Mussie Zerai honored with human rights award of the PRO ASYL Foundation

Having fled as an ado­le­s­cent from Eri­trea to Ita­ly hims­elf, in 2003 Mus­sie Zerai came into cont­act with com­pa­tri­ots on their way to Euro­pe, stuck in a Liby­an pri­son. He left them his mobi­le pho­ne num­ber, which sin­ce then spread among refugees.

Count­less times Father Mus­sie Zerai has noted the coor­di­na­tes of a boat and han­ded tho­se to the Ita­li­an coast guard, to faci­li­ta­te res­cue. Thou­sands of peo­p­le owe their lives to him.

Addi­tio­nal­ly he foun­ded an aid orga­niza­ti­on in Ita­ly cal­led »Agen­zia Habes­hia«. When a ship can­not be saved, he remains acti­ve and addres­ses the public with his orga­niza­ti­on, to put pres­su­re on tho­se respon­si­ble. »I have rea­li­zed that I can­not only extin­gu­ish the small fla­mes, but have to put out the who­le fire«, said Zerai in an inter­view as reaso­ning for beco­ming poli­ti­cal­ly acti­ve abo­ve and bey­ond pure emer­gen­cy aid.

The PRO ASYL-hand: Human rights award of the PRO ASYL Foundation

For his com­mit­ment Mus­sie Zerai recei­ved the human rights award of the PRO ASYL Foun­da­ti­on, the PRO ASYL-hand. Sin­ce 2006 the PRO ASYL Foun­da­ti­on awards this pri­ce endo­wed with 5.000 Euros. It honors indi­vi­du­als which pro­mo­te respect for human rights and pro­tec­tion of refu­gees in out­stan­ding ways.

This year’s award cerem­o­ny on Satur­day, the 17^th of Sep­tem­ber 2016 in Frank­furt am Main, was not only about the reci­pi­en­t’s merits, but also about the cur­rent situation.

Criticism of European policy

While Mus­sie Zerai recei­ves and ans­wers calls for help from despe­ra­te refu­gees, dis­cus­sions in Brussels take place to end­less­ly deba­te how peo­p­le can be stop­ped from crossing the Medi­ter­ra­ne­an most effectively.

Mus­sie Zerai addres­sed this in his accep­tance speech and cri­ti­ci­zed that the Euro­pean Uni­on, along the model of the EU-Tur­key deal, plans fur­ther part­ner­ships with count­ries like Sudan and Eri­trea. Euro­pe pays money to Afri­can despots to do the dir­ty work.

Zerai war­ned urgen­tly against the des­truc­tion of the Euro­pean dream of being an oasis for human rights and social jus­ti­ce. That is also why his tire­less efforts are so important, sin­ce he reminds the respon­si­ble poli­ti­ci­ans con­ti­nuous­ly of their obli­ga­ti­ons to human rights.

Lau­da­to­ry spea­k­er Maxi­mi­li­an Popp, who ack­now­led­ged Mus­sie Zerai’s com­mit­ment, addres­sed the­se poli­ci­es too: »The mass dying of refu­gees on Euro­pe’s exter­nal bor­ders is no acci­dent, but the direct result of Euro­pean poli­cy. The Ger­man Basic Law and the Euro­pean Char­ter of Fun­da­men­tal Rights pro­mi­se pro­tec­tion for all that flee from war or per­se­cu­ti­on. But the EU mem­ber sta­tes have been tor­pe­do­ing this right for years. Who wants to app­ly for asyl­um in Euro­pe must reach Euro­pean ter­ri­to­ry first. Exact­ly this has beco­me almost impos­si­ble becau­se of Euro­pe’s walls-up policy.«

Mussie Zerai: Example for others

Popp cal­led on all citi­zens who are inte­res­ted in an open, soli­da­ry socie­ty, to fol­low Mus­sie Zerai’s exam­p­le and fight for more huma­ni­ty. Some have alre­a­dy done so:

Decisi­ve­ly infor­med by his exam­p­le, acti­vists of the moni­to­ring-pro­ject »Watch the Med« have in 2014 estab­lished ano­ther hot­line for refu­gees in distress at sea, the »Alarm Pho­ne«. Fur­ther­mo­re the catho­lic priest remains reacha­ble for calls for help around the clock.