Observer 14/07 – Text: Dominique Strebel, Image: Renate Wernli
Twelve-year-old Sonia has been living with her Swiss father for two years. Now she is to be deported to her grandparents in Africa. Her teacher and her classmates defend themselves.
I want to stay with my father and with my friends,” says Sonia Idemudia. “This is my home.” No, says the Zurich Migration Office. Sonia's "home" is not with her Swiss father and his family of five in Schwamendingen, but with her 89-year-old grandfather and 69-year-old grandmother in Nigeria. Sonia has the “primary relationship” with them. That's why she had to leave Switzerland at the end of July. Sonia's classmate Barbara cannot understand this: “Sonia must not be deported. Your grandparents are old after all. Maybe they'll die soon. Then she's alone."
Laws take precedence over the welfare of children
The twelve-year-old Nigerian girl has been living illegally as an undocumented person in Switzerland for two years with her naturalized father Elvis Idemudia. In this short time she managed to learn standard and Swiss German and get into school. “Sonia is a model of successful integration,” says her teacher Jürg Wiederkehr. She has a quick comprehension, is very socially competent and is loved by all her classmates. “With regard to the child’s well-being, I consider remaining in Switzerland to be an absolutely essential necessity,” says Wiederkehr. And the school psychology service doubled down: “An expulsion would extremely endanger development and psychological integrity.” But the migration office weighs formal legal reasons more highly than the well-being of the child.
“It’s mean that the state says she has to go back to Nigeria,” says classmate Tiara. “We all want to live with our parents too.”
However, the Federal Court has a strict practice if only one parent wants to take a child to Switzerland. If Sonia's father and mother lived here together, family reunification would be problem-free. But Sonia's mother disappeared shortly after the birth. Four years ago, Sonia's father wanted to come to Switzerland legally. But at that time the courts ruled that her main relationship was with her grandparents in Nigeria. The father waited eight years before he wanted to bring his daughter to Switzerland. That is too long. “I have visited Sonia regularly in Nigeria and have called her several times a week for years,” says Idemudia. “It was only when I had created a stable home in Switzerland that I was able to take in my daughter.”
Two years ago, Sonia's father took her to Switzerland. Illegal - because his parents were getting older and sicker and their daughter was about to reach puberty. “Didn’t I have a duty to do that? As a father, I have to take care of my daughter.” This spring he wanted to register her. But the migration office remained firm.
“Deportation would be a catastrophe”
“The migration office puts a strict immigration policy above the welfare of children and the protection of family life,” says lawyer Marc Spescha, a specialist in immigration law. “This violates the European Convention on Human Rights, as some new rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg show.” That's why Spescha filed an appeal on behalf of Sonia with the Zurich government council. “The deportation would be traumatic for Sonia and a catastrophe for our constitutional state,” says the lawyer.
“I don’t understand it,” says classmate Armin. «Sonia hasn't made any enemies here. Why doesn't the state say: We can try it?"