Iceland review - 2006, Page 64

62 ICELAND REVIEW
in his home country.”
Is Iceland, a wealthy nation, deporting frightened refugees back
to third-world countries where they wind up in dusty prison cells,
possibly left to die?
“We are adamant that we are living up to our responsibilities. We
are not sending people back to where they are being persecuted,”
Gudmundsson replies.
FEAR OF DEATH or persecution are the main reasons why a person
f lees their home country. With all the legalese f lung back and forth
between Justice and lawyers battling for their clients, it’s easy to
forget that the asylum seekers at the hostel are more than numbers
and statistics to be debated.
“We live out here like dogs,” says a Nigerian asylum seeker, who also
prefers not to reveal his name. With his voice rising like a preacher
delivering a sermon, he adds: “They should treat us like human
beings.”
Clad in a woolly sweater and hat, this charismatic man leans over
a hot stove in a cluttered kitchen that looks as if it’s inhabited by a
collection of college kids. He’s preparing spiced chicken and some
sort of doughy bread. “African food,” he tells me. Money for food
comes out of the measly ISK 2,000 weekly allowance doled out to
each asylum seeker by the municipality of Reykjanesbaer. While the
Nigerian is obviously worried about his case, which has been pending
for about four months, he seems to rather enjoy cooking. It helps him
pass the time.
“It’s not so bad out there,” says Idunn Ingólfsdóttir, who was hired
by the Reykjanesbaer government two years ago to tend to the needs
of asylum seekers while they live in limbo. “What they really need is
something to do.”
Ingólfsdóttir points out that she is not a social worker. Instead, she sets
doctor’s appointments for asylum seekers, helps them find lawyers,
trips to the swimming pool. She is always available by telephone,
and visits the hostel five days a week, sometimes just so “they have
someone to talk to.”
While Ingólfsdóttir’s relationship with the asylum seekers is far from
motherly, she sometimes grows close to those she helps the most,
the ones who choose to share more of their complicated stories with
her. It must be a difficult job since roughly 96 percent of the asylum
seekers she befriends will be deported.
“I’m almost always there when someone is deported. I’m there to take
their key. These are people who have been here for maybe a year with
me. I think it’s better to close like that. To say goodbye,” she says.
Trying to get her to open up, I ask if she grows despondent watching
so many displaced people come and go through Iceland’s revolving
doors. Ingólfsdóttir chuckles, playing her emotions close to her chest
like a poker player working a bluff.
“Sometimes you want a particular person to get [asylum], but I try
not to think like that. I don’t make any decisions. I just make sure
they have food and can sleep.”
A LACK OF SOMETHING TO DO is an issue the Icelandic Red
Cross also feels strongly about, according to Atli Vidar Thorstensen,
project manager for asylum seekers and refugees. It’s one of the few
points of contention the organization will voice on record against the
government’s handling of asylum seekers for fear of tainting the Red
Cross’ founding principle of neutrality. (The other main complaints
are that asylum seekers don’t have free access to an attorney until their
case has been rejected by Immigration, and they file for an appeal.
Plus, they are not issued ID cards stating who they are and that they
have a legal right to be in Iceland while their cases are pending.)
“The asylum system in Iceland is not as developed as in other
countries,” Thorstensen says. “But our overall treatment of asylum
seekers is not bad. We think it’s more humane if they have something
NUMBER OF POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
APPLICANTS ASYLUM PERMISSION
1990 4 0 2
1991 8 0 0
1992 3 0 2
1993 7 0 0
1994 0 0 0
1995 4 0 0
1996 4 0 1
1997 6 0 3
1998 24 0 13
1999 24 1 5
2000 25 0 4
SCHENGEN IMPLEMENTED
2001 53 0 8
2002 117 0 5
2003 80 0 3
2004 76 0 0
2005 87 0 0
TOTALS 522 1 46
ICELANDIC RED CROSS STATISTICS ON ASYLUM