dear all,
find below a longer text, which was published in the german newspaper
"express" last month. thus its (re)written from and for a german
context, but also including an overview about a lot of transnational
campaigns and projects...
best greetings,
hagen
Freedom not Frontex -
Refugees and Migrants in their Struggle for global Freedom of Movement
(doc-file below)
“No Fingerprints” – While collectively raising their hands and
walking with self-painted banners along the main shopping street and
harbour towards the tourist beaches, 250 refugees, mainly from
Eritrea, again and again chanted this slogan at the top of their
voice. They all had just left the camp at a distance of two
kilometres outside of the city that was supposedly locked, after – as
a large group and against all coercive measures of the authorities –
having refused for a period of more than ten days to submit their
fingerprints. On 20 July 2013 they went public and it was an
impressive demonstration of civil disobedience that took place on the
island of Lampedusa, which ten weeks later would again become the
media symbol of the EU’s deadly border regime in connection with the
360 casualties of the boat tragedy of 3 October.
The small Italian island, situated closer to the North-African coast
than to Europe, has been making the front pages for years, when
overcrowded boats reached its coast or were wrecked on this risky
route. It is less known that all the newcomers on Lampedusa are at
first interned, incarcerated in a large camp, in order to register
them by taking their photos and fingerprints and, if possible, to
immediately deport them again to their country of origin. Against
this background insurgences occurred repeatedly here over the last
years, in the fall of 2011 several buildings of this prison were put
on fire by Tunisian deportation prisoners.
„Dublin II” is the name of the EU Regulation according to which all
refugees remain bound to the EU country where they were first
registered. Meanwhile thousands of people who are travelling towards
their relatives and acquaintances in North-Western Europe, are
returned to these transit countries, e.g. to Italy, Poland or
Hungary, on the basis of this regulation. The “No Fingerprints”
protest of the refugees on Lampedusa prevented this registration, a
collective anticipation and refusal of the “Curse of the Fingers”.
And they were successful: after having occupied the square in front
of the church for a night and a day, they were able to obtain the
guarantee for their transfer to the Italian mainland, in negotiations
that went on for hours and without submitting their fingerprints! It
was the joint resolve of this large group that led to this success.
The protest also occurred at an opportune moment, since only two
weeks earlier the pope had made a surprise visit to the island and
had, in no uncertain terms, criticized “the global indifference”
towards the boat people and demanded more support for the refugees.
Against this background the government and the authorities obviously
wanted at least to avoid new conflicts, all the more since as of May
2012 Lampedusa has a progressive mayoress who during the negotiations
mediated in favor of the protestors as well.
“Revolt of the Invisibles…”
It was the largest demonstration in support of refugees that was ever
held in Germany, when on 2 November 2013 more than 15,000 people took
to the streets in Hamburg, to protest in favour of the right to stay
of the “Lampedusa in Hamburg” group and against the deadly EU border
regime. Almost every day very diverse actions were and still are
taking place in Hamburg, after the SPD-governed Hamburg Senate under
Olaf Scholz started – one week after the October accident in front of
Lampedusa – raids against black African migrants. The fact that the
resistance became increasingly broader and more determined, despite
and against this repressive and stubborn behaviour, is of exemplary
significance. If the collectively organized struggle in Hamburg gains
increasing acceptance, this could be a decisive contribution to the
encouragement and strengthening of the self-organized refugee protests.
From Lampedusa to Hamburg, on squares from Berlin to Vienna, in the
internment camps in Greece or already in the forecourt of the EU
border regime in Tunisia: the multiple struggles of refugees and
migrants are growing stronger. No later than October 2012 Germany
also saw the development of a new wave of self-organized protests.
Led by self-organized refugees – who before this had organized local
protest tents in several cities, followed by a one-month march
straight across Germany – about 6,000 demonstrators passed through
the capital on 13 October 2012. The abolishment of the camps and of
the “Residenzpflicht”/residence obligations and a stop to all
deportations were the three main demands, for which hardly ever
before so many people throughout Germany jointly took to the streets.
Since then the anti-racist resistance has increasingly been in the
public eye and remains dynamic and persevering. In Berlin a protest
camp was even kept up throughout the winter, the Nigerian embassy was
occupied for its collaboration with the German deportation
authorities, followed by hunger and even thirst strikes, more marches
and the occupation of squares by self-organized refugees in many
cities throughout Germany. “Revolt of the Invisibles” the heading of
the newspaper (taz) read in early August 2013; the newspaper also
published a map of the resistance (1).
Empowerment against the prescribed powerlessness
In several bus tours the already organized refugees travel along
innumerable camps and shelters in all the German federal states, to
talk to and mobilize those who are not organized yet. Asylum seekers
have to live in remote “jungle”-camps, meaning somewhere in the
woods, and in shabby barracks or overcrowded containers. The regional
district as the internal border, coupons or food parcels instead of
cash money and a claim to medical care at the most in case of
emergencies; in all respects asylum seekers are made to feel
unwanted. They are systematically refused a self-determined life. A
central slogan of the Self-Organized against the camp regime is
therefore “Break Isolation”, because it is the isolation of refugees
which is supposed to keep the victims powerless and desperate. Over
the past years active cores of refugee-activists have sprung up in
several cities and are increasingly well connected in networks, in
particular in the “Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants”.
From their own experience they know that the encouragement in daily
life is a decisive factor for a continued self-organisation: to
defend oneself assertively against the racism propagated by
caretakers in the camps, not to become intimidated by the deportation
threats uttered by civil servants of aliens departments, to resist a
“Residenzpflicht” which at the most with arbitrary permits allows one
to travel beyond the
regional district limits. These real experiences of self-assertion
remain convincing points of departure during visits and meetings in
the camps, but also during regional and nationwide conferences. And
in the spring of 2012 this existing day-to-day resistance against
(special)racist laws, came up against the surprising dynamics of a
wave of protests caused by the death of an asylum seeker in Würzburg.
Out of fear of deportation and desperate about his situation in the
camp, an Iranian man had committed suicide there. His acquaintances
and co-occupants did not intend to accept his death as an
“unfortunate event”, which was the way in which the authorities and
the media wanted to deal with it in their usual manner. They rather
organized a stubborn and determined protest in the middle of the city
and in doing so denounced the inhumane circumstances. With mutual
visits they also inspired refugees in other cities to bring the
wretched situation in the camps to a standstill by striking. A few
months later Würzburg was also the point of departure of the protest
march to Berlin, which march had more than 30 stops and was 600
kilometres on foot. It became a March of Dignity, which not only
among the refugees themselves, but also in the public media gained
increasing attention.
On the squares...
Cairo, Madrid, New York: 2011 was the year when the occupation of
public squares became a major means of action for new protest
movements. Not only in Germany did refugees and migrants assume this
form of resistance; in Amsterdam, the Hague and Vienna, squares and
later churches were occupied in the fall of 2012 as well.
Demonstrations, each with a few thousand participants, were held
simultaneously in Bologna, Amsterdam and Berlin on 23 March 2013 and
even Budapest saw its first refugee marches; this parallelism was not
yet the expression of a Europe-wide coordination though. For that the
respective basic conditions, as well as the composition and specific
claims of the protest groups, are too diverse. Yet we saw the
development of more and more direct connections; what they at least
have in common, within the “harmonized” Europe-wide migration system,
is the resistance against having one’s rights taken away and being
excluded. And not seldom the struggles experienced along the transit
routes are touched upon, because this new wave of refugee protests
and strikes inside the EU, corresponds with the persistent social and
political struggles at the external borders.
The border regime, a lethal deterrent
Whether at the Greek-Turkish border and in the Aegean, in the straits
of Sicily or Gibraltar, around the island of Lampedusa, or around the
enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla: the images at the different focus
points, the so-called “hotspots” of the external borders, are alike.
Monstrous fencings and high-tech surveillance, EU-financed detention
camps and permanent deployment of the border agency Frontex
characterize the situation along the borders of the major neighboring
countries. From the EU perspective, the Ukraine, Turkey, Libya,
Tunisia, Morocco and even West-African countries are essential stops
of transit migration and must – by means of economic pressure and
financial incentives – as much as possible be embedded in the
migration control system. This externalization strategy, the removal
of the border regime in southward and eastward directions, results in
thousands of casualties and much distress being factored in under the
EU deterrence strategy against “illegal migration”.
The deadly events of October 2005 in Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish
enclaves in Morocco, are generally considered as the turning point,
the intensification of the conflicts at an EU border, since the
Spanish and Moroccan border police forces responded to the migrants’
collective storm of the fences with plastic missiles and even live
ammunition. At least 14 people died, hundreds of others were brought
in the direction of the Algerian border on buses and were left there
in the desert. Despite massively increased controls and repressive
measures towards transit migrants in Morocco, and despite an insane
reinforcement of the fences in Ceuta and Melilla, this border remains
severely disputed to this day. Again and again individual people
succeed in climbing over or swimming around it and first in April
2013 and then again in mid-September several hundred people – in a
last desperate effort – collectively laid their lives on the line
trying to get across.
The tenacity of the migration movements
After the Aegean islands had been the migrants’ main target in 2008
and 2009, the route changed in 2010 and the Greek-Turkish land border
along the Evros river became the main place of transit. Even the
deployment of Frontex and immediate incarceration could at first not
stop the self-determined entries. The crisis and the reduced
possibilities of survival, systematic police raids and racist
pogroms, as well as finally the mobilisation of thousands of border
guards at the land border, changed the situation again at the end of
the summer of 2012. Now fewer migrants are coming, but again over sea
and onto the islands, also again to Lesbos. Solidarity groups on the
island succeeded in November 2012 to press ahead with an open
welcoming centre for the newcomers (2), this whereas closed camps and
prisons usually are the reality in Greece. After the major raids of
last year and after another adjustment of the Greek migration laws to
EU standards, thousands of people are locked up here and this
meanwhile for up to 18 months. Against this background massive
revolts of the interned refugees and migrants occurred in April 2013.
With the fall of the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali numerous new actors
have sprung up in civilian society, among which the organisations of
the family members of missing and drowned Harragas (3), who with
their protests do not only demand clarification of the fate of their
relatives and friends. They simultaneously ask for the abolition of
the EU visa regime and criticize their own government for its
collaboration with the EU. “We made the revolution for dignity and
democracy”, said the spokeswoman for a group of Tunisian mothers of
disappeared people in July 2012 at an international meeting. And
further: “The government is passive, our sons have made the
revolution, but we still have not heard anything about their
whereabouts. There will be a second revolution, if the situation does
not change.” When in September 2012 another boat capsized near
Lampedusa and 79 Tunisian migrants (among whom also children) died, a
local uprising with strikes and blockades occurred shortly after in
El Fahs, one of the places of origin of the victims. Simultaneously
there are recurring protests of transit migrants from sub-Saharan and
east- African countries, who during the civil war fled from Libya to
Tunisia and then had to live in the desert, in Choucha near the
border, in encampments of the UNHCR. They demanded to be allowed to
travel on towards a secure host country and many also managed, as
recognized refugees, to obtain so-called resettlement places in the
USA or Europe, but a few hundred refugees have been refused this
status and/or to travel on. As of January 2013 they are in a
permanent protest, in April 2013 even in a hunger strike, in front of
the UNHCR’s office in Tunis (4).
Transnational campaigns and structures
In January and November 2013 a donation-campaign of west-European
networks made it possible for the transit migrants of Choucha to go
in busses to protests in the city of Tunis 500 km away. But
transnational solidarity has long since gone beyond fund raising.
Three examples: with a Noborder camp on Lesbos in 2009, not only
multiple contacts developed – in particular with the Afghan and east-
African migration communities – which were maintained in further
joint struggles concerning Dublin II. There was also an impetus for
monitoring and support projects along this, statistically considered,
most important migration route from Turkey, via Greece, towards north-
western Europe (5).
With the Bus Caravan for Freedom of Movement and Just Development
from Bamako to Dakar in early 2011 (6) a new step was made in the
Euro-African cooperation. In particular with groups from Mali a
continuous and stable interchange has developed.
And with the Arab Spring new possibilities and necessities ensued in
the cooperation with organizations in North Africa. With the fall of
the watchdog regimes in Tunisia and Libya and in view of the rigid EU
visa policy, increasing numbers of migrants boarded boats again, in
order to try to reach Europe via Lampedusa and Sicily. Many died and
still die in doing so, more and more often also because border guards
refuse to safe them. Against this background Boats4People was started
in July 2012, a symbolic campaign of Euro-African solidarity against
the deadly border regime at sea, which is now followed by “Watch The
Med”, a practice-oriented, transnational monitoring project against
the left-to-die policy in the Mediterranean (7).
For if the Noborder camps, caravans and solidarity boats in the
disputed border regions are considered as publicity-effective actions
and yet rather symbolic interventions, the contacts and cooperation
have meanwhile evolved into longer lasting structures which are
increasingly well-linked. The knowledge obtained in this way finds
many applications, such as for instance in the virtual guideline of
Welcome to Europe, which website offers useful addresses and
practical information from all major transit and target countries in
four languages, as a concrete support for refugees and migrants who
are on the move (8). At the end of last year a “Transborder Map” was
created, a map which offers a first overview of the increasing number
of linked initiatives along the external borders of the EU (9). It
will soon be supplemented and elaborated into an interactive
platform, which makes the struggles and campaigns for global freedom
of movement visible in a joint framework.
Challenges and perspectives
A week after the tragedy of 3 October, Wolfgang Niedecken, singer of
the rockband BAP, made a remarkable comparison in a German talk show
(“hart, aber fair”): he wished that the gruesome death of the boat
people near Lampedusa might turn into a “Fukushima of refugee
politics”, meaning that it might mark a turning point away from the
gruesome exclusion politics. Considering the given reality this would
seem another case of wishful thinking, since while the pope was
demanding secure ferries for the people in need, the responsible
politicians in Brussels decided to reinforce Frontex and to intensify
surveillance by means of Eurosur (10) . Having twenty years of
experience in border management, they do this full well knowing that
more control will lead to more deaths and distress.
Yet it is not only the outcry in the media and the uncommonly
critical public discourse of these last weeks, that gives us hope,
first and foremost the continuous self-organized struggles of
refugees and migrants are encouraging. At the moment we see a trans-
European perpetuation and condensing of the struggles for freedom of
movement, which seem unique for the more recent history of migration.
Perspective questions concerning concrete enforcement strategies, as
well as improved Europe-wide coordination are at the very top of the
agenda at current nation-wide and international meetings and
conferences. There were and there are small successes: be it – as
mentioned at the top – the struggle against Dublin II, be it more
resettlement places being made available for the reception of
refugees, be it the abolition of coupon systems and food parcels in
Lower Saxony and Bavaria, be it the abolition of the
“Residenzpflicht” inside the federal states. That these concessions
do not serve the intended reformative pacification and division, but
can be used for further dynamics and the strengthening of our
movement, will be one of the challenges.
Moreover the way in which, in the next months, a Europe-wide
coordinated protest cycle could be started off, is already
intensively debated. If we would moreover succeed in strengthening
the link between these struggles of migrants and refugees with
campaigns against the general crisis- and austerity-politics - in the
way this is being discussed e.g. in the preparation meetings for the
Blockupy Action Days for May 2014 - this could result in an exciting
impetus for the necessary debate of the connection between the
deprivation of rights and precarity. On the other hand it could
strengthen the refugee protests, not only from a moralistic point of
view, but also from a general social context to interconnect
struggles against the crisis and the border regime. Anyway in the
near future, there are indeed chances to permanently demolish
“Fortress Europe”.
Hagen Kopp, kein mensch ist illegal/Hanau
Notes: This text is a revised and strongly updated version of an
article which was published in Forum Wissenschaft in May 2013.
(1) At http://kompass.antira.info/ there is a monthly newsletter of
the antiracist movement with a respective overview of the refugee
struggles.
(2) http://lesvos.w2eu.net/
(3) Arabic/north-African word for migrants who start travelling
without a visa, which in translation means “He/she who burns borders”.
(4) http://chouchaprotest.noblogs.org/ and http://
voiceofchoucha.wordpress.com/
(5) http://infomobile.w2eu.net/
(6) http://afrique-europe-interact.net
(7) http://watchthemed.net/
(8) http://w2eu.info/
(9) http://www.noborder.org/
(10) Eurosur (European border Surveillance system) is a surveillance
system of the EU, which is intended to make use of drones,
reconnaissance equipment, offshore sensors and satellite search
systems. As of December 2013 the system will become operative in
seven countries bordering on the Mediterranean.
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