview details
Questions: Living conditions, monthly income, problems with people or law, reason for seeking asylum, family members, plans if sent back to Serbia
Length: 70 minutes (first interview), 45 minutes (second interview)
Result: Denied; appeal pending

Recounting of the interview

I told them the truth, which is that I don’t have problems, nobody wants to kill me. I come here to try to stay and work because in my country I don’t have a job. They said to me that these are economic reasons and that I’m crazy for telling them that because very fast I will be sent back to my country. But I told them the truth. Most people are lying. In my head at that time, the only chance I had was if I tell them the truth. They told me that I don’t have a chance and that very soon I am going to go back to my country. That was two years ago.
 
Mohamed Ahmed Shallouf

From: Yarmouk camp, Damascus, Syria
Sought asylum in: Germany

Interview details

Questions: Name, birthplace, reason for going to Germany, family, whether fingerprints were taken in any other country
Length: 2 hours
Result: Approved

Recounting of the interview

Yarmouk became a battle area between the opposition and the Syrian regime. The opposition took over the camp. We lost access to basic life necessities like food and water, and in addition there was shelling and rockets. My family and I moved from Yarmouk camp to another suburb of Damascus, where we stayed in one house with seven other families. There were only three rooms in that house. We stayed there for a year and a half. When I lived in Yarmouk, I had a lot of money. We owned our houses, so we didn’t pay rent. Since we left the camp, we paid a lot of money for rent. We found that in Syria there is no safety and there is no hope for the future. We, as Palestinians, consider ourselves as unbiased to any part of the conflict in Syria, but the regime put us in the center of the conflict. We decided to migrate to Europe for the future of our children. I wanted to go to Germany. I work in computer programming, and so does my son. Here in Germany, there are many more work opportunities than they are in other countries. We wanted a country where we would be able to work rather than just rely on welfare services. I decided to go by myself, without my family. I didn’t want to see my children facing problems on the smuggling route to Germany.
 
Rizwan

From: Gujrat, Pakistan (2012), Libya (2014)
Sought asylum in: Italy

Interview details

Questions: Name, country of origin, language spoken, reason for leaving the country
Length: 20 minutes
Result: Denied (2012); pending (2014)

Recounting of the interview (2012)

I answered only the basic questions. I didn’t say what was my problem in Pakistan. I just said my life would be better outside Pakistan. [The interview] was just too quick.

Recounting of the interview (2014)

Later I understood that I had to tell my whole story, so I told the commission I wanted to be a dancer and that I had joined a group of shemale dancers. I love to dance, and it is all I want to do in my life because I am good at it. I started working as a shemale dancer. I became quite famous. People recognized me. They started giving me nicknames, and my family found out what I was doing. I was forced to stay at home. In my community they didn’t like what I was doing, and I got beaten up. I became a shame for my family, and they told me that either I quit dancing or I had to leave the country.
 
Ariig Mohedin Abdullahi

From: Mogadishu, Somalia
Sought asylum in: Germany

Interview details

Questions: Reason for leaving country, reason for going to Germany, dates and means of getting to Germany
Length: 1–2 hours
Result: pending

Recounting of the interview

In Somalia I worked as photojournalist. There is a group of terrorists called Al-Shabab who don’t like photographers or anybody who opposes them. They say, ‘If you believe our religion, you come with us, and we work together. If you don’t believe us, we will kill you, and we will stop your job.’ I tried to find any way to stay in Somalia, but I could not find any solution, so I decided I must leave. I left with my wife to Kenya. I decided we must go to Europe. We went to Uganda and then traveled to Sudan and then crossed the desert between Libya and Sudan. When we crossed the border to Libya, the border police caught us, and they took us to prison. I stayed more than two years in a Libyan prison. My wife also was imprisoned, but she stayed in a different prison. Then we went by boat from Tripoli to Italy. It was a big boat. We were over 700 people. It was very dangerous. The ride took three days, and at last we arrived in Lampedusa. We stayed in Italy for about one year, in different refugee facilities. Nobody there helps you. The situation is very bad. We realized we must leave Italy. Then we went to Denmark by train and applied for asylum there, and they said, ‘We don’t accept your application because before coming to our country you were in another European country, so according to the Dublin Regulation, you must go back to Italy.’ I know the situation in Italy if I return there. I said [to Danish authorities] I don’t have any life in Italy and would like to stay in Denmark, and they said ‘No, you must leave our country.’ My wife and I decided we must go to Germany, to try our luck here.
 
Abdullah Yassouf

From: Homs, Syria
Sought asylum in: Germany

Interview details

Questions: Nationality, reason for leaving Syria, living conditions in Syria, whether he saw any massacres in Syria, whether fingerprints were taken in any other country, means of getting to Germany, names and ages of family members
Length: 20 minutes
Result: approved

Recounting of the interview

In 2011, the uprising started in Homs. My wife and three daughters and I were forced to escape from our home in November 2012. We went to Damascus and later to Turkey. We rented an apartment in a Turkish city called Mersin. It is about 300 kilometers from the border with Syria. I expected to stay in Turkey for only two months, but we learned that our home in Homs was demolished and our shop was destroyed. We stayed for almost two years in Turkey. I decided we should go to Europe, and according to what I heard in the media, Germany was the best country to go to. First my eldest daughter and I traveled while my wife and two younger daughters stayed in Turkey. Luckily, we could travel by ship. We paid to smugglers in Turkey $6,000 USD for each person. It was a cargo ship, and there were about 1,000 of us — all Syrians — inside. We stayed seven days at sea, traveling from Mersin in Turkey to Catania in Italy. We suffered in the ship from lack of food, water and toilets. On the sixth day, the smugglers stopped the ship in Italy’s regional waters and started to empty the fuel tanks. The ship started shaking from right to left, and we felt scared. There was an Italian ship nearby. They came to us. They connected our ship to their ship, and they took us to Catania. We arrived in Catania on Nov. 22, 2014, and Italian authorities provided us with accommodation. The first night we slept in a big tent on the beach, and on the second night they took us to a large facility. I traveled by bus to Milan with my daughter and five other Syrians. We took a train from Milan to Verona and then another train from Verona to Munich. We entered Germany on Nov. 27. From Munich, we took a train to Saarbrücken, where we registered in a reception facility for refugees. Later the German authorities told us to go to Hamburg.
 
Nehad-Ali

From: Nala Kajori, Pakistan
Sought asylum in: Italy

Interview details

Questions: Name, age, country of origin, family members, countries traveled through, reason for leaving the country
Length: 3 hours
Result: Approved

Recounting of the interview

There are armed groups in Pakistan that try to take people from their homes to join them to fight against the government, and I got threatened too. I was working in an organization for polio vaccine for children, and I received threats because these groups are against the vaccine.
 
How countries' laws affect asylum decisions

Navigating the refugee application process can be harrowing and time consuming. The countries below are among the most popular points of entry into Europe or the most desired final destinations. Some crucial points in the process:

Does it follow the Dublin regulation?
 
The Dublin regulation requires asylum seekers to remain in the country of arrival in the EU, where they should be fingerprinted and start their application. But if, as in the case of Ariig Mohedin Abdullahi and his family, the asylum seekers move to a different EU country — in their case, they arrived and were processed in Italy before going to Denmark and then Germany — they can be forced to return to the country of arrival. Abdullah Yassouf and his family refused to be fingerprinted in Italy and are therefore not at risk of being Dublin transfers.
Austria
Yes
Germany
Yes
Greece
Yes
Italy
Yes
Sweden
Yes
UK
Yes
Does the law provide for an appeal of the decision in the Dublin regulation?
In countries where this is permitted, asylum seekers can make a case for why authorities should reconsider transferring them to their initial port of entry, and there's an obligation to provide free legal assistance for this process. As of late August, Germany has suspended such transfers for Syrians.
Austria
Yes
Germany
Yes
Greece
Yes
Italy
Yes
Sweden
Yes
UK
No
Is sufficient information provided to asylum seekers on their rights and obligations?
Navigating the asylum system is confusing, particularly for refugees who tend to get most of their information via an informal network of asylum seekers and often don't speak the language of their destination countries. Additionally, as a mediator in Italy — someone who helps asylum seekers with interviews — told Al Jazeera, rapidly changing regulations make getting timely information to those who need it the most is becoming increasingly difficult.
Austria
With difficulty
Germany
With difficulty
Greece
Yes
Italy
With difficulty
Sweden
With difficulty
UK
With difficulty
Is a personal interview systematically conducted?
This step is crucial because it allows asylum seekers to tell their own stories, answer detailed questions that can help authorities confirm their points of origin and identities.
Austria
Yes
Germany
Yes
Greece
Yes
Italy
Yes
Sweden
Yes
UK
Yes
Does the law provide for an appeal of the first decision?
Some asylum seekers, such as Hassan Mehboob, whose first application was denied, may appeal. He has a permit to stay in Italy while his appeal is being considered.
Austria
Yes
Germany
Yes
Greece
Yes
Italy
Yes
Sweden
Yes
UK
Yes
Do asylum seekers have access to free legal assistance in appealing a negative decision?
Launching a successful appeal without free legal assistance can be almost impossible, since most asylum seekers usually don't have the financial means, the language skills or legal expertise to handle the process. Lack of access to experts has led many asylum seekers to turn to mobile apps designed to offer legal advice.
Austria
Yes
Germany
With difficulty
Greece
With difficulty
Italy
With difficulty
Sweden
Yes
UK
With difficulty
Does the law provide for an identification mechanism for unaccompanied minors?
Identifying the needs of minors is the top priority at most EU refugee reception centers. However, having the means of identifying them remains a challenge because few travel with birth certificates or passports. Bone-density tests while deemed unreliable by medical experts, are being considered in France as a way to verify the age of the roughly 8,000 unaccompanied foreign minors living in the country.
Austria
Yes
Germany
No
Greece
Yes
Italy
No
Sweden
No
UK
Yes
Do asylum seekers in detention centers have effective access to NGO and UNHCR assistance?
Many asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East traveling through Libya end up in prison, such as Ariig Mohedin Abdullahi and Rizwan. Some have been held in detention centers in Hungary, Italy and Greece.
Austria
With difficulty
Germany
With difficulty
Greece
With difficulty
Italy
With difficulty
Sweden
Yes
UK
With difficulty
Do asylum seekers at the border have effective access to NGO and UNHCR assistance?
Some asylum seekers come in contact with only border security or police at points of entry and do not have easy access to NGOs or UNHCR assistance. This can mean that they are simply rejected. They must camp at the border — as many have done in Eastern Europe — or are returned to an original point of entry. For example, Mohamed Ahamed Shallouf and his family were left on a beach in Italy by French police.
Austria
With difficulty
Germany
With difficulty
Greece
Yes
Italy
With difficulty
Sweden
NGOs yes, UNHCR no
UK
No
 
Is there a list of safe countries of origin?
 
There's an EU Commission roundup of which countries specific EU states consider a safe country of origin – that is, a place where people can live without persecution, torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, threat of violence or armed conflict. Migrants from those countries such as Djordje Buric, who traveled from Serbia to Germany, are not eligible for asylum.
Austria
Yes
Germany
Yes
Greece
No
Italy
No
Sweden
No
UK
Yes
 
Received on Sun Oct 18 2015 - 15:21:59 EDT

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