Tekist á um íslensk flóttamannamál (og brjóstagjöf) í Guardian

Nú er tekist á um íslensk flóttamannamál á vef breska dagblaðsins Guardian – einum mest lesna fréttavef í heimi. Nanna Árnadóttir, sem hefur starfað við blaðamennsku á Grapevine hér á Íslandi, skrifar grein þar sem hún fjallar um Unni Brá Konráðsdóttur og brjóstagjöf hennar í pontu Alþingis nýskeð.

En Nanna vill ekki beina athyglinni að brjóstagjöfinni, að hennar mati er verið að fremja illvirki undir yfirskini femínisma, því Unnur Brá hafi verið að mæla fyrir lögum sem heimila að senda hælisleitendur burt.

Greinin birtist fyrr í dag, hún lítur svona út.

What a win for feminism! Women can truly have it all! Want to be a mother and strip asylum seekers of rights in parliament? Go for it! The skys the limit!

What was that? Oh right, yes that little detail was dropped from most of the reporting on the subject. The bill Konráðsdóttir was arguing for will deny some asylum seekers in Iceland the right to delay deportation while they appeal against their case decisions. This means deported asylum seekers will have to appeal from abroad, forcing them into a great logistical and financial disadvantage.

But instead, international media were so busy praising Konráðsdóttirs identity as a mother, her identity as a politician trying to whip up some support for a bill that caters to Icelands very own “basket of deplorables” two weeks before a national election fell by the wayside.

Nanna heldur síðan áfram og rekur frammistöðu íslenskra stjórnvalda í flóttamannamálum, meðal annars mál Tonys Olmos og afsögn Hönnu Birnu Kristjánsdóttur.

Þess er reyndar ekki getið grein Nönnu að lagagreinin sem Unnur Brá mælti fyrir tekur einungis til hælisleitenda frá því sem teljast vera „örugg lönd“. Þarna er mestanpart um að ræða fólk frá Albaníu, Kosovo og Makedóníu, en meðfram fólksflutningunum miklu í fyrra magnaðist upp straumur fólks þaðan.

En í svari sem birtist á vef Guardian við grein Nönnu Árnadóttur má lesa þetta:

This particular bill was targeted at asylum seekers from the Balkans. Fifty percent of asylum seekers in Iceland in the first nine months of the year were from the Balkans–mostly Albanians and Macedonians. They are considered economic migrants and their asylum claims are rejected wholesale. It is a massive drain on resources to house hundreds of them for months on end while they appeal their initial rejections since it is a dead cert they will all be sent home in the end.

The bill also specifically said that only those asylum seekers with a low chance of winning on appeal and who were nationals of countries deemed safe would be deported while their appeals were pending. Therefore, it wont automatically be invoked for people from Syria, for example, because that is definitely not on the list of safe countries. The bill is an emergency one in effect only until next January, IIRC, and is in direct response to the govt having to put up Balkan asylum seekers in regular hotels for regular market prices because they have run out of other accommodation. It also doesnt have anything to do with the Dublin regulation, which the Immigration dept is already free to invoke and does so with regularity, unfortunately.

The Immigration depts unofficial policy does seem to be to reject as many applicants as possible and it does make messed-up decisions all the time, but I dont think this bill is part of that. In the few asylum claims that have been approved this year, the people were mostly from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, and I personally much prefer my tax dollars (krónur) being spent on people in urgent need from war-torn countries like these.