Transcriber: Hazem Idriss Reviewer: TED Translators admin
Would I be ready to host a refugee?
Would you?
My wife and I asked ourselves this question about nine months ago,
after seeing all the news about the sinking boats full of refugees.
And of course the picture of the dead boy stranded on the beach in Turkey.
It didn't feel right.
It was happening right here, on the doorsteps of Europe.
There must be something we could do to help.
We are neither experts of immigration nor anthropologists.
We are an ordinary family we have three children,
we live in a house in Riga,
I run a small business,
I run a board game company.
But [what] would it be like to host a refugee?
What would it feel like to have a stranger in your house?
How would my children react?
What would parents say,
neighbours, colleagues
friends?
So many questions and unknowns.
And where do you turn if you're looking for advice, or for like minded people?
Thank Mark we have Facebook now,
and I typed those two sentences on my timeline:
"Our family would be ready to host a refugee.
Has anyone else been thinking about this?"
And just before hitting the post button
I knew that this is not a simple post.
It's something much more
that could create a lot of discussions
and maybe start an avalanche.
As a result of those discussions on the post,
the same evening we created a Facebook group called:
"Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem"
in English: I want to help refugees.
The aim of the group was not to have discussions on whether to help,
but rather to have discussions on how to help refugees.
Next morning, I received a phone call from my mom,
"Son, I hope you're not serious about your yesterday's Facebook post,"
she said.
I said, "Yes I am, we really are."
And she says, "Come on, you have three children
and enough difficulties managing your own family,
why would you need more problems?"
And as a parent I totally understand her.
She cares about me she cares about my family.
OK, so where do we start helping?
I contacted the local refugee center
which is near Riga,
and we went there to organize a board game evening.
We put out posters in the center to invite all the refugees residing there
and as we came to the room on the designated time
it was empty.
Nobody was there.
"Ok," we said, "Well let's have some fun and play some board games."
And we did, the refugees passing by the room they were attracted,
and one by one they were joining us.
It was a small event
but, it was a successful one.
It was our first encounter with the refugees
and we gained their first trust.
And it was great to see them smile.
We assessed their first needs,
and as the winter was coming
and most of the refugees have arrived just in flip-flops,
clothes and food were the two major things they needed.
We asked our group members to bring those things
to my board game store which I used as a collection point,
and the response was amazing.
When we asked for rice all the stores around my shop
were actually sold out of rice.
There was a time when I was going to refugee center once a week,
with full car of clothes and food.
We also organized events in Riga.
We invited all the refugees, from the center.
We made workshops together.
They came with their families.
We came with ours.
We prepared food together,
with help of local chefs.
We had a workshop of ginger baking.
It was great,
we all had a feeling of togetherness.
At one of these events
I noticed a group from Congo.
I remember them because they were somehow more separated
from the other crowd,
most probably because of the language.
They all spoke only French.
My wife speaks French,
and she had a little chat with one of them.
Her name was Nancy
and she was breastfeeding her little daughter in the yard.
All the Congo people who have asked for refugees status in Latvia
got rejections.
In fact, Latvia has the lowest percentage of accepting refugees in European Union.
It's 8%
compared to 77% in Sweden for example.
8%!
"Idiots and traitors."
This is how we were called
in the comments under the news articles
about our activities in the biggest news portals.
At some point I understood that I don't want my children
to be raised in such an environment
because the negativity in the media was massive.
We have to find a way to influence the environment
and I believe that it's not the system that builds environment,
it's the people that build it.
And this small Facebook group
gave us hope,
gave me and other active group members hope,
hope that we can actually build an environment
where people are not divided
by religion, by color of the skin,
or what is the biggest challenge here in Latvia
by ethnic background.
About a month ago,
I received a call from an unknown number
during a meeting at work.
"Please help me!
Police come to take me,"
a woman in a French speaking accent told.
"Can you help me please?"
Our telephone conversation got disconnected.
I tried to call back the number,
it was switched off.
Few hours later my wife called the number back.
It was Nancy.
She explained that she was already being escorted
to detention center which is more than 200 kilometers away.
It was the start of her deportation process.
Her husband was a wanted man
back in Congo.
He was an active member of the local human rights office.
He fled with the other children of theirs
and Nancy didn't know if they are still alive.
According to a report from Catherine Ramos
called Unsafe Return,
most of the people who return to Congo after asking refugees status abroad
are being treated as enemies of the state.
They're being imprisoned,
tortured,
and that includes children.
So I contacted her lawyer
I contacted the local human rights office
and we agreed that we would appeal the detention
and the fact of deportation.
And if necessary we would submit this case
to the European court of human rights.
In Latvia, the institutions and courts need hard proof evidence
so if you don't have a document which clearly states
that you are being persecuted,
you probably don't have any chance.
And you'd better have an official stamp on it.
It turned out that the detention,
her detention was based on the fact
that she had no place to stay.
So if we would be able to find for her a place to stay,
somebody who could host her,
she would be able to leave the detention center.
And there it was.
After seven months, my commitment was about to get real.
I procrastinated a few days.
I thought to myself, I would be able to do more
for refugees by organizing things
and not actually hosting a refugee myself.
I wasn't ready to post about this to Facebook group
or to tell it to even most active members of our group
or to my friends.
Why?
Because I was afraid.
I was afraid to say it aloud
and I was afraid to ask others for help
on something that I have committed to myself.
It was the last possible day to submit the appeal.
I signed the statement taking care of Nancy and her little daughter
until the whole process is over.
After a few days immigration inspectors came to my house.
They were their to check whether we can really host two more people
and whether we can take care of them.
They also warned me
in case Nancy tries to flee
that I might be held responsible for that
and maybe even criminally accused.
The inspectors were in uniforms
so my daughter thought it was police.
She run over to my mother in law
[who] lives just in the neighbouring house,
and told her that police was there.
So my mother in law was the first person we had to tell the situation.
Just few days passed and I received a message from Nancy,
"I am free, I am on the bus to Riga."
Technically she was't really free.
It was an alternative status of detention.
And I was partly held responsible for that.
I picked them up at the bus station in Riga.
They both were exhausted.
Nancy looked very tired.
She hadn't been eating or sleeping very well lately.
Her little daughter Remma who just turned two few days ago
was very calm and withdrawn.
She was very quiet, afraid.
It was impossible to get any emotions from her
even a smile.
Remma has spent almost half of her life in detention centers
and refugee centers.
But she learns fast.
Her favorite word in Latvian is "tomāts."
She adores tomatoes.
She calls my youngest son "bébé"
and when I arrive home she calls me "papa".
But I don't feel very comfortable there.
Yes, we have lost some privacy at home.
Yes we could have avoided this,
but seeing Remma smile and happy
is pure joy.
She and my youngest son Miks are best friends now.
They run around the house,
they scream, they hug each other.
Of course they have difficulties sharing some things.
They act just as any other children.
It's been three weeks now
since they are staying with us.
But their story is still unfinished.
Nobody knows what the future will bring for them.
Am I naive?
Yes, absolutely. I am very naive.
What if Nancy is not really telling the truth and her family actually
doesn't have danger.
But even if there is a slightest chance of her story
being true,
I would never forgive myself
if I wouldn't do everything possible to help her and her little daughter
of being possibly imprisoned.
It's enough for me to understand what I would be capable of doing
just to keep my family safe.
I am not here to preach or give a solution to this huge problem
that Europe is facing now.
We're all humans
and I strongly believe
that humanitarian crisis that we're facing now
can only be solved with humanity.
This should have been the end of my speech
but several days ago,
just before leaving to work
we had a conversation with Nancy.
Because we expressed our concern that most of her time she was spending
in her room.
We were worried that she's getting more and more depressed
because of the uncertainty
because she doesn't know what the future will bring.
The same day Nancy and Remma didn't come home.
They disappeared.
How do I feel now?
I feel sorry
that I couldn't tell them everything is going to be OK.
I hope they're safe.
Thanks.
(Applause)