POLICE IS ON THE
LOOKOUT FOR US.
We, who have our reasons to leave our homes and are
looking for a refuge, are divided in good “ fleeing war ”
and bad “ fleeing poverty ” migrants.
It begins with our placement into socially isolated
accommodations, on the outskirts of cities near forests
or industrial areas. We’re settled into underground
bunkers, unhealthy places made for wars in ancient
times. They have been equipped to house refugees,
sometimes up to 120 people, ten to twenty in each room.
Living there means you have to cope with violence
and theft, which are daily routine and effects of these
conditions. The staff – security and social workers –
does not feel responsible for this, but are taking care
that aggressions remain on that level and are not expressed against the staff by calling the police. These
conditions make it more difficult or impossible to even
get in contact with the local population or to live a life
as they do. There are the political campaigns of anti-immigrant parties, such as the SVP, trying to spread
fear among the Swiss population. These campaigns
fertilise xenophobia and police brutality.
Police are on the lookout for us. Checks and raids
are an omnipresent and daily experience: in front of
passers-by on the street, at the train station, sometimes inside the bunkers and camps, without warning,
day and night. This treatment is quite simply racist. Not long ago I was treated like that. The officer
claimed that I was here to steal and loot the wealth
of his country and that I should be pleased living in a
bunker, because “ it is a better place than back at your
country! ” He added: “ Your place is outside Switzerland! ” I responded by rejecting his racist assumptions,
that something is better here and that it’s none of his
business judging people’s rights to travel and migrate.
There are many reasons for us to leave our homes, and
if the officer would have just experienced one of these,
he wouldn’t have dared to say those words.