As Rakan was fighting for his family reunification with a hunger strike from June 12th, members of Migszol soon decided to support him by starting symbolic hunger strikes that last 24 hours each. Migszol began having solidarity hunger strikes a week ago, on Thursday June 19th. Rakan was on hunger strike for 13 days but had to quit on Tuesday because of the serious risk that it posed to his health. Rakan says that one of the main goals of his hunger strike has been reached: extensive media coverage highlighting the daunting difficulties refugees face when they want to bring their family to Hungary. 

Why does somebody stop eating for solidarity, what do they aim to achieve? How does it feel to be on a hunger strike for a day? Migszol will publish personal blog posts of those who join the solidarity hunger strike to present some of the reasons and feelings that we as individuals have for Rakan's case. Read from below what some of us were thinking during the first week of the action.

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Wednesday, June 25th

Vera
"Today is my turn. Fortunately, yesterday Rakan stopped his hunger strike after 12 days but out group is continuing with the symbolic hunger strike. There was a response from the Immigration Office to the questions of some journalists but all they did was quoting from some legislation. 

I’m angry and upset. 

I feel ashamed for my government, for their lack of humanity, for their treatment of refugees. 

I am sorry, Rakan.

Rakan Husien I hope you are feeling better and that soon you will manage to reunite with your children against all the odds."


Tuesday, June 24th

JD
As a MigSzol activist I am always aware of the difficulty that refugees in Hungary have - being separated from their home and family is very difficult.  Rakan's story is another level of sadness because of the terrible death of his wife and mother.

Being in Hungary it often feels we are disconnected with the world and cannot make a positive change.  In the case of Rakan, it is a simple task to reunite his family - well, it should be a simple task!

Hungary's Ministry of Foreign Affairs simply has to accept the papers of Rakan's children. Currently they are stuck in Turkey after two horrific journeys attempting to enter Jordan and then Lebanon - which both turned them away because they are Palestinians and therefore do not have 'real' passports.

And today, while they are currently 'safe' in Turkey, they have been rejected again by the State of Hungary.  

This is a truly shameful situation for Hungary. Of course, Hungarians themselves know how petty and picky state bureaucrats can be in their own lives.  But in this case, a pointless and cruel decision has been made that has separated a father from his children after his wife and mother was killed.

Please Prime Minister Orbán and President Áder, I think Hungary can be better than this.

Monday, June 23rd

Cristina
''Today it was my day, my day to feel what Rakan has felt every day since June 12th. I do not really have words to describe how my day was, as usually my days are very busy, I am active and even I forget to eat or I do not have the time to eat, but today it was different. And is it not just about feeling hungry, is about feeling sad, tired and especially helpless and incapable of doing anything, but to hunger strike silently. My day was and still is dark, silent, I am feeling alone and weak, I am feeling that nobody understands me and cannot do much to change how I feel. And maybe I am wrong, maybe some understand, but one cannot understand a feeling until he/she lives through it and experiences it.

During all day Rakan and his family was on my mind...

Maybe this does not mean too much and it cannot have a big impact on the issue but it is an act of solidarity that we do in order to make him stronger and to fight for him and his family. We cannot bring them here but we can fight together with him, to make people aware of this case and to not stop until we reach our goal. 

I had days that I was feeling weak but I would eat something, whereas today it was very hard. I am staring at the watch to hope that the time will pass faster. I try to do anything just to make the time pass so I can eat again… But if it would be so easy to make the time pass and to know that tomorrow is the day that his children will be here and not the day that I could actually eat, it would've been so much better. Can you imagine what does Rakan feel every day?

It will take time but I am ready to fight with him and we all are trying to be with him until we don't see his family reunified. 

My 24 hours of not eating will be soon over, but let's take a second and think about his path of his hunger strike? When it will stop? How much does one have to fight just to use his right of having a reunified family?''

While Rakan was already in Hungary as an asylum-seeker, his wife and mother tragically died in February 2014 when the Syrian army bombed a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) camp. The five children of the couple, between eleven and nineteen years old, decided to flee Syria and try to join their father. After being denied entry to Lebanon and Jordan, the children managed to cross into Turkey on their own. They tried to file a family reunification visa application at the Hungarian embassy in Istanbul in order to join their father in Hungary, but the embassy rejected their applications.

Rakan is a Palestinian refugee from Syria, who came to Hungary through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia in May 2013, but then left for Denmark from where in November 2013 he was deported back to Hungary under the Dublin-law of the EU. He was granted the refugee status one week after his wife and mother were killed in February 2014. It is important to know that Palestinian-Syrian refugees are in a very special situation because they have become refugees twice: once from Palestine, and second time fleeing the brutal civil war in Syria. For background information on how the civil war affects Palestinian refugees, see the informative webpage of UNRWA, the UN Agency that especially works with Palestinian refugees. You can read more details about Rakan also in HVG (in Hungarian). In the HVG article, you can also see many pictures of his family.

Rakan's wife was working for UNRWA in Syria, and while Rakan was already in Hungary, his wife and mother tragically died when the Syrian army bombed an UNRWA refugee camp. The five children of the couple, between eleven and nineteen years old, decided to flee Syria and try to join their father. As reported in media outlets such as the Guardian and Al Jazeera , Palestinian refugees from Syria encountered problems when trying to cross the border to Lebanon and Jordan, many of whom were rejected entry into the two countries. As many other refugees fleeing the civil war,  Rakan’s children were denied entry to Lebanon and Jordan, but managed to cross into Turkey on their own. They filed a family reunification visa application at the Hungarian embassy in Istanbul in order to join their father in Hungary. Because they did not cross the border through an official border checkpoint, the embassy rejected the claim on the grounds that the children are staying in Turkey illegally and therefore do not have a Turkish entry stamp in their Syrian-Palestinian passports. By the way, this rule is against the EU-law. Meanwhile, the Hungarian state decided  to no longer  accept Syrian-Palestinian passports as travel documents.

Five asylum-seekers from Mali in Hungary went on hunger strike to protest conditions and unjust imprisonment on October 10 2013. Today they were joined by another 55 asylum-seekers, all in the  Békéscsaba detention camp.

Together they are protesting against their deprivation of liberty with an emphasis that they are not criminals but refugees. They also call the world’s attention to the inhumane conditions in the Békéscsaba prison for asylum-seekers which makes their detention unlawful.

The Migráns Szolidaritás Csoport (Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary) demands from the both OIN (Office of Immigration and Nationality) and the Hungarian Police that they respect the hunger strikers’ right to protest and their chosen method should be respected. And, Migrant Solidarity Group also demands that these and all other asylum-seekers in Hungary be released – seeking asylum is not a crime. After a hunger strike in the prison for asylum-seekers in Nyírbátor during August, 2013, today on 10, October 2013, five asylum-seekers from Mali have started a hunger strike.

15th August 2013
Budapest, Hungary

Dear Zsuzsanna Vegh,

It has come to the attention of the Migrant Solidarity Group that in the Nyírbátor detention centre a group of asylum seekers has started a hunger strike some days ago, which since then has ceased as a result of some promises made by OIN representatives.

On 13th August 2013 members of our group spoke on the phone with some of the people who were previously on hunger strike. We were given a detailed report on the reasons why the detainees were forced to resort to a hunger strike in order to improve their situation in detention, calling the attention of the outside world on the hopelessness and the desperation of their situation.

First of all, we would like to emphasize that the Migrant Solidarity Group does not encourage anyone to go on a hunger strike, or to continue one. Nevertheless, we will not attempt to convince anyone to stop using this tactic, if they have so chosen. We consider that a hunger strike is a very personal decision made by the individuals who are directly affected by the conditions of detention, and as long as we are not in a similar situation, we cannot judge their decision. We would only ask the hunger strikers to stop their action if it is the case that someone’s life is endangered – but even then we would respect the hunger strikers’ decision if they wanted to continue protesting even when their lives are threatened.