Salomon Wantchoucou with Gitta Düpertal from JW Press
Foto by Thomas Kriska - United against Colonial Injustice in Jena
Open letter to his Excellency, The Extraordinary Minister and plenipotentiary of foreign affairs, of African integration, of the francophone and of the Benin in exterior
Mr Jean Marie EHOUZOU
Ministre Plénipotentiaire des Affaires Etrangères, de l’IntégrationAfricaine, de la Francophonie et des Béninois de l’Extérieur
BP 318 Cotonou Bénin
Möhlau, August 17, 2011
His Excellency,
The Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants, The VOICE refugee forum, “Flüchtlingsinitiative Möhlau Wittenberg" and The African initiative Wittenberg are highly condemning the practice of sending your delegates to Europe with the intention of identifying who is from Benin so as to accord to the European authority a travelling certificate to return refugees back to your home country.
The foreign office of Wittenberg, local office of Grafenhainichen has mandated again 11 refugees to appear in a mobile Identification hearing with the intention of obtaining travelling documents.
The address of this hearing is;
Landesamt für Bürger-und Ordnungsangelegenheit (LAB)
Friedrich-Krause-Ufer 24, 13353 Berlin
Date: 31.08.2011
Time: 09.30 AM
We demand an automatic protection to the human right and political activist Mr Salomon Wantchoucou.
These are refugees that fled the country because of political persecution, religious persecution, some have no contacts and family affiliation any more in Benin, disintegrated .
Mr Minister, do you know that these refugees have been denied their rights for many years. Their right to asylum, their right to resident permission, their right to work and were isolated in a rural areas without perspective for not only 2 years but for many years - up to 10 years and more and more.... although they were not criminals.
They have adapted and integrated to the German society and it would be unacceptable to send these refugees back to Benin without any perspective and protection, without considering the dangers and the possible death that these refugees would be facing.
We demand to stop these delegation practices from Benin, to abolish this kind of collaborations and practices that they used to endanger the lives of innocent refugees.
We demand protection to all refugees and say no to deportation because it is a crime against humanity.
Yours sincerely
Public relation counsel
The Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants
The VOICE Refugee Forum
Flüchtlingsinitiative Möhlau Wittenberg
Salomon Wantchoucou