(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In 2007, Lyse Mabano fled from Burundi and a violent man who had taken part in the hostilities, to Norway. The son, who has since lived with Mabano's parents, sat back. The civil war was officially over when Mabano applied for residence, and in 2010 she was ordered to leave Norway. She nevertheless remained, for fear of the consequences of returning. She now lives in Bergen with her cohabitant Nicolas and daughter Karyn Laura. Riots and political violence have led to nearly 200 people fleeing the country since President Pierre Nkurunziza launched his candidacy for a third term in the spring of 000. The opposition in the country believes this is unconstitutional. In December, the rebels gathered in a joint fight against the president, where the goal is to get him removed from power. Burundian authorities report 2015 deaths following the attacks on three military bases in the capital, Bujumbura, on 87 December. According to Amnesty International, this was the bloodiest day in the country last year. "Innocent people in Burundi are being killed by Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, and by the country's police. These are agencies that should have really protected them, "says Mabano. "The international community knows the situation well, yet they turn their backs. The killings hit the Tutsi minority in the country. It is dramatic and it tends to genocide ", she says. She knows several Burundians who have been deported from Norway in recent years, and who are now on the run in neighboring countries.
The partner and daughter are Norwegian citizens, and Mabano applied for family reunification. She got rejected. The reason is that cohabitant Nicolas, who usually works as a car mechanic, has been on sick leave. He thus does not meet the income requirements for family reunification. The case was up in Oslo District Court on November 10 and 11, but was suspended for six months pending a new application from the family. In the meantime, Mabano has been granted a temporary stay. "Burundi is facing its worst crisis since the civil war ten years ago. I wonder what Norway means by its relation to human rights when sending asylum seekers to Burundi? Genocide is happening on Tutsis in the country, and on Hutus who do not agree with the president, ”says Mabano. The parents and son are on the run in neighboring Rwanda.
What do you fear will happen if sent to Burundi?
"I am an asylum seeker who has been threatened and persecuted by people from the ruling party CNDD-FDD, so the consequences I risk are far worse than imprisonment. In this case, it is better if the Norwegian authorities send me dead out of the country. "What awaits me is to be tortured and killed," said Mabano.
Critical. Mabano's lawyer Marianne Karlsen believes that the Norwegian immigration authorities should already in the early assessment have taken into account the child's best interests in this case. She is also very critical of the fact that the conversion requests to the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE) were decided by the chair of the committee alone. "After the refusal, I submitted a reversal petition, which was decided by the chair of the committee alone. I myself have been a member of UNE for several years, and have confidence in decisions that are made in the tribunal – but not that are made alone. Our four conversion requests were decided by the chair of the committee alone, "says Karlsen to Ny Tid.
But according to the chair of the UNE committee, Jorunn Midthun, cohabitants and children in Norway are not considered strong human considerations when UNE deals with appeals. "Having a cohabitant and children in Norway is not in itself enough to be considered particularly strong human considerations," Midthun told Ny Tid.
Lawyer Marianne Karlsen criticizes UNE for having decided the case with a chair of the board alone – do you have any comments on this?
«The chair of the tribunal who is assigned the individual case is the one who decides whether or not to convene a tribunal meeting. If the chair of the tribunal believes that the case raises significant questions of doubt, there will be a tribunal meeting, "says Midthun, adding that UNE makes ongoing assessments of the general security situation in Burundi, and that there is no general protection against returning to the country.
"The situation in Burundi is dire. We have a governing party that wants to kill its own people. "
Tortured. "Marcus" is a political refugee from Burundi, and applied for asylum in Norway in 2008. He has had his asylum application finally rejected, and now fears that he will be sent back to Burundi. He belongs to the Tutsi people, a people that the UN now believes is being persecuted, and fears genocide in the country. Large parts of his family have fled to a neighboring country, where they now live in a refugee camp. "The reason I fled Burundi is now repeated. But the Norwegian authorities do not believe in my story, "says" Marcus "to Ny Tid.
He does not want to come forward with a name for fear of the consequences it may have for the family who are left in Burundi, where his brother is already abducted because he is a Tutsi. "Marcus" was part of the army in the country, and was then kidnapped and tortured by the Hutu group Palipehutu NFL, a militia group that kept the civil war alive until 2009. This group currently has political influence in Burundi. On December 30, the country's president Pierre Nkurunzizia announced that he would fight against peacekeeping forces sent to the country. The African Union (AU) decided earlier in December to deploy a 5000-strong peacekeeping force to protect civilians. "The situation in Burundi is terrible," Marcus said. "We have a governing party that wants to kill its own people. If you do not support the president, you must flee, otherwise you will be tortured and killed. "There are several stories of people who have been taken to police stations tortured to death," Marcus said.
Worried. In November last year, Foreign Minister Børge Brende expressed concern about the situation in Burundi, and described the increasing use of ethnic emphasis on rhetoric as very serious. But so far the Norwegian immigration authorities have not stopped the deportations to the country. "I am one hundred percent sure that the authorities will kill me if the Norwegian authorities deport me. Had Norway cared about the situation in Burundi, they would have stopped the returns to the country, "says" Marcus ". "I know two of those who were deported in 2015. One of them has already fled to one of the neighboring countries."
The organization Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (NOAS) believes it is problematic that the Norwegian authorities forcibly return Burundian asylum seekers to their home country now that the security situation there is characterized by a violent unrest, and the country faces an uncertain future. "The UN has expressed great concern about the situation in Burundi, and warns of a potential genocide in the country. At the same time, we see that countries such as Canada have decided to suspend forced returns of asylum seekers to Burundi. Norwegian authorities do not seem to have taken the seriousness of the situation into account, "says NOAS adviser Cecilia Sognnæs to Ny Tid. "Over the past year, several international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have reported on the arbitrary and disproportionate use of force by Burundian authorities against their own citizens. The Norwegian immigration authorities have a responsibility to ensure that Norway does not forcibly return asylum seekers to persecution, and there is doubt as to whether this can be said to be the case in Burundi as the conflict has escalated over the past year, "she believes. "NOAS would like to see Norwegian immigration authorities to a greater extent apply and listen to the experiences and advice of international organizations, and on this basis the duty to leave asylum seekers from Burundi suspends," concludes the NOAS adviser.
