Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru
Some
26 Nigerians including a child currently at the UN Refugee Agency camp
in Choucha, Tunisia have cried out for help over their plight at the
camp.
In a protest letter emailed to the North America Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in New York by Obinna Obielu, the refugees requested for support for feeding and other essential necessities of life.
They demanded that they should be granted
international protection in a safe third country with effective system
of protection as well as a resettlement programme.
The refugees added that during the
evacuation of people in Libya, hundreds of Nigerians came to the camp
with the hope that arrangements would be made for them to return to
their home countries with the assistance of the Tunisian government and
International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
“We are writing with regards to the
impending closure of the camp which is expected to come into effect on
June 2013 and appealing for your consideration to support our objections
to such cruel decisions that is already causing frustration among
those living in the camp.
“Our legal and living situation exceeds our capacity to bear the hardship experienced daily at the camp,’’ they stressed.
The group gave their names as Emmanuel
Ndukwe; Lorita Ndukwe; Joy Ndukwe (baby 1year-old); Olaitan Bello;
Benjamin Omoruyi; Frank Igwe; Kelechi Uzoaru; Stephen Efosa ero;
Emmanuel Chukwuemeka; David Ike; Ndidi Hillary and Favour Ifeanyi.
Others are Opia Charle; Elvis Otis; Ojo
Kelly; Monday Efe; Paul Ebade; Chuks Umunna; Prince Osameriyn; Samson
Bright; Christopher Mokwe; Nicholas Umunna; Olorunfemi Danile; Billy
Alaye; Idris Solomon and Jibreel Abdulmaleek.
They said, “We came to Tunisia legally
during the Libyan 2011 crisis, under the evacuation of the UNHCR, Red
Cross and the International Committee, but at first the UNHCR emergency
protection team refused to register us, saying “our country is at peace
and rich with lots of opportunity”.
“For more than two years we have been
living in a remote desert make-shift camp under extreme weather
conditions that is very challenging in every aspect of life.
“Finally we were registered after several
requests.Our appeal today is directed to the refugee status
determination flaw perpetrated by the emergency team of Choucha, This
become necessary because our inital claims were misunderstood,
misinterpreted, and as a result of this we have suffered a lot of
indignity during and after the interviews with the authorities.’’
The group noted that the UNHCR received a
Federal Government official on Sept. 12, 2011 where their case files
were presented to him.
According to them, after studying the
file, the official called them and expressed his opinion on their
request which was negative.
The group noted that after the UNHCR
decisions, others left the camp back to Libya while some individuals
with support from I.O.M voluntarily returned to Nigeria.
“For more than one year now, we have
embarked on a struggle against the UNHCR rejections of our request
because we have the same rights as refugees, This is based on the fact
that we all fled from the war zone and gave the reasons why we cannot
return to our country of origin as given during the interviews.
“In a reaction to the rejections of our
request, we made several representations to the EU and the UNHCR
headquarters in Geneva We are full of hope that our protests will
receive a positive response from there,’’ they said.
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