a few days ago I was visiting out at the udrejsecenter Kærshovedgård with some of my Danish friends, who are struggling in solidarity for the people who live out there.
– I saw with my own eyes, how their life is, and I asked them about all the things I could think of. And I could understand everything they said.
– I could understand how hard their lives are. But there were a few things that I could not understand: How can they be so strong? How can they stand to live this way?
so begins Rahima – 18-year-old syrian refugee, who has been here for three and a half years and just now reading on Herningsholm high School – a letter to the nation! on the way we in denmark treat refused asylum seekers. Rahima is a kurd from Syria and has written extensively on the nation! You may remember that, Syrian refugee: a Waste of time to learn how to speak Danish (1190 comments) about the paradigm shift in Danish immigration policy – or See also: Rahima: Probably the teen that gets the most negative comments in Denmark about how it is to participate in the udlændingedebatten. Now she writes about the Kærshovedgård, because everyone has written about Sjælsmark, although life on the Kærshovedgård is worse than life on the Sjælsmark. Her letter continues thus:
– Dear you, reader, can you answer me, why are there people living in a place like Kærshovedgård, which was previously a prison? Why should they be isolated from society?
– Those who live on the Kærshovedgård are people just like us. They have feelings just like us. They can also be tired and feel the pressure!
– We are allowed to disagree, but it is important that we ensure that what we agree or disagree on, is something that happens in reality and not just as ‘fake news’.
– It is important that we remember that truth is not something we can agree or disagree on! Truth is truth!
– That people are living in terrible conditions in udrejsecentre on Danish soil is a truth!
– Many people have unfortunately this perception that all those who live on the udrejsecentre, are criminals, but they are not! Many of them, living out there, has applied for asylum in Denmark, but their application has been rejected, therefore they have been forced to live there!
– Only a small part of them are former criminals, and when you say the former criminals, then it means that they have served their punishment, and therefore no longer criminals.
– It also means that, if they were Danish citizens, so they could just come out in society and get an extra chance in life, but they cannot, because they are not danes! In this situation, we see another form of discrimination!
– the vast majority of those who live on the Kærshovedgård, get no money. Only the few of them, which is of tolerated stay, get approx. 400 kr. every fourteenth day.
– Some are those who live on the Kærshovedgård, are stateless. It means that they do not belong to anyone else and is uaccepteret and junk all places, also in the democratic and human Denmark. – They are just placed on a udrejsecenter to ‘motivate’ them to travel home – but no country will take them!
Out on the Kærshovedgård you can meet people who have lived there for years. Some of them have tried to commit suicide several times, while others are still struggling for their dreams and desires for a better future. They do, though the conditions under which they live, allow them to feel that they do not have the right to dream!
– The 11. October 2017 decided by a group hunger strike in protest against the conditions under which they live. 28 participated in the hunger strike, but not all through the whole period. Some started a little bit after the first and some stopped before the last.
– Their goal was to capture the media’s and people’s attention, but there was very little publicity about it in the media, even though people were on hunger strike for 17 days!
– just Try to think of how horrible it is that people on a Danish udrejsecenter holding the hunger strike in more than two weeks without being taken notice of it!
– It was something that had to circulate in all the media!
– Dear danes. That I have been born in a democracy, does not mean that your grandchildren will also grow up in a democracy. I hope that all Of you will understand, that freedom of religion, democracy and humanity is under pressure.
– It is not us and you, that should stand against each other and fight against each other. It is us and you, who must stand together against all those who want to create hatred between us.
– When you are a part of this world, you have to take some responsibility for what is happening around the world. You can’t isolate itself from the entire world and be there to help!
Wealth can mean many things. Wealth is not only the economy.
– A rich country, it is country that is rich in economy, but also rich in human values, ends Rahima, but what are you thinking?
