Sunday, February 21, 2010
Adventures
So if you are reading this post you may have noticed a change in the title of my blog from "Adventures in the travels and life of Kirsten" to "Adventures in the Life of Kirsten". As most of you know this blog was initially intended to keep friends and family abreast of my experiences in South Africa and Switzerland, and you also know that I have now been back in Canada for more than 2 months and while I miss South Africa terribly my adventures there have meant that I have even more friends all over the world who I need to keep in touch with. Also it would seem that my adventures are not travel dependent. In fact after some thought about it Adventures seem to be a major theme in my life. My love for adventure even goes as far as to explain a lot of the random things that I have experienced that previously seemed inexplicable. One example of this is the delightfully random people who I meet and tell me their stories, since meeting new people is often part of my adventures. So right now my adventures happen to be occurring in Halifax, and they will be for a little bit longer than I thought since my contract with the Halifax Refugee Clinic has been extended. And while the location of my adventures may be shifting well into the future, you can count on one thing, that I will keep writing about them in this blog.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
In memorial
Its been a while since I updated my blog.
I wish it was in happier circumstances that I wrote this.
I have been working at the Halifax Refugee Clinic now for 4 weeks. Today when I got into work I was informed that one of the refugees had disappeared after leaving a suicide note, that all of his things in his room and that they were continuing to search for him.
This refugee was from Eritrea where where he had been part of the army, which is known for having committed serious human rights abuses. After having tried to desert the army and being recaptured and forced into retraining, this man left the country leaving his life and his family behind. He was found inadmissible for refugee status in Canada as a result of his involvement in the army, despite the fact that there is documented evidence that if he returned to Eritrea he would be tortured and killed.
The law making people who are suspected of being involved of major human rights abuses makes a lot of sense on its surface, Canada probably doesn't want people to seek asylum here from legal repercussions resulting from actions which they perpetrated in their home countries. However, this line of logic assumes that the countries where these people are coming from have just non corrupt legal systems that don't inflict torture and death on their prisoners and returned refugees. Sending someone accused of human rights abuses to a country where they almost certainly will face torture and death seems to follow the same logic as the death penalty, which is flawed at best. In such cases arguably it would be better for Canada to exercise universal jurisdiction and detain and hear the case of the individual hear and in the case of a guilty verdict also detain them here to avoid such unthinkable situations.
The day that this refugee disappeared was the same day that he was supposed to have a meeting with Canadian Border Services Agency to begin the process of deportation (a flight risk assessment).
At 1:30 this afternoon the clinic got a call informing us that the refugee had hung himself in Clayton Park.
I wish it was in happier circumstances that I wrote this.
I have been working at the Halifax Refugee Clinic now for 4 weeks. Today when I got into work I was informed that one of the refugees had disappeared after leaving a suicide note, that all of his things in his room and that they were continuing to search for him.
This refugee was from Eritrea where where he had been part of the army, which is known for having committed serious human rights abuses. After having tried to desert the army and being recaptured and forced into retraining, this man left the country leaving his life and his family behind. He was found inadmissible for refugee status in Canada as a result of his involvement in the army, despite the fact that there is documented evidence that if he returned to Eritrea he would be tortured and killed.
The law making people who are suspected of being involved of major human rights abuses makes a lot of sense on its surface, Canada probably doesn't want people to seek asylum here from legal repercussions resulting from actions which they perpetrated in their home countries. However, this line of logic assumes that the countries where these people are coming from have just non corrupt legal systems that don't inflict torture and death on their prisoners and returned refugees. Sending someone accused of human rights abuses to a country where they almost certainly will face torture and death seems to follow the same logic as the death penalty, which is flawed at best. In such cases arguably it would be better for Canada to exercise universal jurisdiction and detain and hear the case of the individual hear and in the case of a guilty verdict also detain them here to avoid such unthinkable situations.
The day that this refugee disappeared was the same day that he was supposed to have a meeting with Canadian Border Services Agency to begin the process of deportation (a flight risk assessment).
At 1:30 this afternoon the clinic got a call informing us that the refugee had hung himself in Clayton Park.
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