refugee protest camp vienna
Zurück in Österreich nach Jahren von Kampf und Abschiebungsstress
aufstand hinter gittern und zaeunen
I have been here in this country for more than eight years without the possibility of reaching my future goals - I have spent eight years here, as an Asylum seeker. This simply means that I walked out of fire into a frying pan. This also means that Austria is a dream-killing field.
The refugees and Asylum seekers alike are not entirely idiots or illiterates who do not know their rights, or who do not recognize when their rights are being infringed upon. I sometimes feel that the Europeans are still blind to see how far forward the entire world has moved.
At this point, it also surprises me that many Asylum seekers are still indoors despite the calls we have made for them to come out to support the refugee camp in Sigmund Freud Park, Vienna. If they had joined us, those Austrians and far right journalists, who are insinuating that we are being used by activists and political parties, would lose what little ground they had under their feet. The activists who give us support listen to us and help us reach out to the general public. Is that a bad thing to do? We have suffered a lot of repression and we have been subjected to become a voiceless entity who's been left with the sole option of failing in every direction we turn and yet we hear that Austria is a free state, that everyone has freedom to speech, movement and, at least in theory, to much more.
The media has also played a high role in undermining the refugees who are currently fighting against the inhuman treatments in the camps. The same goes to the political parties who are benefiting right now from the activities relating to the campaigning refugees, likewise the manipulators of the Asylum System. With this, I often ask myself "what do Human Rights mean to the Austrian who sees the high level of inequality and says nothing?". Why is it, that nobody questions this 'deal' a certain mayor in Carinthia made with the ministery of internal affairs, to welcome refugees to his town - except from Africans and Chechens?
Reacting to the article in Der Standard of Thursday 29. Nov, which was titled TRAISKIRCHEN UND DAS "SPRACHROHR"-PROBLEM, which said asylum seekers have never been so well organized, I'd like to point out, that there is always a moment of truth. What goes up must come down, the racism, repression and incrimination asylum seekers have been treated with, have caused repercussion. I have lived in a refugee camp and you guys have not. I have been discriminated against, I have seen obvious racism, hatred and I know what freedom looks like. Freedom is the complete opposite of what I have experienced in Austria. You accuse refugees of being lazy and not wanting to do anything. How would you expect the opposite when your focus is to annihilate our right to participate in and contribute to this society. Talents and dreams die here. There is no milk and honey in abundance in this country, this is why everyone is so dehydrated and the continuous manipulation of the Asylum System by all the internal ministers past and present, will definitely suffocate anything good if we continue to hide in our 6" beds.
Clifford Aghator; I see myself as an activist because the pressure I have been living in since almost a decade made me to stand up for myself and my family. I am raising 3 kids in this situation and I so much wish that it should change any time soon. Since this article is not only about myself, I'd consider myself as freedom fighter.
This comment by Clifford Aghator was pubished first on 07. Dec 2012 in :: derstandard.at.