Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2011, Page 10

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 4 — 2011
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Why Can't She Stay?
An interview with Nepalese asylum-seeker
Priyanka Thapa
By now many of our readers are
familiar with the case of Priyanka
Thapa. A young Nepalese woman
who came to Iceland as an au pair
for a family with two half-Nepalese
children, she began studying and
working in Iceland, and planned to
make a future here, when her fam-
ily informed her that she had been
slated for an arranged marriage.
Priyanka refused and applied for
asylum in Iceland. Although her ini-
tial application was rejected, spark-
ing a tremendous groundswell of
popular support (a Facebook page
calling upon the government to let
her stay has reached over 30.000
members), the Grapevine was in-
formed at the start of this interview
that the Directorate of Immigra-
tion has agreed to review her case
again. We caught up with Priyanka
and her host parents, Anna Lára
Steingrímsdóttir and Þórólfur Gun-
narsson, to learn more about the
situation.
What brought you to Iceland in the
first place?
Priyanka: I was looking for something
that I could do that would be able to
help out my family, and I heard about an
Icelandic family who needed an au pair.
Two of the children are half-Nepalese,
so they could learn about Nepal, while
it would help me by me being able to go
some place new and meet new people.
The Directorate of Immigration says
that you would have the freedom, in
Nepal, to say "no" to this marriage,
and therefore you're not in any par-
ticular danger. This decision was
supposedly based on a letter your
brother wrote; that the language he
used suggested you were request-
ed—not commanded—to return to
Nepal. How do you respond to that?
Þórólfur: Nepalese is a different lan-
guage from what we're used to. When
you take a translation straight, word
for word, from Hindi to English, you
actually end up confusing people who
read it with our thoughts and ideas. To
base [The Directorate of Immigration's
decision] on one word [“væntanlega”,
implying an expectation] that was put
in there, it's just—from all of these let-
ters, from all the material that's in there,
we found it really odd that they actually
picked that word, that can mean quite a
lot of different things.
P: It was not a request. It was like, I have
to [marry this person]. There was no
“Maybe you should do that” or some-
thing. There were no other options.
Þ: I think Útlendingastofnun [The Di-
rectorate of Immigration] should have
taken the entire context of the letter
into account, instead of focusing on just
this one word.
Can you explain what, exactly,
awaits you if you were to be sent
back to Nepal?
P: A man, whom I have never even
seen, I have to go and marry him, just
because he's going to help my family.
That's a deal between them. When I
came here, there was no talk of this at
all. If I were to go back there, my family
would not allow me to say no.
I understand you're now seeking
citizenship. Do you see yourself
spending the rest of your life in Ice-
land?
P: After I came here, I started dream-
ing, and started seeing my future in a
different way. I never thought I would
study and further my education, but af-
ter coming here, I have made a goal of
what I want to do with my life. I want
to study something based on chemistry,
pharmaceutical studies.
What do you think of the outpouring
of support you've been getting from
the general public?
P: When I first heard the news [of be-
ing denied asylum], I was always cry-
ing, but after seeing the support of the
people, I think I'm not going back. It's
so amazing how Icelandic people have
supported me, and welcomed me with
open arms. But also, they don't judge
people based on where they come from;
they judge you based on what you are
and what you are heading towards. In
Nepal, people judge you based on what
your caste is, what your background is,
how much money you have. There is
no equality between background and
caste; everything is discrimination. If
my husband dies, or leaves me, I have
no right to be with another man, but he
can be with another woman.
You may have heard that there are
some very wealthy individuals who
have also applied for citizenship—
they say they will invest millions
of dollars in Iceland if it is given to
them. What do you think of the idea
of "buying" citizenship? Is this fair
to poorer people, who also want to
be Icelandic citizens?
P: When someone asks for citizenship,
I think the first thing [the government]
should ask is, “Who needs it most? Who
is really a needy person?” We have
been honest in everything, from the
start. And I think, honesty wins in the
end, because honesty is the best policy.
And how about you, the host par-
ents—what are your thoughts on
this?
Anna Lára: When we got to know her,
we really grew to like her a lot. So when
we heard about the situation, and what
was going to happen, we of course
couldn't accept that. We couldn't see
her future like that. She's a very clever
girl, hard-working and ambitious. If she
wasn't like that, we wouldn't be here
now. It's been our fight, and we're really
optimistic, especially after the newest
news.
Þ: The newest news was a decision was
made about three hours ago, based
on some new documents we sent to
UTL. Basically, we're going to send in
the same application, only with some
new documents, and they are going
to re-evaluate her application. After
what we've gone through, I think it's
absolutely crucial in this situation to
have some lawyers assist with the ini-
tial application. The people at [the law
offices] Réttur have been doing a seri-
ously good job. Hopefully we'll get that
answer quickly, but it can take up to 90
days. Based on the support we've been
getting, this is just unbelievable. We are
very optimistic.
Immigration | Asylum-seekers
PAUL FONTAINE
HöRðUR SVEINSSON
There is lots of room in Iceland. It is a pretty sparsely populated country by
all accounts. We really should be more hospitable, accept more refugees and
asylum-seekers, etc. If you disagree, then explain why in our letters section.