Watch the new Restore Fairness documentary, “Checkpoint Nation? Building Community Across Borders”

Originally posted by Restore Fairness Blog

Border Justice Delegation Prt. 3

The final days of the delegation consisted of us traveling across the border and visiting a Comedor, which aids migrants crossing, by providing a hot meal, a phone and a roof. We crossed the enormous wall that continues to be built “dividing” Mexico and Arizona. We were searched trying to ENTER Mexico, not the US, as well as several miles away from the border, in the middle of the desert. I felt like I could be in a post-apocalyptic movie or the Occupied Territories.

By far, the most moving experience was listening to the Promotoras speak. The Promotoras, a group of organizer with Derechos Humanos were kind enough to wait for us despite out late arrival, due to a tire blow out. We heard from a woman whose husband and children were detained, while she was forced to give birth in the presence of ICE agents. After delivering she was given 10 days to recover and was deported with her new born, but she returned for her children. With a new born, this brave woman crossed the desert in seven days, to be reunited with her family. It made me ask myself, what parent would not do that? My parents would.

On the last day of the delegation, we visited the Tohono O’odham nation. There I saw how indigenous and desert customs are being destroyed. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the land of the Tohono O’odham spans across Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and because of this the area is full of border patrol both on the border and further into Arizona. Indigenous people, by participating in traditional and everyday activities are subject to harassment and detention. What would you do if saw an elder and a child walking in an isolated desert? Would you offer them a ride? It is traditional for people living in isolated, harsh environment, especially desert to show hospitality to visitors. This hospitality can save lives, and is very important.

Now in Arizona, if you offer someone a ride out of the cold, rain or desert, you are subject to arrest. We learned of a woman who picked up two gentlemen in the middle of the night, in winter. She drove them to the nearest gas station and got them coffee. Unfortunately, a Border Patrol agent saw her and her vehicle was taken.

When are we going to make human life a priority? Why do we excuse abuse, discrimination, exploitation? We need to wake up and realize that what has, and is happening to us, is happening to others. Once we remember our history and join with immigrants, Mexican, Muslim, Nigerian, Haitian, then we will achieve community and freedom.

The same people, ideas, corporations, and justification that have been and continue to oppress African Americans and immigrants of color alike. I challenge African Americans to remember what they were taught, or do some research, or contact BAJI and learn about how you can connect with immigrants of color coming to the United States, and immigrants crossing the Border.

Border Justice Delegation Prt. 2

The second day opened with presentation by Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith from the University of Arizona, Binational Migration Institute, explained further how border has become land of impunity. She spoke of the Tohono O’odham nation and the migration history of the people who live on this land. The Tohono O’odham nation spans across the Arizona and Mexico Border, and indigenous people find themselves subject to harassment, arrest and detention. For generations, the harvest has driven people to migrate across the border. For the harvest, people have always migrated across this “border”.

We saw first-hand, the impact of border policy when we visited the Office of the Medical Examiner for Pima County, where the remains of nearly roughly 200 migrants are processed each year. People commonly die from exposure, heat stroke, drowning, and injury. Nothing hit you more once you see these bodies. What happened and ends up of people’s mother, father, brother, sister, child. I commend Pima County for being the only county on the broader willing to process the remains of migrants and work with relevant consulate to identify them and notify family members.

The day continued with a visit to the Federal Courthouse to see Operation Streamline in action:

Operation Streamline is a Bush Administration program implemented in 2005 ordering federal criminal charges for every person who crosses the border illegally. In other words, it is a “zero tolerance” border enforcement program that targets even first time undocumented border-crossers. Instead of routing non-violent individuals caught crossing the border into civil deportation proceedings, Operation Streamline forces undocumented migrants through the federal criminal justice executed for misdemeanors punishable by up to 6 months in prison, and those who reenter after deportation may be prosecuted for felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Under this fast-track program, a federal criminal case with prison and deportation consequences is resolved in 2 Operation Streamline is a Buys or less. “OPERATION STREAMLINE FACT SHEET July 21, 2009” ACLU and National Immigration Forum.

As fellow delegates mentioned, it is easy to look in this courtroom and think of slave auctions. 48 men and 2 women were shackled from wrist, to waist, to ankle. They were called by name and number and asked a series of arbitrary questions to look like justice was being served.

Beside the process being more theatrical than judicial, I was heartbroken to know that these
people endured desert heat, starvation, dehydration and border patrol, to then be put in chains, jailed and deported.

Border Justice Delegation Prt. 1

Global events and economic policies have lead to increased migration globally. And the United States government has responded with militarization and low intensity warfare, in the guise of safety, security and management. And as a result, too many people are subject to punishment, exploitation and death. People crossing the Mexico/Arizona border encounter fences, hate crime, and the harsh desert because of lies perpetuated by the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and Border Patrol.

Working with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, I can connect the suffering of African Americans to immigrants of color in the United States. But on August 11, 2011 I attended a Border I attended a Border Solidarity Delegation with DRUM and Vamos Unidos, with the aim of making concrete connections between the experiences of migrants crossing the US/Mexico Border to runaway slaves in the Underground Railroad. These crimes against humanity have similarities:

• aid was given to runaway slaves by abolitionists, free slaves and slaves alike
• aid if given to migrant by concerned individuals, organizations, and former migrants and their family.
• runaway slaves had to cross of number of natural barriers, travelling in winter, mountains, rivers, suicide and avoiding slave catchers
• migrants crossing the US/Mexico Border face similar struggles like, and many die due to exposure to the elements, suicide, border patrol agents, and injury.
• Slaves and immigrants were and are the result of a global economy, and a global economic policy
• Runaway developed networks and codes to navigate their journey and identify allies, migrants crossing the border have to do this today.

I was excited to join this delegation and see firsthand how these connections can be made, and who would help me make them.

After a long day of travel, I arrived at our delegation orientation. I met an amazing group of activists from New York, Phoenix, with DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving www.drumnation.org), Vamos Unidos (vamosunidos.org), and Alliance for Educational Justice (www.allianceforeducationaljustice.org), the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona (acluaz.org, ACLU) and Derechos Humanos (www.derechoshumanosaz.net). We introduced ourselves and shared our knowledge of the Border issues, what we hoped to learn and bring back from this experience. A theme emerged that was restated throughout the trip was education and solidarity. WE want to share issues on the Border with South Asian, Muslim, African American and student communities, in an effort to build solidarity in this movement. I believe everyone on this delegation believes that militarization and criminalization will not stop at the Border, but will and has moved into our respective communities.

Isabel Garcia, with Derechos Humanos then gave a brief presentation on the history of the Arizona/Mexico Border. She reiterated that these crimes against humanity have always taken place. She gave a historical, economic, political analysis of immigration in the country, focusing on Arizona. One can see, S-Comm., AB 1070, and E-Verify are not isolated policies. There are people, politicians and corporations tied to these decisions.

After our orientation I spoke briefly with Mary-Hope… African American ACLU is a part of the BAJI Advisory Committee in Phoenix. She shared with me, that she walked the migrant trail on the US/Mexico Border. And one night camping under the stars, she noticed the Big Dipper, and immediately she thought of the Underground Railroad. We share the same planet; we are the same species, being subject to the same Draconian laws. These connections have to be made. African Americans must see them and come to the conclusion that our liberty is bound in the liberty of others.

The Black Community and So-Called "Secure Communities"

2nd Teleconference next Thursday – Black Intersections on Migration

The United Nations has declared 2011 as the “International Year for Peoples of African Descent”. Ten years ago, landmark recommendations were made at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban South Africa. In a four-part series of teleconferences that looks at the span of Black presence in the U.S. over the centuries, we will examine the unique migration experiences of the African Diaspora within the context of U.S. history and the current debate over immigration. The series brings provocative frameworks and analyses into the discussion about race and immigration that are seldom considered.

Teleconference II
African American Migrations–The Exodus from the U.S. South

Speaker: Walter Turner, Professor, Social Science & Contemporary African Affairs, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA

Walter Turner will present his views on and analysis of the book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson. Ms. Wilkerson was invited to speak but was unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts.

In her review of the book, Janet Maslin of the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Wilkerson works on a grand, panoramic scale but also on a very intimate one, since this work of living history boils down to the tenderly told stories of three rural Southerners who immigrated to big cities from their hometowns.”

Walter Turner is himself an author of “Oil for Nothing, Multinational Corporations, Environmental Destruction, Death and Impunity in the Niger Delta.” His commentaries have appeared in the Black Scholar and on Pacifica National News, Pambazuka News, Pacifica Radio and National Public Radio. He is also one of the authors of the book “No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000.” (Africa World Press 2007).

Toll-free Dial-in (US/Canada): 1-866-931-7845
International Dial-in: 1-310-374-4949
Conference Code: 707591

Please RSVP by calling (510) 663-2254 or sending an email to teleconference@blackalliance.org

Teleconference III – Thursday, March 31: New African Immigrants—Grappling with Concepts of Race and Identity

Speaker: Jackie Copeland Carson, PhD, President Copeland-Carson and Associates and author of “Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City”.

Teleconference IV – Thursday, April 28: The Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino Migrations to the U.S.

Speaker: Janvieve Williams Comrie, Executive Director, Latin American and Caribbean Community Center

All briefings are at Noon Pacific, 1PM Mountain, 2PM Central & ; 3PM Eastern

 

World Assembly of Migrants Concludes

Posted by Gerald Lenoir, BAJI Executive Director
February 4, 2011

 The World Assembly of Migrants wrapped up today but, from my point of view, left much to be desired.  It is a complete misnomer to call it a “world assembly.”  First of all, the attendance was poor with only about 100 people.  The overwhelming majority of migrants who were there were either from France or the French-speaking countries of West and North Africa.  The rest of the world was left out of the process.

The “Charter of Migrants” that emerged from the process was so general as to be rendered useless.  Although the initial draft was more progressive, after much tortuous debate and the consideration of amendments, the charter does not include any references to racism, the impact of economic globalization, the rights of indigenous people, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and health access for people with HIV/AIDS and people with disabilities.

One participant argued that references to racism should not be included because we’re all part of the human race.  This was an especially blatant omission, since the conference was held on Goree Island, one of the main sites where the brutal, forced migration called the Transatlantic Slave Trade was launched.  The same speaker also swayed many of the people present that the discrimination against LGBT people should not be included because this is a matter of “personal preference.”

I was disappointed in the process and the outcome.  I am not hopeful that the “Charter of Migrants” will be at all useful or usable.

On Sunday the World Social Forum will begin with a mass march.  The workshops and plenaries begin on Monday.  I will continue blogging about WSF until February 11.

Teleconference series: Black Intersections on Migration

The United Nations has declared 2011 as the “International Year for Peoples of African Descent”.  Ten years ago, landmark recommendations were made at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban South Africa.  In a four-part series of teleconferences that looks at the span of Black presence in the U.S. over the centuries, we will examine the unique migration experiences of the African Diaspora within the context of U.S. history and the current debate over immigration.   The series brings provocative frameworks and analyses into the discussion about race and immigration that are seldom considered.
 
Teleconference I
Slavery as Immigration?
Thursday, January 27, Noon Pacific, 1PM Mountain, 2PM Central & 3PM Eastern

Speaker: Rhonda Magee, Professor, University of Francisco School of Law

Slavery in America was a crime against humanity, a foundational wrong without equal in American history.  In “Slavery as Immigration?,”  Professor Magee continues her career-long effort to understand the deep impact of the foundational wrong of slavery on American law and social policy.   A great-granddaughter of enslaved and segregated workers in the American South, Professor Magee seeks to open up a dialogue among African-American people about the aspects of the Black American experience of slavery and segregation that tell a particularly devastating kind of immigration story.

Her goal is not to minimize the significance of the Black experience as distinctive in American history – far from it.  Instead, her goal is to call boldly for national reflection on the elements of the Black American experience that provide a founding plank for longstanding American immigration law and policy, including the importation and deportation policy of racially-identified, socially isolated and politically marginalized people for work at the bottom of the economic system.

Indeed, Professor Magee argues that the forced migration, internal displacement, and denial of citizenship strategies essential to chattel slavery were important components of America’s original immigration and citizenship policy, with legacies impacting immigration and citizenship law and policy to the present day.  Further, she argues that the failure of Black Americans to understand the historical impact of slavery (and segregation) on immigration law and policy does more than constitute a gap in our understanding of the historical importance of slavery in America — a gap we should address for the sake of our own enrichment.  More practically, it keeps Black Americans on the periphery of critical debates about increasingly important issues within contemporary American politics – a position we ignore at our political and social peril.

Teleconference II – Thursday, February 24: African American Migrations—The Exodus from the U.S. South

Speaker: Isabel Wilkerson, author, “Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” (Invited).

Teleconference III – Thursday, March 31: New African Immigrants—Grappling with Concepts of Race and Identity

Speaker: Jackie Copeland Carson, PhD, President Copeland-Carson and Associates and author of “Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City”.
 
Teleconference IV – Thursday, April 28: The Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino Migrations to the U.S.

Speaker: Janvieve Williams Comrie, Executive Director, Latin American and Caribbean Community Center

All briefings are at Noon Pacific, 1PM Mountain, 2PM Central & 3PM Eastern

Follow up commentary to Blogs #1 and #2–African Immigrants and Refugees in Europe

This is the third of three blogs filed by Nunu Kidane, Director of Priority Africa Network and Gerald Lenoir, Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. They spent two weeks in Italy and Greece to learn more about the plight of African refugees as they make their way to Europe to find work to support themselves and their families back home.

There have been tremendous positive responses on the investigative findings and reporting of PAN and BAJI from the end of October to the beginning of November 2009.

Some of the comments were words of encouragement and some suggestions on expanding on our investigation. Our goal was not to do exhaustive writings about the history of Eritrean migrants and the long period of the diaspora from pre-independence to the current situation. It was to capture a snapshot of images and stories about the lives of the young people we met on our brief journey. We believe we have done that well, given the limitations of time and resources.
Over the past few years, the last five or six in particular, there have been increased reporting of refugees dying in the Sahara desert, the Mediterranean Sea and across many spans of land and sea attempting to reach European borders. Very little of the news coverage gives faces and stories to the individuals who have undertaken the journey, or died in the process, or came to the “promised land” only to find the promises negated and who have become deeply disillusioned. The first goal of the blogs was to make up for this gap with stories of the young people we sat and spoke with, in different circumstances and geographic locations.

The second goal was to highlight the issue of migration, especially for Africans and others in the Global South and to bring this conversation particularly to those in the U.S. who view the issues of immigration with the limited lens of U.S. border with Mexico. Migration is a global phenomenon that is increasingly driven by push factors. Thousands of people in Africa leave home because of economic hardship or political repression and, in many cases, for both reasons. Many people in the U.S. see migration only within the U.S. nation and not within a global framework.

The third goal is to bring focus to the fact that a key factor in why people are leaving their homes, usually in desperation to save their lives and those of their families and people in their communities, has to do with the neo-liberal economic agenda that is pushed by countries in the Global North—the United States and Western European nations—and the institutions that they control. There is a direct and undeniable relation between the harsh economic policies that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have imposed on many nations in Sub Saharan Africa and disastrous outcomes and eventual crises these nations face. Many developing countries are caught up in the debt system that continues to bleed them dry. They are paying more and more to international financial institutions or to lending institutions in Europe and the U.S., forcing them to severely cut their expenditures in key sectors, like education and health.

One thing all the people we spoke with had in common is that they wanted their stories told to the world. They were cautious at times about us using their names and even more apprehensive about being photographed. But they urged us to tell others what we saw and heard. This is not uncommon in populations impacted by natural or human-made disasters. They want the world to know, even when there is no help forthcoming. Letting others know about their plight prevents them from falling into despair and the awareness that the world mourns their suffering is important to them. That is what we promised to do and what we attempted to do in these blogs—to tell the simple but profound stories of migration from the perspective of how they are experienced individually and collectively.

For Eritreans, it is especially painful period in history. The promises of civil and political liberties of post-independence have turned into a nightmare of repression, imprisonment, persecution and forced conscription. Eritrea is a country that has one of the highest numbers of refugees and displaced persons in the world in proportion to its population (4.5 million). Thousands of young people, both men and women (and increasingly young children) are leaving the country, walking across the border, initially to the Shemelba Refugee Camp in Northern Ethiopia run by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

What is driving people out is directly related to a government that has been compared to a closed state of the likes of North Korea and Burma. There is no election of any kind; one man (and his cronies) rules the land. There is no independent media and the police force’s recruitment of spies among family members and friends makes Orwell’s 1984 look mild. It is a state where people live in fear and anxiety. Anyone who is able to walk out does. Those that are left behind are basing their hopes of change on families and friends who are living outside the country.

In the U.S., readers may be less aware of an important international convention that is critical to the protection of refugees – the 1951 United Nations Convention of Refugee Rights. This document sets the standards in defining who is considered a refugee and what the responsibilities of receiving nation states are in dealing with refugees. Despite being amended several times over the years, the key definition of a refugee is “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”

Without a doubt, many of the Eritreans and indeed, peoples from many other Sub Saharan African countries fit within this definition. They are escaping persecution, which can be easily proven given the political circumstances in their home countries.

What is less understood and becomes difficult to include under this definition are the “economic refugees” who are leaving their homes because they are no longer able to (or allowed to) earn enough living for themselves and their families. The two are, in many instances, linked, in that political repression usually inhibits free flow, exercise and exchange in commerce and hence economic decline follows in due course. However, under the above definition, fleeing because one is hungry or wants better opportunities for self and family sets a person up for rejection under the protocols for obtaining refugee status.

While we focused on the plight of Eritrean refugees in Italy, we broadened our investigation in Greece. In the coming week, we will edit and upload an interview with Moawia Ahmed of the Hellenic Sudanese Friendship League and the Greek Forum of Migrants. He is himself a Sudanese immigrant living in Athens who is very actively speaking out for the rights of immigrants and refugees in Greece. He gave us some significant insights into the issues faced by immigrants from the Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria and other countries.

We hope our regular but brief blogs have given some insight to conditions of Africans living in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. We also hope that the stories we have shared stay with you next time you hear a report of a boat sinking in of the Mediterranean Sea or migrants held indefinitely in detention centers in the border countries.

To join our work in making visible stories of African immigrants and to be active advocating for change and influencing policy please, visit us at www.priorityafrica.org or www.blackalliance.org.

Blog #2: African Immigrants and Refugees in Europe: A PAN and BAJI Investigation

This is the second of a series of reports from Nunu Kidane, Director of Priority Africa Network (www.priorityafrica.org) and Gerald Lenoir, Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (www.blackalliance.org). They are spending two weeks in Italy and Greece to learn more about the plight of African refugees as they make their way to Europe to find work to support themselves and their families back home. They are also attending the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the People’s Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights, both in Athens. These reports will chronicle their impressions, conversations with migrants, and what they are learning.

Rome, October 29 – 31, 2009

The historic city of Rome is known for breathtaking sights from the Vatican to the Coliseum and beyond. However, there are little known areas not far from the historic routes frequented by tourists, areas where large numbers of refugees from a number of countries reside in poverty but with dignity.

We spent a day visiting with activists and refugees who live in these areas. The most well known are Ponte Mamolo, Ana Nina and Colitana where refugee squatters desperate for shelter inhabit substandard housing.

As our hosts informed us, the Italian government does not take responsibility for providing permanent housing for refugees. After their initial processing, refugees are provided with documents and a place to sleep in camps for a period of six months to a year. They are then released into the public to find housing on their own. One activist told us that there are over 30,000 refugees in Rome but only 3,000 have housing.

Unemployed and with few resources, many people sleep on the streets with nothing but cardboard walls to fight the bitter winter cold that sweeps in for the better part of the year. The majority of them frequent the area around the Statione Termini (the central terminal for trains and buses). But police discourage them by making their rounds regularly and forcing them to move.

With few options for housing, a group of Eritreans we met recently took over an office building in Colitana. After the completion of the building, engineers found that the water below the foundation made it unsafe for occupancy and the owners abandoned it. A group of Italian activists known as “Movement Action” who are fighting for the rights of the homeless to have shelter informed the refugees of its availability.

It is one of the most coveted living spaces because it has solid walls, access to water and even heating. About 200 individuals live there. Of these, we were told that less than ten percent are women and there are no children. There is no security in these quarters because police can move the refugees out at any time. There is also the constant fear of having their space invaded by gangs and outsiders, which makes the women in particular highly vulnerable.

The site we visited is in Ponte Malomo located near the center of the city of Rome. The space, originally an open ‘garden’ area with one little shed, was discovered by chance and inhabited by an Eritrean individual. Soon others came seeking shelter from the cold. As the community grew, they started constructing structures with cinder blocks and sheetrock, using tin roofs to keep out the rain. Shabby to look at and structurally unsound, the makeshift housing is a welcomed haven from the open streets. (See the video tour at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnBkpzV87Sk.)

It was difficult for us to believe that such a place exists so close to the cities most beautiful tourist attractions. We had spent a couple of days walking the streets with packed with hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, bars and well dressed people from all parts of the world. There were no indicators that so close to us were people living in a shantytown.

There is an undeniable resemblance to the shantytown areas of Soweto that housed hundreds of thousands of families during the days of apartheid and that is still home to so many outside Johannesburg, South Africa. The mark of apartheid in the city of Rome is there in full view and yet virtually invisible to most Italians.

The residents are mostly young men; of the 70 or so people who live there, only about four are women. They were grateful that their neighbors do not give them a hard time and the police hardly come to harass them.

About four years ago, a fire broke out in the housing units. Luckily, no one was killed but some people were seriously injured. The residents called the fire department, which responded to the fire three hours later. By then, the fire had died down, having done extensive damage. Many were again left homeless.

It took a lot to put the community back together again. They received donations from churches and generous individuals to help them rebuild. They used their hands and their skills to construct new homes that resembled the small multi-family row housing units in the city of Asmara, Eritrea. They showed great ingenuity by building five breakers that connect to a nearby streetlight to provide lighting to the houses. Unfortunately, the power is weak and cannot generate enough energy for cooking and refrigeration, so they use gasoline-powered hot plates to cook. Water is available from only one source and each housing unit uses buckets to carry the water home for washing their cloths, cleaning dishes and bathing.

Anyone viewing the video clippings will be appalled to see such a standard of living in a European city and a country that is supposedly a “first world” economic and military superpower and a member of the G9 that supposedly donates millions to eradicate poverty in the “Third World.”

For food, those who have intermittent incomes from day labor work purchase food and cook in their units. Others go to the homeless shelter run by Caritas, a Catholic charitable organization, where they can get one meal per day. One of the young Eritrean men told us how ashamed he is to go there for a meal and does it only as a desperate measure. The soup kitchen, he says, is full of people who are old, handicapped and unable to take care of themselves. He said he is young, able and willing to work and wants to maintain his dignity and earn his keep. But Italy does not have jobs, not even for many of its own citizens. The economic conditions do not seem to be improving and the future looks bleak for the refugees of Rome.

One of the refugees we met talked about the Dublin Regulation, one of the least known of the European Union’s immigration policies that went into effect in 2003. The regulation essentially follows the Geneva Convention in stating that the first country an asylum seeker lands in is the country that will process his/her application and where the refugee must remain.

This has meant that the border states that are closest to the Mediterranean—Italy, Spain, the Island of Malta and Greece—have been the recipients of disproportionate number of refugees. If a refugee lands in any one of these countries, their application is processed there and they are expected to remain in the country. Given the lack of adequate housing and opportunities in these countries, refugees are constantly moving further north.

Although the Regulation went into effect nearly six years ago, it has only been since 2008 that the fingerprinting system and exchange throughout the European Union countries became operational (EURODAC-European Union automated fingerprint identification). Should a person leave the country of their first arrival and attempt to unite with their families or even exercise their free choice of movement to change to another country, their fingerprints are traced and they are returned to the country where they first arrived.

This regulation has brought countless hardship to the refugees we spoke to. Unable to work and make a living, with no access to shelter or food or any of the basic necessities, and in many instances, with the desire to unite with their families, refugees attempt to leave repeatedly. Knowing full well that their fingerprints will identify them, they attempt to destroy any trace of fingerprints using means that cause of unspeakable pain.

These are three ways commonly used to remove fingerprints. A refugee will burn his/her own fingerprints and palm prints with a lit cigarette. This painstaking and slow process can take several hours. It leaves a person with their fingers and hands in constant pain and unable to use their hands. Soon blisters appear and infection can spread.

Another method used by many refugees is to place their hands directly over a gas, charcoal or electric stove or immerse them in scalding water to remove their fingerprints and palm prints. This is no less painful than using a lit cigarette.

The third process requires a person to rub sandpaper against his/her skin. It may seem comparatively the less painful, but not so. It takes two or three days of rubbing fingers and palms with sand paper to entirely remove the top skin, leaving raw, blood exposed skin.

Each individual who showed us their hands felt they were driven to this extreme as a desperate measure to escape what they consider as unlivable circumstances. They said these painful steps are deeply damaging to their physical beings but are “only temporary.” If they succeed in making it outside the countries, they consider it worth the price of such pain.

Unfortunately, the authorities in other countries know of these steps. One of the Eritrean brothers brought out a piece of sandpaper and demonstrated to us how he used it to obliterate his fingerprints. Another young man told us that he was able to destroy his prints and made it to England to find work. But eventually he was arrested and when his hands healed two week later, a fingerprint check gave him away. He was deported back to Italy, back to no home and no work.

This policy that is bringing inhumane pain and suffering to refugees is fully known by all immigration authorities in Europe. There is already a proposed change to the Dublin Regulation that is expected to take place sometime in 2011. The change is not out of consideration of the difficulties refugees are facing but is in response to the outcries and demands of the frontline countries in Europe that are pushing for equitable “burden-sharing” of the number of refugees that are coming across their borders.

The young men we met with seemed in a quandary about how to change their dire circumstances. “Without hope, people will perish,” one young man said, paraphrasing a famous quote, the author of whom none of us could remember. But, as if to buoy his own spirit, he quickly added, “Hope springs eternally.”