17 year-old Ismael will spend tonight trying to sleep in an abandoned basement. Tomorrow he will rise and patiently wait his turn at one of the city’s soup kitchens before washing in a homeless shelter. Yet even this impoverished existence is an improvement on the conditions Ismael was living in just a few days ago.
The teenager – originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo – was recently released after spending ten-months and one week imprisoned in Athenian police jails, and another week in the Amygdaleza Immigrant Detention Center as an irregular immigrant. His only crime had been stealing food in desperation.
According to reporting by Ioanna Fotiadi in the Kathimerini newspaper, Ismael contacted the Greek Council for Refugees, an NGO, a few days ago after being granted a permit to stay in the country on humanitarian grounds. According to Ismael, the conditions he faced in prison were harsh, with poor food and no exercise.
But Ismael’s troubles began much earlier in his childhood in the DRC. As the son of a famous singer, his future may have once been bright. However his father, a vocal critic of the regime, was killed over his anti-establishment lyrics. Not long after, Ismael’s mother also died and Ismael was taken in by a foster family. Later, his father’s political allies arranged for him to flee the country and in 2012 Ismael made it into Greece via Turkey.
When Ismael arrived in the country he did not have access to any process to secure asylum, completing an application voluntarily by himself. What followed was a tragic irony. Ismael was caught stealing food from a supermarket but was subsequently acquitted by a judge on the grounds that theft was for the purpose of survival. Yet Ismael was then immediately re-arrested for not having legal permission to stay in Greece, this despite him not being an adult.
“Minors, according to the declaration of the rights of children cannot be detained. Rather at the request of the state prosecutor they must be placed in foster care,” Spyros Kouloheris a lawyer for the Greek Council of Refugees was quoted as saying. “However here we come up against the lack of the necessary institutional structures and legislative framework for dealing with minors, as well as a large backlog of cases that the state prosecutor has to deal with in Attica.”
The asylum commission granted Ismael a permit to stay in Greece on humanitarian grounds which protects him from arrest and allows him to live and work in Greece for up to two years. “However it may not be renewed as Ismael will soon be an adult,” according to Mr Kouloheris.
Ismael was only given a photocopy of the first and last page of the 24 page decision, written in Greek. “Our goal is to read in detail the decision so we can understand the legislator’s decision process and at the same time search for appropriate housing for Ismael.” Mr Kouloheris told the newspaper.
And so as Greeks turn towards 2014 wondering what the future holds for their country, Ismael, and the countless other asylum seekers like him, will be wondering if they have a future in any country at all.
Source: Kathimerini