In my previous article entitled ‘’The
Ethio-Norway Forced Repatriation Agreement in Retrospect’’ published on 13
February 2012 on different websites, I presented the background and the events
which led to the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). In this article the
events after the announcement and the prospects afterwards with focus on the
plights of the stakeholders (the rejected asylum seekers from Ethiopia who have
been living in Norway for many years, from 3-20 years) are presented as
follows:
The Norwegian Immigration Directorate (UDI)
and The Norwegian Ministry of Justice issued a press statement on their
respective homepage on 26 January 2012 about the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between the Royal Government of Norway and the ‘’Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’’. The MoU was signed with immediate effect in
Addis Ababa on the same date, i.e. 26 January 2012.
The next day on 27 January 2012 the two above
mentioned government offices jointly called for an information meeting to be
held on 27 January 2012 at 15:00 hrs. at the immigration directorate’s head
office in Oslo via e-mail messages intended to reach the Ethiopian diaspora in
Oslo. As a deputy chairman of the
Ethiopian Community in Norway, I happened to receive the e-mail that apologizes
if UDI has sent the message outside the target group and requested to forward
it to other acquaintances who may be interested in it.
The Ethiopian opposition camp having partly
attended in bewilderment the information meeting, unanimously decided to walk
out of the meeting hall in protest of the signed forced repatriation agreement
with one of the world’s worst dictatorial regime. During the brief moment of
the information meeting, I had also the chance to express my view about the
repatriation agreement. After having introduced myself as the deputy chairman
of the Ethiopian Community in Norway and an active member of the Ethiopian
Common Forum in Norway, I went on to share the audience my concern about the
plight of the rejected asylum seekers from Ethiopia who have been politically
active for years with the opposition and the fact that they have been under
surveillance by pro-regime operatives in Norway would automatically put their
lives in danger. I delivered two CDs to the representatives from the justice
department.The CDs contain the activities of the pro-government operatives in
Norway in a meeting they held in Oslo in connection with the dictator’s visit
for the energy conference held in Oslo in October 2011.
Though the envisaged information meeting
failed to attract the good will of the Ethiopian diaspora in Oslo, the
government anyway continued with the implementation of the first phase of the
MoU by distributing an information letter to all asylum seekers from Ethiopia
in their respective localities urging them to contact the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) to proceed with the offered package for
voluntary return.
It is a very
well-known fact that the Norwegian government has been longing for two decades
to achieve the possibility of returning by force rejected Ethiopian asylum
seekers to Ethiopia. In what the Norwegian authorities call ‘’assisted
voluntary return’’, they have offered a window of opportunity that lasts up to
March 15, 2012. The mind boggling question is what then after the set deadline?
What is special and unique about this group of
people is that they have been living in Norway for many years, many of them
established families and worked legally paying taxes until last year (January
2011) where the government shutdown the mechanisms for working possibilities.
Many of these rejected asylum seekers have been politically active both at the
leadership and grass roots level thanks to the conducive environment in Norway
and the presence of actively functioning diaspora political organizations in
Norway.
The objective reality in the present day
Ethiopia; however, is an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness for peoples of
differing political views than the ruling minority government of the TPLF. What
await these people if returned by force are all forms of inhuman treatment
including arbitrary detention, torture and in the worst case scenario murder as
there are well-documented evidences compiled by the regime’s informants who are
active in Norway. The information the informants collect are processed and
stored for life by the regime’s National Security and Intelligence Services
(NISS) labeling them as enemies of the regime. Such information are
particularly very useful at times of crisis as is witnessed after the 2005
national election result controversies where tens of thousands of opposition
activists and supporters were picked from their homes and received all sorts of
punishments.
The two links below offer a brief account of
the infamous Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) by
Ethiopia expert, German national Mr. Gunther Shroder which was presented on
April 5, 2011 in Oslo conference.
The dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi is well
known for its gross human rights violations and repressions of citizens.
Independent international institutions such as Amnesty International (AI),
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the United States Department of State have
documented and confirmed the gross human rights violations the regime commits against
citizens in Ethiopia
The Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers
(NOAS) is one of the first who strongly reacted and denounced the signed forced
repatriation agreement on a press release posted on its own homepage. Also
NOAS’s general secretary, Mrs. Ann-Magritt Austenå, in her commentary on one of
the biggest newspapers in Norway (Dagsavisen) notwithstanding generally the
very essence of returning rejected asylum seekers to their country of origin,
warned against the dangers and consequences of experimenting with authoritarian
regimes like the one in Ethiopia.
NOAS together with other Norwegian
organizations are trying one last desperate attempt doing all they can to the
best of their capacity to help reorganize the asylum seekers’ supportive documents
for review of their cases by the aliens appeal board (UNE).
On the other
hand, as the 15th of March 2012 deadline approaches, the Task Force against
Forced Repatriation and the Association of Ethiopian Asylum Seekers in Norway
are intensifying their all rounded and multi-faceted campaigns with the
objective of bringing their concerns and anxiety to the attention of the
Norwegian public and government in particular and the world community in
general.
This is really a trying moment for the
rejected asylum seekers who have been critical opponents of the Meles regime
for years and who have no other option than facing what is going to happen
after the 15th of Mach 2012.
This is a moment which the Ethiopian Diaspora
all over the world needs to give a special attention and due response.
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