la ville de Qamishili. Source: page Facebook de Qamishili.

An important part of my job as a legal translator in my city Qamishli, situated in north-eastern Syria on the border with Turkey, was working with asylum-seekers and refugees, especially Iraqis who had fled their country following the American invasion in 2003 and wanted to find refuge in the asylum countries. 

I was preparing their dossiers: translating the documents, fixing appointments with the embassies, filling the formulas etc. Hundreds of families came to my office, each had an extremely painful story of deportation, persecution and displacement. It was very distressing to hear the narratives of these unfortunate people, who once had lived a fairly stable and comfortable life, then all of a sudden their world turned upside down and having lost everything they found themselves homeless refugees in other countries.

Being myself a descendant of a refugee family, their stories were not totally strange to me. My grandfather was the only survivor of an extended family massacred during the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government against the Armenians and the other Christians of Turkey during and after the World War I. In 1920, like many of his compatriots, my grandfather could only survive by miracle, traversing on foot the enormous territory separating his ancestral village situated in the province of Diyarbakır in southeaster Turkey and the Syrian border town of Ras al Ayn. Therefore, tales of displacement and mass killing had always haunted my memory since I was a child.

Nevertheless, putting myself then in the shoes of the Iraqi refugees, I could not help thinking of what might happen to me and my family had we experienced the same devastating war in Syria? The mere thought of it was terrifying and nightmarish.

But, what I then thought as something incredible soon became a reality in 2011. The civil war started in Syria and the Pandora box, with all the evils of the world, was opened widely. This time, the troubled faces of my countrymen started streaming into my office, carrying alongside their precious documents, gruesome stories of kidnappings, lootings and killings as the entire security system in the country collapsed, the vital services completely crumpled and considerable territories surrounding the city fell into the hands of Daesh ISIS.

Ironically, the grandchildren of the refugees who one hundred years ago had founded this beautiful frontier city as a safe haven from persecution, were now frantically fleeing from the impending apocalyptic devastation and killing, by seeking refuge in Sweden, Germany and other European countries.

The lights of the lively, multi-ethnic, prosperous city of Qamishli suddenly dimmed, the buzzing activities died down and the streets became deserted and lifeless.

Another sad story of the rise and fall of a city in the endless game of the thrones.

DONO Hayrenik

Membre de la redaction vaudoise de Voix d’Exils

Infos:

Version française de l’article parue le 21.09.2016 sur voixdexils.ch

Guido Hendrikx. Director of the film « Escort ». Photo: Miguel Bueno.

Voix d’Exils participated in the festival Visions du Réel held in Nyon from 25^th April to 3^rd May. It is an important international film festival specializing in documentary films, one of the largest in Europe in this field. During the festival, « Escort» was one of the most shocking documentary films screened about refugees, catching Voix d’Exil’s serious attention.

The 18 minutes long film «Escort» follows two young Dutch border police recruits who undergo an intensive three-week training course intended to prepare them for their future role: deporting rejected asylum seekers back to their country of origin.

The film starts with statistics (Dutch Border Police, Dutch Marshals) about the number of refused asylum seekers who were

escorted out of The Netherlands in 2012. 4823 refused asylum seekers left the Netherlands, among which 1410 were escorted (against their will) by the police officers.

The director Guido Hendrikx tries to find the answers to the following questions like «What are the physical and mental challenges for this escort training team? How do the participants go through their training lessons? What are the techniques that they use for escorting out the refugees? How do they handle the last minutes before dealing with refugees who strongly refused to leave the country?» He transferred what he has experienced of those questions by getting his audience to travel through the movie.

Here is the interview with Guido Hendrikx conducted by Voix d’Exils via e-mail conversation.

In this interview, Guido Hendrikx talks more about his film and asylum situation in the Netherlands, in particular about the handling of rejected refugees.

Visions du Réel festival. Photo: Voix d’Exils.

Interview:

You participated in the festival «Visions du Réel » in Nyon a few weeks ago. As a Dutch filmmaker, how did you experience the environment of the festival Nyon? What can you say about Nyon and the organizers of the festival?

I enjoyed the festival of Nyon, even though it was raining most of the time. It was very well organized, with a good program: an interesting experience for film directors. Unfortunately the debates after the film were mostly French-spoken, so I couldn’t participate.

Your film «Escort» was selected for international competition in the category «court-métrage» and was screened two times in cinema during the festival. What were the reactions, comments and critics that you got from viewers?

Unfortunately, the cinema was not really full at both screenings, which makes the film experience less interesting in my opinion. I didn’t get many reactions from the audience, but the few reactions were mostly compliments. The most interesting reaction I got from a Dutch lady who is living and working in Switzerland. She said: «I work at the airport in Geneva, and everyday I can see through my window how the Border Police in Switzerland deals with refused asylum seekers. And I can tell you, it’s much and much worse than how they deal with it in The Netherlands».

Why did you choose this subject for making a film?

For me filmmaking is nothing more – and nothing less – than a lifetime personal study of human kind. Besides, I am interested in the conflict between rational thinking and moral feelings. The film (documentary) I am working on now has the same theme. Furthermore, in Holland, many films are made from the perspective of the asylum seeker. Most of them I found not interesting, too sentimental and irrelevant. I found it interesting to change the perspective and to make a film from the viewpoint of the executors. Without accusing, without offering an excuse. I wanted to confront the audience with the system they invented themselves and to ask questions like «is a human deportation possible?» Those are some of the reasons for making this film. But, the most important one is when I read a newspaper-article about the training I was fascinated. Something I do not experience that often.

Visions du Réel festival. Photo: Voix d’Exils

In the public discussion that followed the projection of your film during the festival, you said that it was very hard to get the training team of the Dutch border police recruits to collaborate, and that you spent more than one year to convince them. What other challenges did you face during the shooting?

During the shooting we didn’t have many restrictions. Only during the scenes in the deportation-centre itself we were limited to the surveillance-camera room. But because we had little microphones, it turned out to be a helpful and interesting limitation. Thereby it was a challenge to choose the main characters of the film, because we met them for the first time at the first training day.

Did you watch the Swiss films «Vol Spécial» and «L’Escale» that are closely related to the topic of asylum seekers in the context of Switzerland? If so, how are you considering those films?

I watched «Vol Special» on Dutch Television. An impressive film. And to a certain extent an inspiration for the film I made. Where Vol Special ends, Escort starts. In short, I think the director of Vol Special did a great job.

Visions du Réel festival. Photo: Voix d’Exils.

What is your personal view about European migration policy concerning asylum seekers and about Netherland’s escort act?

My personal view about European migration policy can best be summarised with the term of «organised responsibility escape». Every institution has a specific responsibility regarding migration policy, but nobody is able, or is willing, to see the whole picture. In Holland for example, at least three institutions are involved in escorting refused asylum seekers to their «homeland». One to put the signature on a piece of paper: «you have to leave»; one to «help» the refugees in the last months before departure (as we see in Vol Special for example); and one to escort. They all point to each other saying they didn’t decide this, they are not responsible. We also see this in Vol Special.

I find that mechanism very interesting. How does it work exactly etc? And maybe, even more interesting and hypocritical, I find the critics and accusations of a part of the audience, a part of the people, the so-called politically «left» people mostly, who try to blame the executors while sitting in their own lazy chair. Because I think we, myself included, most probably don’t care about refused asylum seekers. Do we agree on how they are being escorted? We simply don’t know because most people are not interested in that question.

What’s next for Escort?

Escort has been sent to several film festivals, previous week it was screened at IndieLisboa (Portugal), in two weeks it will be screened at VIS (Austria). We are also negotiating about a long version of the film with the Dutch marshals for T.V – broadcasting.

Interview by:

Sara

Voix d’Exils, Vaud

Thank to : Guido Hendrikx, Director of the Film Escort.

More details about Festival du Vision du Réel, Nyon

The festival is dedicated to showing the world as it is lived, to break away from the mainstream. It offers a diversity of committed and inspired film-making, allowing the connection of experiences, reflections and aspirations.

Next year’s film festival will take place from 17-25 april 2015

Official website : http://www.visionsdureel.ch/

Special logo for the movie. Author: Keerthigan Sivakumar / Voix d’Exils.

Grasping what is Voix d’Exils in less than 8 minutes: this is the challenge that has successfully achieved Keerthigan Sivakumar, asylum seeker from Sri-Lanka. He bravely started the production of a movie on the blog and decided to follow the three different editing boards of Voix d’Exils. After several months of shooting in 2013, Mr. Sivakumar and his highly motived team have finally finished this demanding project. Watch the movie’s preview following the link at the end of the article!

Passionate by cinema and part of the vaudois editing board of Voix d’Exils, Keerthigan Sivakumar jumped into the production of a movie on the blog in March, 2013. This was an unexpected challenge since Voix d’Exils didn’t possess any proper material, neither the technical knowledge, necessary to this kind of project. However, his demand was positively accepted by all the members of the editing boards, as well as by other partners who decided to support him. The priority was to give the members of the editing boards the opportunity to share their own experience of the blog on the one hand and of their stay in Switzerland as asylum seekers on the other. This main goal guided the artistic choices of the author through the making of the film: intense portraits on sights and lips that seem to tell a whole story. According to Keerthigan Sivakumar, the movie doesn’t just depict the blog, but it aims to address a much wider message: “Do not judge who I might be before knowing me. I am as everybody. Look at me as a person and don’t reduce me to a category”.

To watch the French version of the movie, click on the following link:http://youtu.be/uAVnobYaQQU

To watch the English version of the movie, click on the following link: http://youtu.be/hydE3gkv5e0

To watch the movie in a better quality: change the feature at the bottom of the Youtube window (the symbol of a wheel), rising the quality until 1080 p HD.

This movie is under a Creative Commons license  and can be freely broadcasted. Thanks for sharing further on your websites or your social networks the link which leads to the movie.

We would like to thank gratefully our partners without whom this endeavour couldn’t have been done. Thanks sincerely to Pôle Sud, TV Bourdonette and Alexi Sans S for their support

Omar Odermatt

In charge of the blog Voix d’Exils

Pictures of the making of

Author: Voix d’Exils

Author: Voix d’Exils.

Author: Voix d’Exils

Author: Voix d’Exils

Author: Voix d’Exils

“There is no fashion if it doesn’t go on the streets” Coco Chanel

Photo: David Crittin, Voix d’Exils

June 11th 2013 was a special day for the community of Botza, the main training centre for asylum seekers in Valais. The usual noises of tools and machines stopped to let other sounds like music, laughs and stilettos heels fill the air: it was fashion day. The women who attended sewing workshops (Rarogne, Botza, Martigny and Saint-Gingolph) were proud to present their production through a real fashion show. For one day – their day – they all turned into models with bright make up, sophisticated haircuts and incredible dresses.

The different origins of these women, who came from countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Sri Lanka,

Photo: David Crittin, Voix d’Exils.

Nigeria, Sudan, Russia, Kosovo, Turkey and Tibet gave a unique diversity to the works presented. Besides, one little girl and two male models took part in the show and received, especially the little girl, of course, a lot of applause.

The program was joyful for the performers and the audience as well. “It was wonderful to see those costumes and styles of women on the catwalk’’, said one Eritrean spectator. Similarly, another observer from Gabon said: “I would like to see such an amazing event happen again and again! It made me happy! And it inspired me to remember my traditional dress”. Similarly, two social workers, Marylin Duc and Sarah Kesteloot, said that the show had been a good initiative and a way to integrate people into society.

Victoria, a Nigerian model, said: “Ever since I was a baby, I’ve had a wish to work on in fashion. Amazingly, my dream started to come true today. It was the first time I’ve faced the public in a fashion show but I think I performed well. Above all I learned that I still have a life while waiting for the result of my asylum case process. I am really happy for that”.

Photo: David Crittin, Voix d’Exils.

The Eritrean model Ayesha said proudly: “It was very inspiring. I had a great time. I will never forget the event and the feeling that I felt during the performance.” Similarly, Selamawit, another Eritrean model, said: “It was my first time as model. Something has changed in me. I am now more confident and modeling is going to be my hobby. It was a good experience for me”.

All models made their dresses during the training session in the sewing workshops. The styles and inspirations were very varied: some dresses were absolutely modern but, at the same time, the audience had the chance to appreciate some traditional African and Tibetan dresses as well.

Such a special day will leave a bright impression behind. You will ask “When is the next?” You must expect to be patient: the response is “2015, only. The time needed for the tailors to renew their inspiration”.

La rédaction valaisanne de Voix d’Exils

Derou Georges Blezon, Président of MouReDiN. Photo : Voix d’Exils

The Movement for the Respect and Dignity of Blacks (MoureDiN) is a non-profit organization based in Lausanne, Switzerland, since 2006. It defends cohabitation with respect to the freedoms and rights between foreigners and natives living in Switzerland. It also aims at orientate and help young people through projects created and supported by community partners such as ACOR SOS Racism and the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA). These projects focus on raising awareness and encouraging young blacks and foreigners to integrate local society and to organize their professional future. Derou Blézon George, President of MoureDiN, answers questions from Voix d’Exils.

Voix d’Exils: When and why did you create MoureDiN ?

Derou Georges Blézon: MoureDiN was created on 1 August 2006, after a police intervention in my then house in Lausanne. Young people who sought my advice would visit my house. Some were undocumented like me, others were young people with B or C permit while others were asylum seekers. Police conflated us all, since among them there were drug dealers. One of them was arrested in a way that I felt inadmissible due to the violence the police employed. This outrage provoked anger and frustration. We decided, with ACOR SOS-Racism and Point d‘appui to create a political movement: the Movement for the Respect and Dignity of Black (MoureDiN). Why a political movement? Because the behavior of individuals vis-à-vis blacks is nothing but a purely political behavior.

What is the main mission of your organization ?

Its main mission is to convey a message of living together, regardless of skin color and avoid generalising. If we look closely, we see that the state is more racist than the population. That is why, in such a situation, it was high time to form an association worth the name.

What are the concrete actions and activities of your organization ?

We have a legal adviser, a social counsellor and guidance in terms of employment and professional training. Advice for rejected asylum seekers. This is made possible due to our good relations with our partner associations.

Who are those concerned ?

Blacks are our priority, because they are very vulnerable and ostracized by the host society and political system. For the simple reason that they are the most visible minority and least defended. In fact, blacks have almost always menial jobs, such as: cleaners, helpers in the kitchen, painters and mechanics … The precariousness of their economic, social and administrative situation has many direct impact on the lives of parents and  their children. Children, who want to continue their studies – which is not possible in most cases because they are abandoned so soon on the streets for lack of parental control – face a journey without end.

Where are you most active ?

The movement is currently based in Lausanne, but it has international ambition.Taking into consideration the multitude of associations or human rights leagues in Europe, (MoureDiN itself  being a partner),  MoureDiN is looking forward to expanding its network and the scope of its actions in the years to come all over Europe. But for now, we have operated mostly in the french-speaking part of Switzerland.

How does your association works ?

We have 15 active members and we are working with community partners such as ACOR SOS Racism, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), the Forum of Foreigners  Lausanne (FEEL), Point d’Appui, The Protestant Social Centre (CSP) FRAT-CSP and political parties such as the Greens and the Union Unia of which I am a member.

In 2008, you launched the project « Young MoureDiN 2008 » and 2009 « What value my permit / my nationality ? » Since then, nothing, silence … Why ?

In reality this is not an absolute silence, these two projects have been facing several administrative problems hence the silence. The « Young MoureDiN 2008 » project was supported by the Canton of Vaud and the Swiss Confederation. Our goal was to help early school dropouts, to bring them back to reason, and help them go back to school. First, there was the silence of our youth that the project was aimed at, and then we discovered that the guidance service in Switzerland, in which young people are assigned, was not quite what we thought, in the sense that it is an area of blockage and storage for young blacks and foreigners.

Today, what is your assessment of your work and what future for MoureDiN?

From 2006 to 2013 the record was neither negative nor positive. We are in a time of turbulence. To ensure a permanent office which responds to the concerns of early school leavers and parents in difficulty, given the complexity of the problem, we need about 30,000 francs of funds. But, we are calm about the future of MoureDiN. If, for some time, we have disappeared from the political and administrative stage, it is a preparatory step back, because currently members of the movement and I are in training. Most members of the movement are young people who grew up in Switzerland, who have the C permit or Swiss passport. They are currently preparing for exams. We aimed to be a grass-roots movement. In 2006 a Black March was held for the first time in Switzerland which counted 250 protesters, also with the support of many partners such as the Communist Party and ACOR SOS Racism. In this Black March, there were not only dealers, dropouts or the unemployed, but also blacks and foreigners who are employed and successful in Switzerland.

What is your message to the foreign population ?

Referring to my former president Laurent Gbagbo, who said: « A good ambassador is each individual who represents his country in another country? » In other words, it is your behavior that incites respect for your country. We foreigners have different channels to reach Switzerland and Europe, for instance through clandestine means,that I myself borrowed, through asylum and other forms. And I think the way we behave individually shows who we are and where we come from. We come with our cultures and mentalities, but once here, we are called to integrate, to coexist. I do not say « become white, » but we must be responsible for our lives doing our best to make sense of things. Do not do in the host country what you would not do in your country.

Interviewed by :

El Sam

Member of Voix d’Exils Vaud

Translated from French by : FBradley Roland

Informations:
Dérou Georges Blézon
Responsable
Tel.: 079 385 92 59
Email: blezonderougeorges[at]dignitenoire.ch