Saturday 15 January 2011

maria amelie

two days ago, one of my best friends here in norway was arrested, to be deported to russia as soon as possible. she came to norway 9 years ago with her parents, has not been to russia for 13 years and doesn't know a soul there. they went underground when their plea for asylum was declined, and ever since she has tried to live a more or less normal life - despite the more than difficult situation she found herself in.



for me, as i wrote before, she is more norwegian than some norwegians i know, and i would gladly offer her my residence permit for this country. she is one of the bravest people i know. by writing a book about her life's story, she dared to give the group of illegal immigrants a face, she dared to speak up and point out what's wrong in how this group of people is handled here. norway prides itself for their high rate of deportations, and their politics when it comes to refugees seems to be more to protect the authorities and laws than to act humanely and protect people in need.

maria amelie has done nothing wrong other than coming to a strange country as a child, and adapting to the situation. she learned the language, got herself an education, made friends. is that wrong? she was honest and is now being punished for wanting to live a good, normal life with work, paying taxes, eating out and meeting friends.



if you have a heart for a young women standing up for herself and her situation, please sign this amnesty international petition on her behalf. it takes you only a minute and will make a difference for her and other refugees. it will mean a lot to me. thank you all.

pictures from here and here

7 comments:

Hey Monkey Butt said...

Oh how scary! I hope it works out for her, I really do! I can't read/speak/understand that link, so I can't sign, but I would! Good luck to her!

fröken lila said...

if you want to sign but don't understand it, you can use google translator. other than that, you basically only need to put in your name and emailadress in the two fields on the upper right next to the petition-text, and click the yellow sign saying "send din signatur".

Svenja said...

O nein, wie schrecklich! Ich drücke die Daumen und Poste das gleich mal bei facebook.

laura said...

oh gott, was für eine furchtbare geschichte! ich wünsche ihr, dass alles gut wird.

dotti said...

petition signed.
you should put in on fb or another social network in order to reach more people, if you have not already done that.
i hope that your friend's fate will take a positive turn soon. best of luck to her. she is lucky to have friends like you who care.

Janne said...

Someone has made a beatiful "musicvideo" of Maria which I strongly encourage you to watch - the lyrics of the song (which I believe is by a Norwegian band) nails the whole situation perfectly and is probably the best "human rights"-song I've heard since John Lennon's Imagine..! I'll post the link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUIWsoaXd-U

Check it out!

- Janne

dotti said...

any news on your friend maria amelie yet?