The Guardian | Le traitement des requérants d’asile en Europe est motivé par la peur

La violence contre les migrants est en augmentation. Pourquoi les privilégiés ont si peur de ceux qui nécessitent de l’aide?

Article de Tanya Gold, publié dans le Guardian, le 12 août 2013. Cliquez ici pour lire l’article original (en anglais).

Tanya Gold, dans son article, se demande notamment ce qui menace le sommeil calme de la Suisse, 4ème pays le plus riche du monde, avec un taux de chômage de seulement 3%…

Elle se pose cette question, notamment suite aux événements qui ont eu lieu à Bremgarten (v. notre billet « Bremgarten (AG) | Le nouveau centre national pour requérants d’asile suscite des polémiques en Suisse et à l’étranger« ).

The fear with which the fortunate contemplate the unfortunate is baffling, but it is dogged. Advocates for asylum seekers across Europe report the following trends: a rise in verbal intimidation and physical violence towards asylum seekers, even as it remains an under-reported and under-investigated crime; increased cuts in funding for NGOs supporting asylum seekers (most recently the Spanish Commission for the Assistance of Refugees is threatened), so asylum seekers are unaware of their legal rights; a lack of reception capacity, so asylum seekers are destitute while their cases are heard; a refusal to let asylum seekers land in Europe, which often results in their deaths. (As the case of Jimmy Mubenga, who died on a repatriation flight to Angola in 2010, reminds us, they die going in the other direction too.) The UN refugee agency says that 1,500 people drowned, or were reported missing, trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2011. According to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, last week 102 people on a vessel originating in Libya, including pregnant women and children, were denied entry to Malta and waited helplessly at sea. They stayed there for two days while countries squabbled – eventually Italy took them in.