After nearly
two years of waiting in Iceland, the asylum application of Nigerian asylum
seeker, Sunday Iserian and his family was rejected by the Icelandic Directorate
of Immigration.
"I m a
dead man if I go back to Nigeria, but this isn't about me, it's about my
daughter. I want her to have a chance of a better life," he said in an
interview with Iceland Monitor.
32-year-old
Iserian lives in Iceland with his wife, Joy Lucky and their eight year old
daughter Mary. They have been subjected to violence, poverty and threats, and
Joy Lucky was a victim of sexual slavery while pregnant with Mary.
The news of
the the rejection of their application has met with some furor in Iceland and a
petition is now online for them to be able to stay in the country.
Speaking to
mbl.is, Joy describes being approached by a vicar at her local church back in
Nigeria who promised to get her a job as a nanny in Europe. Once she accepted the offer, which she had
good faith in, she was taken to a building where her hair, and her pubic hair,
was cut off and her body washed according to black magic rituals to scare her
into compliance. She was transported to Libya where she met Sunday and fell in
love. Once they fled across the Mediterranean to Italy the couple lost track of
each other and Joy discovered that she was pregnant. She only found Sunday again three years
later.
Upon arrival
in Italy, Joy was transported to a building in Naples where she was told that
she was not going to work as a nanny, but as a prostitute. She was told she
owed 50 thousand Euros for her transport to Italy and had to repay that debt by
selling her body on the streets of Naples.
When the men
who held her captive realised that she was pregnant they tried to force her to
have an abortion. She refused, and was stabbed through her hand with a knife.
(She shows the knife wound to the journalist of mbl.is)
"After
that I decided to try to escape," says Joy.
After four
months of being forced to work as a prostitute she fled and received help from
an Italian charity aiding victims of human trafficking. She was urged to report
to the police and was helped to a local hospital where she gave birth to Mary.
"After
I fled I started to receive threats. I was told if I didn't repay my debt they
would kill me and my family." Joy
says that these people attacked her mother and sister. Her mother died in the
attack and her sister lost her eyesight.
Sunday, on
the other hand fled to Italy for other reasons. He says that he was a victim of
political persecution and was afraid for his life. He worked as a driver for
the leader of the PDP democratic party, who was murdered when Sunday was
driving.
"They
shot him to death and then burned the car. I escaped to a nearby farm and then
hid with my uncle."
Following
this incident the Nigerian government put out a warrant for Sunday's arrest as
he was suspected of killing the man. Sunday shows the journalist a story from
the Sunday Observer where he's wanted by police following the murder. After
spending a few days at his uncle's house, members of the Boko Haram attacked
the home and killed his uncle and his uncle's son. Sunday fled to a nearby
church where he received money to get him away from Nigeria to Libya and
onwards to Italy.
Sunday and
Joy met up again in Italy in 2011. They lived in great poverty, sleeping at
trains stations and having to beg for food.
"I
wanted a better life so I managed to get online and found good countries to
live in via Google," says Sunday who spent the next couple of years saving
up enough money to move to Iceland. Once in Iceland, they applied for asylum
and received housing. Mary got into a school and Sunday got a job. In an
interview with mbl.is, his employer, who runs a construction company in
Hafnarfjörður, says that Sunday has given 110 % to his job, has never been late
and never missed a day off work.
"I
didn't just want to sit at home and do nothing," Sunday explains. "I
was told of new laws where asylum seekers can seek work and so I just applied
for a job." Sunday takes the bus to
work every day from Reykjanes to Hafnarfjörður.
Joy points
out that Sunday has paid taxes in Iceland since he started work and thinks it's
unfair that they are now being deported.
"I
don't want to live on the system here," says Sunday. I want to work and
pay back to society here. I want to continue doing that, I want to be a part of
this society. If the authorities don't want us to live in an apartment for
asylum seekers I will work even more and pay rent. Until now all our money goes
to our lawyer and for living expenses. Their daughter Mary already speaks
Icelandic. "Our daughter deserves to be in school here and to have a good
life."
The couple
applied for asylum for humanitarian reasons. However, the Icelandic Directorate
of Immigration reached a verdict in April that the couple should be sent back
to Italy due to the Dublin regulation. The verdict was taken up by the
Immigration and Asylum appeals board in Iceland who said that the family
couldn't be sent back to Italy as their position was too delicate but a second
verdict by the Icelandic directorate of immigration ruled that they should be
sent back to Nigeria instead. The appeals board came to the same conclusion.
Sunday and
Joy say that they haven't been able to sleep or eat for weeks for fear of being
deported. Joy says she still receives death threats and shows the journalist
numerous text messages and video messages which she has received, the last
being sent only a few days ago. One of the videos shows a man saying to Joy that
he will kill her, like he killed her mother. She says that the men found her on
Facebook and found out that she was returning to Nigeria. She adds that she
fears that Mary will be circumcised upon going back to Nigeria.
"I
don't like that and I don't want my daughter to have to go through that."
Joy
complains of health trouble after suffering a lot of physical and mental violence in her months as
a prostitute. She has however received no assistance for this in Iceland,
although the ruling of the Icelandic Directorate of immigration says that she
was undoubtedly the victim of human trafficing. She has attended Icelandic
courses in Iceland and goes to church regularly.
"Why
did they let us stay here for almost two years, with my daughter at school and
my husband working, when they're just going to kick us out? It's not
right." Sunday speaks to her softly
in Nigerian and then says to the journalist, "We are very grateful for the
help we've received. We're just frightened. If they are going to deport me, all
I ask is that my daughter can stay in Iceland and have a good life. It's the
only thing I ask for."
Friends of
the family in Iceland have launched a petition to let the family stay, pointing
out the 74th clause in the Icelandic immigration laws on a resident permit for
humanitarian reasons.
"Iceland
is a country which stands up for women's rights and the protection of children.
We can't stand by and let this happen. We plead for the Minister of Justice to
intervene and to reconsider this decision."
The decision
reached by the appeals board, however, says that they think Sunday's story is
lacking in credibility and that nothing points to him being persecuted by the
Nigerian government. The appeals board believes that Joy was a victim of human
trafficking but seeing as it's been almost a decade since she was forced into
prostitution, she's unlikely to be receiving threats from the people
responsible.
The couple
are now awaiting a meeting with the Icelandic ombudsman for children who, last
year, sent out a declaration where the Icelandic government was urged to take
better care in the treatment of cases of children applying for international
protection in Iceland. The Ombudman's office feels that there are too many
cases of the rights of children applying for children are ignored.
Source:
Iceland Monitor
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