[Activity Note] Refugees of Nine Thousand Miles Road Lecture - The Gap Between Refugees and Stowaways

Author/ Wang Yuzhen,Editor/You Shi Ting, Lin Shu Han, Chen Pei Ru, Translator/ Viv Wong

In today's lecture: "Nine Thousand Miles Road," Shu Han, Commissioner of the TAHR, and Mr. Xue Weiyu, a lawyer of the Legal Support Foundation, shared with the audience the process of case assistance that has occurred before. Since last year, TAHR has held annual lectures on refugee issues. This year (2021), due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the third lecture is organized online.

Background of Syria

In Syria, ordinary people can now be arrested without arrest warrants, and armed attacks can be carried out against the people. It was just like Hong Kong and Myanmar a while ago. Myanmar is very similar to Syria. Some military personnel in Syria do not accept attacks on the general population, so they organized a Syrian Democratic Army to protect the ordinary people. In the government’s view, this is a troop to counter the government.

But it should be noted that from 2011 to 2015 in Central and West Asia, the Jihad of IS was happening simultaneously, which was a period of their vigorous development, also entered the Syrian civil war. As a result, foreign forces, whether the United States or the European Union, have also intervened, and there are economic sanctions. But Assad’s government has the support of Iran, the Lebanon Allah Party, and Russia. On the other hand, the Turkeys and Saudi Arabia have supported the rebels.

The civil war does not only consist of domestic forces but also in the United States, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other Asian and American brawls. The democratic forces belong to the rebels and the European countries. In addition, the Syrian oppositions and the democratic forces are slightly different. Israel joined the war in 2018 because Israeli warplanes were being knocked down. Turkey also joined the war because of Kurdish relations.

【The Syrian people】

Until May of this year (2021), Assad passed the election, claiming to have won more than 90 percent of the vote to be re-elected so the civil war would continue. According to Al Jazeera, the tv station was also bombed because of air raids, even sarin gas, and siege wars, which surrounded the Democratic Forces. The most unfortunate and vulnerable groups at the moment are the innocent people who are besieged. The local people live with great difficulties. They were surrounded to the point where they had no food and had to eat grass or the animals in their homes.

On the one hand, medical supplies are completely cut off, so there are no adequate medical resources. According to foreign sources, more than three hundred hospitals in Syria are ineffective because of a lack of resources. And that went on for a decade. Many of them have also called for help, besides The support and resources from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Red Cross Society are insufficient. In this case, the people keep raising the SOS signal and flee.

【A large number of people, fleeing to various places】

According to Syria's population, 13.5 million people need humanitarian assistance, equal to about 57% of Taiwan's population, of which 4.3 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Europe. Therefore, the top five source countries of refugees worldwide are 6.6 million people in Syria. From the graph, you will find that Syrian refugees are rising to 90 degrees. The first paragraph following will discuss the ethnic groups of Kurds.

[About the Kurds]

The Kurds are nomadic, mainly distributed in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, etc. It is the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, after Arabs, Turks and Persians. Because of the Treaty of Lausanne in the First World War, there was never an independent state. Although the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in Central and Western Asia, their environment is challenging. From an ethnic point of view, the clothing of the Arabs is primarily white, and women are masked. On the other hand, the Kurds dressed in colourful clothes and had their ethnic language, so they were not quite the same as people of different races in the area, so they wanted to establish an independent state.

【Current situation of the Kurds】

The Kurds want to build an independent state, Kurdistan. At the time, IS was there to assist in the attack on the Islamic State. At that time, international public opinion was affirming the Kurdish community. The Kurds did a radical thing, asking for the independence of Kurdistan in 2017, and about 80% of the referendum agreed to independence, but the facts are not so simple. The Kurds would attack the Kurds at that time, including the United States, the European Union, and the neighbouring countries. Turkey has always been opposed to Kurdish independence. Combining these factors, the Kurds in Syria thought they had won IS and were able to become independent. At that time, IS sexually assaulted women and did not leave men alive. The Kurdish autonomous regions of Iraq at that time were occupied by IS. In such a long civil war, most adult men engaged in the army, and the casualties were hefty. Therefore, the Kurds do not have much self-preservation ability, and even Kurdish women must join the military and face ISIS. Other than joining the army and facing battle, there is only flee.

[Fight? Desertion?]

How does UNHCR manage many Syrians, including Turkey, the European Union, Greece, etc.? health care, education, and basic welfare cause problems when these people are taken in. One in five people in Lebanon is a refugee. They were under a lot of pressure. At that time, Angela Merkel was heavily attacked by opposite parties for refugee issues.

Three Syrian Kurdish refugees who have left their homes

Recently, refugee-hosting countries have begun to raise the threshold for acceptance. Syrians' entry is being denied because of their suspicious refugee identity. In 2018, three Syrian Kurdish refugees tried to seek asylum by travelling from Syria via Iran, Malaysia, and Taiwan, to finally reach a third country (France, Austria or Germany). At that time, the so-called intermediary (human snake organization) provided them with altered Albanian passports. The intermediary told the three Syrian refugees that when they arrived in Taiwan, they had to show Taiwan's customs their Albanian passports due to visa and entry regulations. When they arrived in Taiwan, the Border Affairs Brigade of Taiwan's Immigration Bureau conducted a human trafficking investigation. The Border officers discovered one of the women had a problem with her passport name, thus finding out that the three Syrian Kurdish refugees were all holding fake passports. Hence, they were arrested, immediately transferred to the District Prosecutor's Office, and sent to the Tucheng Detention Center. As a result, they could not arrive in a third country.

TAHR article

犯罪者？抑或尋求庇護者？Perpetrator? Or an asylum seeker?

敘利亞庫德族在台灣島上的困境The plight of the Syrian Kurds on the island of Taiwan

【J】

This women's name was J, and she planned to go to France to meet her husband, but was found to be using a fake passport and could not arrive in France at the scheduled time. Her husband waited long for her in France, finally learned about her situation in Taiwan and contacted TAHR. The commissioner of TAHR visited her in the detention center. Still, because of the language barrier (her native language was Kurdish), it was challenging to communicate and ask about their situation in the detention center.

In December of that year, the legal clerk drafted the indictment documents and asked whether they pleaded guilty. On the 13th of the same month, and when the case was formally trial, lawyer Mr. Xue immediately went to read the case file to understand the situation. In the end, the judge managed the case with a simplified-process judgment. And the result of judgement may be announced at any time. On the eighteenth day of the same month, Lawyer Xue accompanied Professor Gu from Chengchi University to find J, introduced himself to her, and explained to her how he could be of assistance. And Xue and Gu spent some time reassuring her in the process. During this visit, the biggest concern was J's condition in the detention center and whether she had enough warm clothing. J had no place to live and did not know anyone, let alone New Taiwan dollar. Hence, she may be unable to afford necessities in the detention center. After inquiry, Xue and Gu learned that the staff at the center had financially supported her. In addition, J is a Muslim; after further inquiry, she confirmed the detention center had also taken care of her Islam dietary habit. Finally, J requested not to be sent back to Syria. Lawyer Xue explained female Syrians might be sexually abused or tortured after being returned to Syria.

[Christian Male]

This gentleman was distraught that he would be persecuted if he returned to Syria. Hence, the speaker ensured to mention to the judge that Syrian refugees were not regional criminals. However, their refugee identities involve legal issues.

[Immigrants? Refugees?]

Refugees are defined as "refugees" by Commissioner Shu Han as: "foreigners or stateless persons who, because of their race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group (e.g. gender minorities) or holding specific political views, have good justifiable grounds for fear of persecution, so that they are unable or unwilling to remain in the country."

[Legalize international conventions in Taiwan]

“The line between forced and voluntary departure from the home country is not as straightforward as the original makers of the Refugee Convention had imagined and hoped.”

— David Miliban (Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time)

There are more than 80 million refugees in the world. As stated in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, refugees should be treated with "no discrimination, no penalty for unlawful entry, freedom from forced repatriation, and basic rights such as housing and education." Therefore, it can be understood that J and other men should enjoy the principle of freedom from coercion. When it comes to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, many people will mention that Taiwan has not signed the Convention. This Convention can be classified as a universal human right.

For example, article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy shelter in other countries in order to avoid persecution." Although Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, Taiwan has two conventions on domestic legalization in the 98th year of the Republic of China. Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading circumstances or punishment. Similar content is contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

[The court’s verdict]

Finally, the court is asked to judge according to the principle of proportionality and the necessity of punishment. In the end, he was sentenced for forging legal documents. The parties were already at Taoyuan Airport when the speaker knew the verdict. There was, therefore, fear that he would be repatriated to Syria. On December 28, Mr. Xue rushed into the Border Affairs Brigade with Professor Gu and asked them about their thoughts and status of the court's verdict.

The three Syrian Kurds have been in detention centers for two months and fifteen days, so the sentences imposed have been offset. Lawyer Xue rushed to the Border Affairs Brigade to discuss, and the brigade mentioned that the Immigration Department of the Ministry of the Interior could administratively repatriate them. Lawyer Xue added that on December 26, the court made the decision to expel the three Syrians from Taiwan but did not take the initiative to notify, so Xue was not aware. Under such circumstances, the three Syrians expelled from Taiwan will likely be repatriated to Syria. If an appeal is filed, the administrative procedure law can be used to rule to the court to stop the enforcement. Finally, on the 28th of the same month, Lawyer Xue and Professor Gu did not return home until eleven at night. Lawyer Xue and Professor Gu decided to let the three Syrians buy plane tickets to leave Taiwan. Purchasing their own tickets is considered a voluntary departure and not an expulsion.

Professor Gu explained if they were deported, their passports would be handed over to the crew and then to Malaysian administrators after they boarded the plane. Malaysia will know that they are problematic people and will most likely repatriate them to Syria; If you use the self-payment method, you can hold your ticket and passport when boarding the aircraft. The Malaysian side will not receive other administrative repatriation issues.

In addition, the three Syrians only had US dollars and Euros with no Taiwan dollars at the time. So Professor Gu helped them pay for their air tickets in advance, exchanging US dollars for Taiwan dollars. The process took them seven to eight hours back and forth. The lawyer was slightly upset because the three Syrians had no food or water for the entire time under the accompany of the administrative department officer, though the lawyer himself was treated with great courtesy. Refugees are also human beings and also have dietary needs. So in the process of buying the air tickets, lawyer Xue went to the second floor to buy them some food. The three Syrians were greatly appreciated when they saw the food. During the time, the Syrians also asked if they could take a bath. The place they stayed could not take a bath because that would involve the issues of the entry and exit of the country. The administrative department officers felt it was inappropriate and did not leave until they had processed the ticket to enter the country. Finally, the refugees smiled. And J hoped she could retrieve her seized phone back. Later, the lawyer fought for her mobile phone. Finally, it was agreed the phone would be sent to Malaysia so that she could get it upon her arrival in Malaysia. There were opportunities to help them to do something only because of the assistance of Commissioner Yumei. And one of the men still returned to Syria in the end.

[How to help the refugees]

TAHR has stories to share, but many refugees are reluctant to do so. Hence there are only a little stories to share. TAHR hopes the public will continue paying attention to this matter. For more stories, please refer to the previous collaboration between the TAHR and Law Support: Drifters on the Border.

掉在法律之外的人～《國界上的漂流者》前言Foreword to “Drifters on Borders” - The man who fell outside the law