Open Borders For People In Need, Instead Of Closing Them
Katja Kipping, party chair of the party DIE LINKE, welcomes Pope Francis’ visit to Lampedusa to advert to the fate of refugees from North Africa. This is an important sign for more humanity in dealing with refugees. More than 1,000 refugees that tried to reach Lampedusa have drowned. This shows that we need a more humane and liberal refugee policy in Europe.
In this regard, I point out a further humanitarian disaster in the Tunisian refugee camp in Choucha. Since the Tunisian government’s shutting down of the refugee camp and the withdrawal of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), several hundred people live there without elementary care. Therefore, the refugee organization Pro Asyl warns against the refusal of admission of the remaining Choucha refugees by the EU. If admission was denied, the wretched situation will force the people there to flight further. Protection seekers, partly carrying the refugee passport, would thus be forced to go on a perilous journey across the Mediterranean, and perhaps to their death. The first refugees from Choucha have already out of desperation prepared themselves to return to Libya, in order to get to Europe from there. Because of this I asked to admit these people in Europe.