UNHCR, war on refugee

This part of my story started six years after the first part. Six years rolled by before I decided to go to the UNHCR office again.

1- After September 11th I started to think of put my biography (story) on the net, since I wanted to talk about many things like Saddam, terrorism, the situation in Iraq and the problems experienced by refugees. And because of this I need the recognition of the UNHCR as approval for what I'm speaking.

2- Since I wanted to write about the UNHCR, I needed to be sure of the information that I was using, maybe I was wrong the first time. I needed to find out again what is going on with the refugees, and give them another chance. I wanted to see if they would deal with me in a fair way. I was prepared to tell them that I would tell the world using the net for all to see and maybe for them to see also.

In December the company I was working for closed and that gave me plenty of time to start to visit the UNHCR office’s everyday, now that I didn’t have work.

I noticed that they had moved into another building, a bigger one than before. So I started to talk with the other people who were in the same situation as me, to try to understand the system. There were new procedures there now; first there is a board on the wall where they put all the announcements. One message says ‘if you are new come on Tuesday, for appeals come on Friday’. When I saw this, it felt like I was in a factory. It all looked like they are dealing with machines not people (one day is the oil change, the next day they change the water). In this new system there is no way to deal with any special problems, (mine for example).

I also see that they put the results of the interviews on the board, with numbers not names. So if you are looking for your results you have to look for your file number and this gave me the cold feeling they were dealing with files or machines not people. This board is a very sorry sight to see. (Now in 2003 they stopped doing that after what I said on the net).

Another change was that there was a policeman (Hassan) there from the general security of Lebanon. He works for the Lebanese government to protect the offices of the UNHCR. He is there when the offices are open, at the main door to prevent anybody from going inside the office. So if any of the asylum seekers or refugees have something to work out with the people at the UNHCR they have to speak first with him, then he goes inside and talks with someone who is employed at the UNHCR, for example: He might let the caller go into the office, or Hassan may give the person a message from inside ‘like go and come back in a week, or you need to do this or that’. So no one can get inside the office unless they speak with Hassan first.

If you ask any refugees in Lebanon who is the director of the UNHCR is, they won’t know, but every refugee and asylum seeker knows Hassan. Hassan takes his salary from the government of Lebanon to help at the UNHCR. Before this one of the employees would come outside to speak with us in person, but now Hassan has this job to speak with us, a go between, something like a messenger for the asylum seekers to the people inside and back with replies. So because they employed Hassan we don't have any connection with the people that work for the UNHCR inside the office anymore and it depends if he agrees before we can speak to anyone.

On the announcement board they deal with three things:

1) New Applications.

2) Appeals.

3) Renewing refugees' cards.

So under which category do I put my problem? I couldn’t work it out! So I spoke with Hassan the God of refugees! He takes days just to understand me. Afterwards he goes inside to tell someone about my story, and he comes back out with the result, saying that I need to make an application for an appeal and I need to write my story and put it in the appeal box that hangs on the wall outside the office. I did this plus more, I put with it a copy of my website on a floppy disc. This way they will be able to see what I have put on the net.

I had to wait for 2 weeks for the results; I needed to go on Friday because this is the procedure, it was Ok with me. So after 2 weeks I went to see the results of my appeal. On the Friday morning Hassan started putting the results from inside the office outside on the board for us to read in the street. Because nobody from the street is allowed to go inside the UNHCR office and we all have to remain outside for the results of the applications. I had been waiting 2 weeks for the results, but there was nothing for me. At the end of the day I asked Hassan about my application, he said it could possibly be there next week.

So I went there again, but the results were the same, nothing for me. I started to wonder; is it because of what they wrote on the appeals box ‘any messages without the original result slip will be ignored’ and wondered if this was the problem. If you don't have the number you don't exist on the map of humanity. Again I spoke with Hassan on this issue. I asked him if I could go inside so I could explain my problem better to them in person. Maybe there was someone inside the office who could answer my questions and show me what I needed to do next so I can get the refugee status I needed for my safety. He refused to let me in, and told me to put my name and my file number on another slip paper so I did. In the space for the file number I put unknown. He went inside for awhile and returned with this information:

“You need to come back in 3 months to meet Leyla so she can reopen your file because your case is closed.”

“But why do I have to wait for 3 months?” I asked him.

“Because she is on holiday in Canada and nobody can do her job until she comes back” He answered.

So can you imagine this, the whole world must stop because her majesty Leyla has taken herself away on holiday for three months!!!

I agreed to wait, even though it wasn’t fair, because of the procedures. They said the files must be closed after the appeal is rejected, but I hadn’t made an appeal before so how could they close my file? I didn’t even have an interview in side the office. To be sure of that fact I insisted on having my file number, because without it I can do nothing and without it I don't exist on the map of Humanity.

Maybe I can live without a home, family, wife, children, TV, phone, car, computer, fridge, money and work, actually I can live without all these luxurious things, but how can I live without my number? It's not possible is it? I need to have my number!!!

I kept on going to the UNHCR office hoping to talk to one of the employees. One day after 2 months of going daily to UNHCR office, a woman who works there came outside the office, and I had a chance to speak with her, she asked me to come inside the place for the first time since they changed buildings and the second time in six years. Again she didn't tell me her name or her job in the office. I told her my story, and she told me to follow her. She led me to different office, where I met another woman, she asked this new woman to look at my problem.

This is only the second time I entered the office of the UNHCR in Beirut in 6 years, and again this person didn't tell me her name or her job (I learnt afterwards that her name is Sonya). She asked me about my story and I told her, then she looked into the computer for any information about me. She couldn't find anything on me.

She said "your file is still open", I answered “good, will you find it for me please?" She went out of the office for a moment and brought a man came back with her. He didn't tell me his name or what job he had and he asked to hear my story. I told him that my story is on the net and if they liked I could give them the Internet address, he answered me “NO, try to print it and bring it to me” and I agreed, on the same day I printed it as a file. The next day I went to the office to give it to him. I waited for him outside the office until he came out. I reminded him he had asked for it as a file and gave my story to him.

I wanted to know the result and I waited for three days until one day he came out of the office, I asked him what he thought about what he had read in my file. He said that Sonya would tell me all about it, that meant I needed to see her now, but how would this be possible? I decided to ask Hassan, his answer was, that Sonya’s work is to look after people who have been arrested by the Lebanese Police and those who have been in prison.

Apparently she came to the main door of the office at 1:00 P.M. That meant she moved six meters from her office each day to the main door outside the office to look after people who have been in prison. Can you see how much effort she made to help us? And I don't know how it's possible for anyone from the prison to be able to wait at the UNHCR main door so he can speak to Sonya!!!

I waited for her and when she appeared, I asked her to speak to me. She asked me to come into her office. There she looked for my file (the new one that I gave to the man four days before) but she didn't find it, she became a little angry, and she started to argue with me asking why I had put my story on the net and why I came now? This went on for nearly ten minutes, and then she promised that she would find my file in one week, I left with the promise that I would be back the next week.

After one week I went to the office again, at one o'clock she came outside and took me into her office, there she told me:

"Look your file was closed because of all the time that has passed" I'm sure this isn't true because I know the procedure and I could see that she didn't even try to find it. So I said "Ok, then just please give me the number of my file". I thought that doing this would show whether she had found my file or not. She said, "Look you don't have the right to talk with me anymore".

I told her that I understand that she couldn't find my old file and that could I do a new one? Her answer was; "If you come here again I'll bring the police here and you'll know exactly what will happen".

That happened in the office of the biggest organization in the world! Its only reason for existence is to the refugees and asylum seekers of the world, so what did she do? A representative of this most respected of organizations. She threatened me with the police instead of offering me protection. "Sonya" an employee of the UNHCR, how could she do that? Sonya effectively declared war on me, and possibly countless others. And I wondered; how could she have the heart to do this?

It was clear that she is not happy with me for putting my story on the net and about the explanation of the incidents that happened with me 6 years before! I tried to use the net to publish my words, to explain my ideas, to let my voice be heard more widely, to help in bringing understanding between humans and as a way to contact people on the net. I started to contact the people who work inside the office of UNHCR by email because I couldn’t find another way to contact them in real life. But all that didn’t look good to the people of UNHCR so they threatened me with using the power of the authorities of Lebanon, which means they would use force to arrest me because I’m an illegal resident in Lebanon.

It was clearly a declaration of war, and I took it very seriously and felt I needed to defend myself against the threatened aggression of those people working for the UNHCR!!!