07 May 2014
Eight Afghani refugees have stitched their mouth to protest UNHCR discriminatory policies against them.
Hundreds of Afghan women, men and children gathered in front of the UNHCR office in Ankara city to protest against the performance of UNHCR in considering their asylum applications. Protesters claim that the UNHCR Office in Turkey does not receive their asylum requests and does not conduct interviews with them which eventually cause them wait for longer than expected. Moreover, the resettlement of Afghani refugees are also stopped by the USA, EU member countries, Canada and Australia thereby making the human tragedy worse in Turkey for the Afgani refugees. At the moment no country accepts them for resettlement. That is why the UNHCR Turkey office does not submit their files to any country.
The protests have entered in its second week; the protesters are staying in front of the Unhcr Office day and night.
“There’s no food, no water and all people sleeping together on the pedestrian, that’s not the way it should be,” Mahboba 28 from Kabul complained to public Turkish media before the protesters were cleared out of the road said early Saturday .
An Afghani refugee representative stated that “……. we are victim of the international politics. The main responsible of our tragedy is the USA, EU member countries and the UN itself. The USA has created war in our country and the EU and the UN is just watching. Now they are not even accepting us as refugee. The Unhcr policies are designed by the USA and EU strong member countries. Where are the justice and human rights they are talking about……”
HRAA