No home away from strife-torn home, Ethiopian struggles with refugee status

New Delhi: Yusuf Azmeraw came to India from Ethiopia in 2018 on a scholarship and completed his BTech in chemical engineering from Andhra University. Fearing for his life if he returned home wracked by ethnic strife, Azmeraw decided to stay on in India. The Ethiopian national, recognised as a refugee under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mandate, arrived in Delhi seeking asylum. But he lives under the fear of deportation with police on his heels.

Since Sept last year, the homeless Azmeraw has been sleeping in the open around the UNHCR office in Vikaspuri in west Delhi. He has tried renewing his visa since graduating from university but has received no assistance in this matter from UNHCR. “I kept begging them but they pushed me away. I have no rights in India and I can’t even get an internship or a job,” he said.

He told TOI that he was provided a room to stay in from Dec 12 last year to Jan 12. He hasn’t had accommodation since. “Please, I am not complaining about the room,” he stressed. "But even in the room they gave me, I wasn’t safe because I hadn’t received police verification documents.”

The engineering grad eats at a local gurdwara, showers in a park and spends time aimlessly strolling around, his face masked. After the death of his father owing to his Amhara ethnicity, Azmeraw remained in hiding in his country, even from his family, for almost 15 years before deciding he needed to change his life around and came to India to study. He wonders whether his mother and sister are still alive.

“Despite being educated, my situation is a real hell,” Azmeraw said disconsolately. “Each day is a fight for survival.” He has been shooed from places where he made his bed for the night by rude locals in Vikaspuri, but has also been helped by others.

With his health at risk, the young man pleads for his refugee status to be recognised, expressing his willingness to work and his wish for a chance to improve his circumstances through resettlement opportunities. Resettlement is a process that allows permanent residency in a third country for refugees who are unable to return to their home country or have protection needs in the country where they stay.

Reponding to TOI’s query, UNHCR stated, “Resettlement countries offer limited quotas, therefore most refugees will not be considered for resettlement, even if they have challenges or protection needs”. It futher added that resettlement is not a right and is not available to everyone with a refugee status.

Azmeraw recalled the time he was outside the UNHCR office in Vasant Vihar last year and policemen detained him for three hours. “I hadn’t done anything. When I asked why I was being detained, they retorted, ‘Hindi mein bolo, you are in India’. They almost beat me too.”

He said that as a refugee, he accepted having to face hunger, loneliness, discrimination, abuse and exploitation. “However, in my view, it is crucial for UNHCR to acknowledge inimical circumstances and provide us with as much support as possible,” he said, adding that India's non-membership of the 1951 Refugee Convention posed significant challenges for refugees.