Earlier this year, leading international Human Rights organizations reported the purportedly illegal detention and mistreatment of a group of Somali asylum seekers in Ukraine. On January 19, 2012, Amnesty International (AI) announced that about 60 Somali nationals, including 20 children, went on a hunger strike to protest against their “pointless” detention, one of many in a row for some detainees, at the Zhuravichi Migrant Accommodation Centre in northwestern Ukraine. According to AI’s later reports, there were also 6 Eritreans among the protestors. The 60 Somalis are part of a larger group of 125 Somali citizens detained at the center since January 6th.  Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that around 80 of the Somalis notified UNHCR of their intention to apply for asylum in Ukraine and that the Somalis’ detention deprived them of the opportunity to file an application for a refugee status or appeal a rejection of their asylum applications by the State Migration Service.

AI believes that the detention of Somali nationals “for the purposes of deportation”, as stated in official papers, is pointless because according to records, no Somali or Eritrean citizens have ever been deported from Ukraine. AI stresses, “Everyone knows – the police, the ministry of internal affairs and the Somalis themselves – that they won’t ever be deported”. The reason is that Ukraine, as party to a few international conventions on human rights, is obliged not to return anyone to any country if there is a threat of serious human rights violations for the returnees. What usually happens to Somalis is that they are first detained for being illegally present in the country for up to a year, then released and given five days to reach the Somali embassy. Since there is no Somali embassy in the country, the former detainees are soon re-arrested and put in a detention center again for another year. HRW confirms this scenario for the majority of the detainees. AI concludes that since there is no prospect of deportation, detention “for the purposes of deportation” is “arbitrary and unlawful”.

What makes the situation even worse is that the Somali detainees maintain they were blatantly abused and tortured while at the detention facilities. For example, AI reports that some said “they had been placed in an isolation unit without a bed for several days, and that they received anonymous emails and phone calls containing death threats and racist abuse”. During the hunger strike, also according to AI, security forces attempted to end the strike by forcing the protesters to eat and filming them whilst eating. HRW points out that the Ukrainian authorities have previously been found responsible for torture under European human rights law by forcibly feeding detainees. It also adds that during the strike “a group of approximately 21 police officers, masked and armed with batons and tear gas,” came to the detention center to search detainees’ rooms and while searching hit some of the hunger strikers with batons. HRW sent a letter to the Ukrainian authorities urging immediate release of the detainees.

This case reveals a few of the many problems in the Ukraine’s legal framework and law enforcement. In a report in 2010, HRW found that “migration detention in Ukraine is often arbitrary and detainees do not enjoy reliable access to a judge or other authority, or access to legal representation to challenge their detention”. Besides, the report claimed that “asylum applications from detainees are frequently not processed”, “many claims are rejected as manifestly unfounded”, and that “a migrant or asylum seeker may be detained without any individual assessment of such necessity”.

Photo source: http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/news/2012/uk-supporters-ukraine-refugee-protest-picket-london-embassy-solidarity

The aims of the project:

After corresponding with the Initiative Middle and Eastern Europe  for the Speak Up for Human Rights! New Media! campaign, independent film makers Johannes Franke and Sebastion Hasse decided to form a documentary team to follow the project. The documentary follows a human rights seminar uniting 30 young adults from Germany, Ukraine and Belarus for three one-week seminars, in which they discuss the state of human rights in general and in their countries. During this time participants learn about the past and current state of human rights, and importantly how they can help advocate for those rights. All the participants come from very different political and social backgrounds, and it is hoped through the project that the participants will not only learn from one another but find a way to unite in the struggle and fight for human rights.

At the end of the project, Johannes and Sebastian plan to release a 30-45 minute documentary which chronicles the project and portrays diverse group of participants, their interests, goals and their lives in Central and Eastern Europe, and the limitations they must face.

The film intents to follow the project and its participants; How do they see their joint future, what are their desires, hopes and visions for their countries? What kind of external powers are they facing in their daily struggle to maintain their grounds and their human rights? And how do they relate to each other?

The filmmakers hope to create a very informative and innovative documentary that will be available to many around the world. However, these efforts are costly and the crew need every penny they can get to contribute to the project. To find out more about the project or to donate select the following link:

To meet other fans and supporters of this project visit their facebook page. Take part in the development of this film.
http://www.facebook.com/speakup4humanrights

Who are the filmmakers:

Sebastian Hasse studied computer science and drama. He ended up in the film business over producing interactive DVDs. While he works as an computer scientist half of the time, he devotes the rest of his time to making film projects. Among others he produces the intercultural web-comedy-series „Points Of You“: www.pointsofyou.eu. In the board of the non-profit organisation “Kunstwandel e.V.i.G.” he engages in the support of the free filmmakers and art scene in Berlin: www.kunstwandel-berlin.de.

Johannes Franke is cameraman, cutter, and director as well as an actor, which makes him a film maker all through. His most recent movie EWE successfully ran at the “up-and-coming” film festival in Hanover and at the „Youki“ in Wels (Austria). In the past years he mostly worked on documentaries such as a short documentary on a gestures singing workshop for deaf children with Rolf Zuckowski and a long-playing documentary on the generation of “young entrepreneurs”. More information on his work as a filmmaker on: www.gone-astray-films.de – and on his work as an actor on: www.johannesfranke.de

Lara Sielmann studies Creative Writing and Cultural Journalism. She is working as a freelance journalist, production manager and as assistant for miscellaneous cultural projects such as: litradio, Edition Pächterhaus,100 Wort!, documentary “Gründerbus” and is the co-editor of Landpartie 2010, Kein Katalog.

They are lent support by Sophia Gross (second camera in Ukraine and camera assistance www.lights-n-arts.de) and Elisabeth Wolf (second camera in Germany).