Norway: Rejected refugees riot to protest living conditions

Islam in Europe

7 July 2010

Police have arrested 23 people on suspicion of arson after last night’s fire that destroyed Lier asylum centre in Buskerud. The fire started in three separate buildings that were far apart almost simultaneously, and preliminary investigations show traces of inflammable liquids.

Inmates already knew what was going to happen, as several refugees had packed their belongings, according to VG.

Jan Erik Skretteberg, regional director of SOS Rasisme, says he can understand why the fire was started, claiming there are many frustrated people who don’t get enough food or vitamins. There isn’t enough hot water in the showers, and a complete lack of mental health services.

« Several residents have warned previously it was only a matter of time before someone either harms of kills himself because of conditions at the institution. Not only do they live under severe mental pressure, but living conditions at the centres are also not fit for human beings,” he says.

Trouble at both the Lier, as well as Fagerli asylum centre in Nannestad in Akerhus municipality started early yesterday morning. Rioters destroyed fixtures and fittings, broke windows, and started smaller fires. Both facilities are now uninhabitable.

The centres house refugees who are awaiting deportation, after their asylum applications have been a final rejection. Some have been living there for four years.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, after the riots but before the center was burned down, the leader of the Kurdish asylum seekers was interviewed by Drammens Tidende.

« I’m the one who started it. I threw the first stone, » an Iraqi man told Drammens Tidende when we visited the Lier natioanl reception yesterday afternoon.

Several others earlier said the same, but when the Iraqi came, we quickly got the message from the others that he’s the leader.

He’s kept to the background towards the press for a long time, but makes direct contact and wants to talk.

When he talks, the others fall silent.

« I’m the leader of about 35 Kurds here in the center, » says the man, who’s been there for a year and two months.

The man claims that he was the spokesperson with the police during the night. He can come up with names, and agrees to being photographed from the back.

« But don’t photograph the face. I don’t want to be a famous man, » he says.

We walk around the center. Almost all the glass windows in the administration buildings and dormitories are broken. We step over glass everywhere. Stones are strewn on the lawn and inside the buildings.

In one place the asphalt is torn up – apparently to obtain more ‘ammunition’.

Next to the main building, a garbage shed burned down, and in front of the building a car of the center is without windows.

Nevertheless, we can’t find remorse by the man.

« No. We wrote a letter to the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) and met the boss here three times in the past month. We’ve complained about the conditions. We’re treated like animals. But nothing happened, » says the man.

« Therefore violence is the only and best way. There were no journalists here yesterday. Now all the journalists re here and are asking what’s happening and wondering how we’re doing, » he explains.

« We don’t like violence. But see no other solution. And if it doesn’t get better, this is just a first warning of what can happen. »

Q: There was also trouble in the reception center in Nannestad. Were you in contact?

« Yes. We speak to each other all the time. »

Drammens Tidende met several desperate people in the reception center. All said they’d like to go home to their homeland – but that it was too dangerous. Therefore they have to stay in Norway.

« If I go home, I’ll be killed, » said one.

« I’d rather be here than to go home to prison, » said another.

Each of them tells of bad food, not enough food, not enough warm water in the showers, that the internet connection is bad, that they get 100 kroner a week to live on and that they get bad medical care.

« We feel like slaves without a social life. There are people who have been here for four-five years, » says the leader.

Another men says he stole a cola when he was on a tour of Drammen.

« We get juice, juice and juice. I hadn’t tasted a cola for several months. In the end I took one, » says the man.

« We can’t sleep at night. There are many who have to take pills to sleep a little. And there are many who tried to take their lives. You can see the attempts on people’s arms, » says the leader of the Kurds.

« Why can’t we get permission to work, earn money and pay taxes? Now we just sit in the center all day. Have no money to do anything. »

The leader shows us his room to see the conditions he lives by. But the police prevented Drammens Tidende from going into the premises.

« We live five to a room. We are people but are treated like animals. »

Several other people made contact and told the same stories, but didn’t want to be in the paper. They feel treated in an unworthy manner, and think that the conditions in the waiting center are the reason for the riots.

An Iraqi resident, who didn’t want his name in the paper, shows Aftenposten.no the damage to cars, buildings and sheds. He’s been in the Lier center for three months.

« I’m glad for the violence. It’s the best way to get attention in Norway. Now everybody knows what’s happening here, that we just get 100 kroner a week, and that everything we can do is to eat and sleep, » he says.

He participated in the riots during the night, and thinks it’s the only way to change his hopeless situation.

He shows Aftenposten his bedroom, a narrow, small room of 15-20 sqm, shared by five grown men. Some metal lockers for clothes and personal property. Five beds and a desk with a television is all that’s there. The TV, says the Iraqi, was obtained by the residents, they didn’t get it from the center.

Another resident says that they’ve been in Norway illegally for years, and says that he’s been here since 2002. Some of them have been in the Lier center since it was opened five years ago.

« Look at him down there, » one points to a thin man sitting alone under a tree.

« He always sits there, all alone, and speaks to the tree. People go crazy living here, there’s nothing to do besides eating and sleeping, » says the man, originally from Somalia. He’s been in Norway for the past nine years and says he’s a ‘Dubliner‘ and in theory should go back to Italy. (…)

Asylum centre burnt to the ground

theforeigner.no

Wednesday, 7th July, 2010

Police have arrested 23 people on suspicion of arson after last night’s fire that destroyed Lier asylum centre in Buskerud.

Advance warning

The fire started in three separate buildings that were far apart almost simultaneously, and preliminary investigations show traces of inflammable liquids.

Inmates already knew what was going to happen, as several refugees had packed their belongings, according to VG.

Jan Erik Skretteberg, regional director of SOS Rasisme, says he can understand why the fire was started, claiming there are many frustrated people who don’t get enough food or vitamins. There isn’t enough hot water in the showers, and a complete lack of mental health services.

“Several residents have warned previously it was only a matter of time before someone either harms of kills himself because of conditions at the institution. Not only do they live under severe mental pressure, but living conditions at the centres are also not fit for human beings,” he says.

“Unsurprising”

One of the damaged buildings at Lier

The Foreigner/Inez DawczykTrouble at both the Lier, as well as Fagerli asylum centre in Nannestad in Akerhus municipality started early yesterday morning. Rioters destroyed fixtures and fittings, broke windows, and started smaller fires. Both facilities are now uninhabitable.

The centres house refugees who are awaiting deportation, after their asylum applications have been a final rejection. Some have been living there for four years.

Both NOAS (the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers), and Norwegian People’s Aid (Norsk Folkehjelp) told NRK yesterday they believe the government deliberately keeps conditions to a minimum. As deportees, they have no rights to medical help and are given 100 kroner per week in pocket money.

“It seems the Norwegian authorities are engaged in a kind of exhaustion technique. They see who can last the longest, instead of having centres that work in accordance with the original purpose of encouraging them to travel home,” said Irfan Qaiser, refugee policy spokesman for Norsk Folkehjelp.

“Shameful”

Andreas Furuseth, NOAS’ secretary general, attacked the government for its “shameful” policy of “scaring them into leaving the country by making life as difficult and untenable as possible.”

The 23 who have been arrested now face compulsory deportation, according to Labour’s (Ap) state secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Pål K. Lønseth.

“These are people who have no right to be in Norway. We’ll find a way of expelling them by force if they don’t choose to leave voluntarily.”

Norwegian asylum centre burns

AFP

July 7, 2010 – 9:54PM

A Norwegian centre housing rejected asylum seekers burned to the ground overnight to Wednesday in a second night of rioting to protest conditions at the facility, police said.

« We cannot say for sure what caused the fire, but all three buildings started burning at about the same time, so a lot indicates that this was arson, » said Kristine Fossen, the police chief in the region of southern Buskerud which incorporates Lier where the centre was located.

« It is frightening that people would choose to put their own and other people’s lives in danger in this manner, » she told a press conference.

Twenty-three of the 141 residents at the centre were arrested suspected of setting the fire, police said, adding that most of the people detained were Iraqi Kurds.

All the other residents were evacuated and were being housed temporarily at a nearby school and a community centre, police said, adding that two people had suffered smoke inhalation and one person was treated for chest pains at the scene, but no one was seriously hurt in the fire.

Two of the three buildings that make up the centre, used to house people awaiting deportation after their asylum applications have been definitively denied, quickly burned to the ground while the burned-out structure of the third building was still standing.

Residents were upset by rudimentary living conditions at the centre, and reportedly also at the Norwegian system requiring people to move out of higher-standard asylum centres once their application is rejected.

The massive fire came a day after rioting residents at the Lier centre, west of Oslo, and at Norway’s only other so-called « waiting reception centre », in Nannestad, just north of the capital, caused extensive damage.

The Nannestad centre has been closed due to the damage for about two weeks, while the centre in Lier needs to be totally rebuilt, authorities said.

Police and fire fighters were already on the scene when the Lier fire broke out around midnight since residents had issued threats earlier in the evening.

But police suspect some kind of lighting fluid was used and the blaze quickly raged out of control.

Brann og uro i Lier

klartale.no

07.07.10 |

Tre bygg er brent ned ved Lier ventemottak for asylsøkere. Politiet har pågrepet 23 personer.

URO: 23 personer er pågrepet av politiet i Drammen. Arne Lauvålien (bildet) er lensmann i Lier. Han mener beboerne på mottaket visste at noe skulle skje.

Foto: Terje Bendiksby / SCANPIX

Relaterte saker

23 personer er pågrepet av politiet i Drammen. De er mistenkt for å tent på tre bygg. De tre byggene skal være der folk sover på mottaket. ved Lier ventemottak for asylsøkere. Alle de pågrepne skal ha vært beboere ved mottaket. Det skriver nettavisa VG Nett.

Bråket startet tirsdag. Da var det bråk ved Fagerli ventemottak i Nannestad i Akershus. Senere samme natt ble det også bråk ved Lier ventemottak i Buskerud.

LES MER HER: Kastet stein og tente på

Brannvesenet slukker fremdeles brannene i Lier onsdag morgen. Men bygningene er brent ned. Det opplyser politiet i Drammen.

Rundt klokka 03.00 natt til onsdag var det 30 beboere igjen på mottaket. Det var også 30 politimenn igjen på mottaket. Politiet undersøkte bagasjen til beboerne. De skulle gå om bord i en buss. Flere av beboerne ble også ransaket. En time senere var 10 til 15 personer tatt med til avhør. Noen av dem fikk håndjern på hendene. 23 beboere på mottaket ble pågrepet.

Arne Lauvålien er lensmann i Lier. Han mener beboerne på mottaket visste at noe skulle skje. Det skal noen av beboerne ha fortalt. Mange hadde pakket bagasjen sin. Arne Lauvålien bekrefter at politiet ser på det som en mulighet.

– Omstendighetene kan tyde på det. Men her bor det fire personer på små rom. Derfor er det ikke usannsynlig at folk har pakket en del av eiendelene sine ned heller. Det er mange momenter i denne saken. Foreløpig har vi ikke konkludert med noe, sier han. Det skriver nyhetsbyrået NTB.

Politiet har fraktet resten av beboerne til Lierbyen ungdomsskole. Der skal de bo i natt. De blir passet på av politiet.

– Vi skal etter hvert snakke med hver av beboerne om saken. Men vi har ikke kommet så langt med det ennå. Foreløpig tar vi en kort prat med enkelte av dem før de fraktes med bussen, sier Lauvålien.

Norvège : un centre d’accueil pour réfugiés incendié

ouest-france.fr

mercredi 07 juillet 2010

En Norvège un centre d’accueil pour réfugiés déboutés de leur demande d’asile a été entièrement détruit par un incendie aujourd’hui après une seconde nuit d’émeute pour protester contre les conditions d’hébergement, a-t-on appris auprès de la police. « Nous ne pouvons pas dire à coup sûr ce qui a causé l’incendie, mais les trois bâtiments ont pris feu à peu près en même temps, et il y a donc fort à croire que c’était un incendie volontaire », a déclaré la responsable régionale de la police, Kristine Fossen.

23 personnes arrêtées

Sur les 141 personnes hébergées dans le centre de Lier, à l’ouest d’Oslo, 23 ont été arrêtées, soupçonnées d’avoir déclenché l’incendie, selon la police. Tous les autres réfugiés ont été évacués et relogés temporairement dans une école et une salle communale proches. Selon elle, deux personnes ont été légèrement intoxiquées par les fumées et une autre a été traitée sur place pour des douleurs de poitrine, mais aucun blessé grave n’est à déplorer.

Les réfugiés entendaient protester contre les conditions de vie dans ce centre, dénonçant le système norvégien qui prévoit que les demandeurs d’asile refoulés soient logés dans des centres de moindre confort que ceux réservés aux réfugiés en attente d’une réponse. Dans la nuit de lundi à mardi déjà, les réfugiés des deux seuls centres de ce type dans le pays, Lier et Nannestad (nord d’Oslo), s’étaient rebellés.

Informations

Lier is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lier. The municipality of Lier was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The area Åssiden was transferred from Lier to the neighboring municipality of Drammen on 1 July 1951.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 8 juillet 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots, Sans-papiers