UNHCR – Refugee Parliament gives refugees a voice
By Ariadne Kypriadi in Bern, Switzerland | May 11, 2022
Slahadin Romodan, a 34-year-old Eritrean, sits in the impressive medieval town hall of Bern – the powerhouse of this region of Switzerland for over 600 years – and has just voted for the first time in his life.
“It felt good,” he says, smiling.
He is one of more than 90 refugees from all over the world who now live in all corners of Switzerland and who have come together to form the second Swiss Refugee Parliament. The event gives them the opportunity to discuss issues that are important to them and to make their voices heard.
“I want to be involved in decisions about my future and the future of my children.”
Slahadin has been in Switzerland with his wife and two children since 2016. He’s training to be a registered nurse at a local hospital and cherishes the life he’s built here, but for him real integration means feeling like he has a say in Swiss society.
“As long as I’m in Switzerland, I want to have a say in my future and the future of my children,” he says.
He and other refugees from the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), a Swiss NGO, came together last year to set up the refugee parliament with support from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency and other organizations.
Organized in a similar way to a regular parliament, the participants are divided into working groups and develop proposals that are then presented and voted on in the plenum. During the day, representatives of the working groups will comment. Everyone passionately advocates their proposal before the chair calls for a vote – a green card for yes, a red card for no.
A vivacious young woman in a red dress and light pink hijab moves around the hall, answering questions, giving directions, and solving problems. She is 25-year-old Nahid Haidari from Afghanistan, a co-organizer of the Refugee Parliament and one of its founders. She has lived in Switzerland with her mother and five siblings since 2011 and sees her future here. “I’m Swiss,” she says proudly when she talks about the close circle of Swiss school friends who helped her to feel a sense of belonging.
The student is not afraid to talk about the difficulties she had to overcome as a Muslim and as a refugee. She is determined to help other refugees facing similar obstacles and believes the refugee parliament can improve her representation in Swiss politics.
“So far, people have always talked about us and not with us. Our votes are missing because political participation, including elections, is tied to legal requirements such as naturalization,” she explains. “I hope that the refugee parliament will raise awareness and help make refugees’ opinions known.”
After taking a stand on behalf of his working group focused on building coalitions with other organizations, Slahadin speaks on an issue close to his heart: the difficulties refugees face in accessing higher education. He studied psychology in Ethiopia and would like to pursue postgraduate studies, but is having difficulty obtaining financial support to attend a Swiss university. “Integration in Switzerland is not difficult. The difficult thing is the limited opportunities that the education system offers refugees,” he says.
After a long day of intense deliberations, participants are invited to select their 10 main proposals. Among other things, the harmonization of the rights of all refugees in Switzerland, insurance protection for refugees with disabilities, access to psychiatric services during the asylum procedure and equal access to language courses, training, university studies and the labor market were selected.
Last year, some of the refugees visited the Swiss Parliament to present their proposals. In both years, some Swiss parliamentarians also took part in the event in Bern in order to get in direct contact with the participants.
“They saw us for the first time and understood that behind all these stories there are people and not just ID documents,” says Nahid.
Due to the interest of the Swiss media in the event, the proposals should also reach the general Swiss public.
The organizers have even bigger plans for the future. They want to encourage meaningful cooperation with parliamentarians across political borders and set up refugee parliaments in every Swiss canton – an important step in a federal state where political decision-making is decentralized.
The event was supported by UNHCR’s new grants to organizations run by displaced and stateless people.
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter