Problem för tjetjenska asylsökande även i Polen

Det är tydligen inte bara i Sverige som tjetjenska asylsökande har Problem. Evgeny Novozhilov har befunnit sig i Polen i 13 månader och kommer ingenvart med sin asylansökning. Läs vidare hans brev mm.

To: António Guterres Warsaw, Poland May 19, 2009
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Switzerland

From: Evgeny Novozhilov
Warszawa
Poland

Mr. High Commissioner!

I’m a political refugee from Russia. I came to Poland on February 20, 2008 and applied for political asylum on February 25, 2008 because I couldn’t return to my home country. In Russia I was an independent journalist and a human rights activist. I was also a political prisoner – I spent 7½ months in psychiatric confinement. I had to leave Russia because of the persecution by the police and FSB, the danger of another psychiatric incarceration and death threats. I expected that the polish immigration authorities would come to the decision on my case in August 2008 – in 6 months, as their regulations prescribe. But they prolonged the examination of my case until February 1, 2009. In February the examination was prolonged until May 1, 2009 and in May came another prolongation – until August 25, 2009.
I live outside of the refugee center. Conditions in refugee camps are appalling: scanty meals, shabby rooms, stinking toilets. But life isn’t much better for those who live outside. I get 750 z? (€ 170) a month to pay all my living expenses. I live in misery and hunger. I can’t buy enough food and I’m undernourished. During the first 6 months in Poland I lost 9 kg in weight compared to 4 kg I had lost during my 7½-month incarceration in Russia. I came to Poland with 6 chronic illnesses, now I have 12. Because of constant stress and malnutrition in Poland I’ve become a half-invalid and I’m on the brink of becoming a total invalid. The medical care I get is below all civilized standards. The doctors in the refugee center often don’t have the medicines I need. I have to buy them myself, which is difficult because of the scarcity of my financial resources. I have to suffer from pain and other inconveniences. The doctors in the refugee center say they can’t prescribe medicines. So if they don’t have on-doctor’s-prescription-only medicines, the patient is left completely without them. Moreover, asylum seekers registered in the refugee center “Siekierki” (the center I’m registered in) have no possibility of going to dentist since February 2009.
I’m deprived of the basic human rights: the right to health and the right to life. The Polish immigration authorities are slowly murdering me.

After 6 months in Poland asylum seekers can get a work permit. But it is temporary (for 3 months) and it’s almost impossible to find a job with such permit. As for me, to that must be added, that my disastrous health problems seriously limit the range of jobs I can take.
The unreasonably long examination of applications for asylum destroys people’s lives. More than that, there’s a sabotage against political refugees in Poland. Poland is a heaven for pseudo-refugees: riff-raff, bums, the “tourists”. They either get the refugee status very fast or use the long examination period for making money by selling drugs, stealing, robbing, selling stolen things and conducting other criminal activities. Poland is a hell for us, political refugees. We live in degrading, inhuman conditions. I want to emphasize once more, that the Polish Department of Foreigners’ Affairs (Urz?d do Spraw Cudzoziemców) executes sabotage against political refugees. Our treatment amounts to torture, both psychological and physical. We were political prisoners in our countries of origin, we are political prisoners now in Poland. Our health is being ruined, our lives are being trampled to pieces. After that we get the final stab in the back – the refusal of asylum.

Szef Urz?du do Spraw Cudzoziemców
Rafa? Rogala
ul. Koszykowa 16
00-564 Warszawa
Poland

tel. (+48-22) 601-7402
fax (+48-22) 601-7413

kierownictwo@udsc.gov.pl

www.udsc.gov.pl