Khadija Ghzaiel
MULTIMEDIA: From Choucha Camp to WSF Campus: Holding on for dear Life
Choucha Refugees sing their distress in the World Social Forum in Tunis
by Khadija Ghezaeil
As I moved ahead to explore the World Social forum Tunis plaza, I was stopped by African chants and canvas art. "Sauvez nous on ne veut pas tomber, sauvez nous, personne ne viendra changer l’Afrique à notre place".
Diara kalilou, Karim Trawri, Konati Chaka, and Pavor Clestiny, young Africain refugees from the Libyan war in the Choucha camp, the frontier desert-like refugee camp, were exhibiting their art work and singing, simply to survive. Weary of hunger and despair, they are calling on people's solidarity and unison to save their lives, save their beloved Africa.
Diara, Karim, Konati and Pavor are but a few among thousands of sub-saharan people who had to flee Libya two years ago sooner as the war against Gaddafi has erupted. By now, some of these migrants returned home, very few moved to live in the US, Europe and Australia thanks to the 'resettlement program', yet hundreds are still unsettled and neglected in the southern bivouac. Regrettably, their situation is aggravated as the The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is determined to shut off the Choucha camp by June 2013.
In a loud moan, Chaka states: "we are rejected by our own countries, disdained by the new regime of Libya which still perceives us as Gaddafi's mercenaries, and now the UNHCR turns back on us too. What luck!"
International law admits the right to seek out asylum, but as it has no authority over countries, it remains ineffective yet. So far, NATO countries -especially France and England- continue to nullify their ethical obligations being the main responsible for these sub-Saharan migrants' diasporas. In the absence of a Tunisian national Asylum law, the lives of these asylum seekers are not only wretched but also even agonized.
Some of these refugees have recently reacted by going on a hunger strike in front of the UN’s refugee agency in Tunis. However, it seems they are only spinning their own wheels.
Pavor, 22, is a rapper, RnB, and Hip Hop singer. When he was only 9 months old, he left Botswana, his homeland to escape eradication, and migrated to Libya with his mother Angela, the only survivor of his family members. To the beloved mother no longer breathing, he dedicated his first album "History of my Life". Of the disasters he endured, he told me how he has been denied the right to study, to inhale and even to straighten up and how life has been malefic.
I was astonished at how much the young refugee is clinging to life through his past experiences.
Asking him about his near and far wishes made me feel ashamed. "How can you call this ‘life!’’’, responded Pavor, adding that his life is but a relentless hell.
For those who might have asked why he didn’t go for stardom to relieve his condition, Pavor claims that fame and money do not concern him. For now, his life protection and dignity are what matters above all.
Pavor, Chaka, Karim, and Diara, and the list is long, are real talents. But food comes first, ethics later, isn't it? Just now, these guys call for escalating global action from both Tunisian citizens and Human Rights militants. The world social forum, a breathing space for global justice movements, is a would-be proper legroom for these refugees to expose their foremost cause to the altermundialists, and principally to solicit solid national and international guarantees for asylum rights and nonrefoulement, and in the meantime to consolidate their rights as Convention refugees.
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