Portraits of young Eritreans "resettled" by UNHCR in France "via" Niger

Text by: Catherine Guilyardi

An emergency evacuation program from Libya allows the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), via Niger, to resettle "particularly vulnerable" people in so-called "safe" countries in Europe and North America . Testimonies of two young Eritreans, one still in Niger, the other "resettled" in France.

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The wind was blowing and the heat of this month of April in Niger seemed less strong. There was not a tree under which to shelter in the new Hamdallaye camp growing in the sand, about twenty kilometers from Niamey. Mebratu *, 26, remained in the shade of his prefabricated tent, decorated with the colorful blankets distributed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But in this spring of 2019, the young Eritrean displayed a broad smile. He had just learned of his departure for France nine days later.

Like so many young men in his country, Mebratu had fled military service for life, imposed by the dictatorship of President Issayas Afewerki. He was convinced that Europe would offer him the freedom he was looking for, but his journey had ended in a Libyan prison. Two years passed then the UNHCR offered to evacuate him to Niger. “ I was in a detention camp in Misrahi with 110 people from East Africa. After six months of procedure, a Libyan delegate from the HCR boarded us in three buses for Tripoli and we took the plane. When I got here, I felt like I was born a second time. I didn't think I would survive. I was so happy, I felt free. "

Mebratu benefited from an emergency program set up by the UNHCR with several European and African countries in August 2017 , following a report by the American television channel CNN on cases of slavery of migrants in Libya . The Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) is presented by Niger and its western partners as the humanitarian counterpart of the policy against " irregular economic immigration networks ", implemented in November 2015 by the Euro-African summit of Valletta on migration.

The ETM allows the UN organization to "resettle" (UNHCR vocabulary) " particularly vulnerable " refugees in "safe" countries in Europe and North America. According to the latest figures , 2,310 people had been resettled for 6,351 promises made by the 14 volunteer countries. This is a very small figure compared to the 600,000 migrants present in Libya, including 46,000 refugees. The “ profiling ” (selection) is carried out from the Libyan detention camps to identify the most vulnerable and especially the nationalities who will be able to claim refugee status. Only seven nationalities are considered to be eligible for asylum by the Libyan authorities, which have not signed the Geneva Convention: Ethiopian Oromo, Eritreans, Iraqis, Somalis, Syrians, Palestinians and Sudanese from Darfur.

Once evacuated to Niger, the long wait continues for these men and women, as Mebratu said in April 2019: " I have been in Niamey for almost a year. It is because of all these procedures. There are people who have been there for over a year and do not yet know if they will leave. I finally leave. I count the days, but I am serene. "

Portraits of young Eritreans "resettled" by UNHCR in France via Niger

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In his little room in the foyer of young workers in a town in Dordogne, in the south-west of France, Asante * did not forget the many interviews he had to have with Niger in Niger. The French Office responsible for issuing refugee status (Ofpra) also went to Niamey to question him. Unlike other countries, which let the UNHCR manage the whole process, France wants this last interview before giving its agreement. It has received 10,000 “resettlers” since the end of 2017 , including 3,000 Africans arriving from UNHCR camps in Niger, Sudan and Chad.

Asante landed in September 2018 in Paris. The association charged by the French State to welcome him took him to Bordeaux, then to a health center in Dordogne where he spent a few months. After medical examinations, psychological monitoring and 200 hours of French lessons, he now lives in a home with other young foreigners and French. He is still waiting to start the electrician training he requested more than a year ago. “ Since I have been in France, I have been waiting all the time. All I want is to learn. To work, to be more tired, that is my dream ! "

He takes French lessons three days a week, but his level remains insufficient. He regularly visits Pôle emploi, hoping that they will offer him an activity. Asante would like to leave to find her " friends, met in Niger in the camp, who are not with [him], some resettled in Lyon or Marseille ".

Support for associations mandated by the State, such as France Terre d'Asile or Forum Refugees-Cosi, stops after a year for financial reasons. It is too short, according to the volunteers who accompany these refugees deemed " particularly vulnerable " by the UNHCR.

Brigitte and Marie-Noëlle are volunteers in the small town of Nontron, in the Dordogne , in a rural area. They bear witness to the very low level of French and the fragile state of health, physical and psychological, of these refugees. Cooperation with the mandated associations is not very good and they have received no training to support these people who often have a traumatic past.

" It's mentally heavy and I had to stop at some point ," says Brigitte, particularly involved, who takes care of school support and accompanying refugees to their very many medical appointments, often far from Nontron. " The history of these people is painful," adds Marie-Noëlle. When we accompany them to medical appointments, we enter their privacy. You can't get used to such physical or mental suffering. Fortunately, we support each other . "

Today, four of the six families hosted in Nontron have left, either because the father had found a job, or to join relatives resettled elsewhere in France. Asante remained alone in Dordogne. He lives on active solidarity income (RSA), aid from the Family Allowance Fund (CAF) and neighborhood solidarity. It is a social worker from the department who takes care of him since the mandated association ended the support. He no longer benefits from a special device as a refugee. He is followed like all the fragile people present in Dordogne.

Mebratu arrived in France on May 9, along with 32 other people evacuated from Libya. Like Asante, it benefited for its installation from European funding which allows France to receive these refugees. The longer, progressive national follow-up for asylum seekers and refugees does not apply to these very fragile people, victims of war or traumatic migration.

Mebratu did not yet know his final destination in France when we met him, but he knew where he came from and thanked the country which had agreed to welcome him: “ I did not think I would be alive today. In Libya, you could die on a joke from a caretaker, so I'm grateful for it happening to me. Thank you France! We did not manage to find Mebratu, despite our requests to the French administration. Did he keep the same smile as he wore before he left Niamey? The road remains long for these refugees who must integrate into a new country after years of wandering and violence.

* First names have been changed

This survey was initiated by the author, editor-in-chief of the monthly journal De facto , with researchers from the Convergences Migration Institute.

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