A video of Henry Turay, a refugee from Sierra Leone currently hiding from authorities in Iceland, has appeared on YouTube.
Turay arrived in Iceland from Germany about two and a half months ago. Icelandic authorities, as they almost always do with refugess, invoked the Dublin Accord. This treaty allows – but does not require – governments to send refugees back to their previous point of departure. When Turay learned he was going to be deported, he went into hiding. In the video, he says he will stay in hiding until he receives a residence permit, or his application for asylum is processed.
Haukur Hilmarsson, a friend of Turay’s, told Vísir that Turay fears being sent back to Germany, because from there he will be sent back to Sierra Leone, where he hasn’t lived in eight years. Kristrún Kristinsdóttir, the office manager of the Ministry of Justice, says that there has been no talk of sending Turay back to Sierra Leone; only to Germany. German authorities have also asked to have him back.
As invokation of the Dublin Accord appears to be getting stronger across Europe, many refugees are afraid of being sent back to war-town and totalitarian countries.