„ … ´What kind of society do we want to live in?` In the face of social crisis and increasing polarisation this simple yet fundamental question should be asked in a new and stronger manner and across movements. …"
Find the Kompass-AntiRa-Newsletter for December 2016/January 2017 in full text attached and through the links below with layout on our website in english, french and german.
The german version was published 3 weeks ago, unfortunately we had again some delay in translation. Nevertheless not only the introduction but most information and the announcements and dates for January are all still valid….
Best regards,
hagen
Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 55, December 2016/January 2017
From 6.12. in Göttingen, Köln, Lübeck, Hamburg, Kiel and Berlin - Hotel City Plaza on Tour II +++ 10.12. in Frankfurt, Hildesheim, Bremen, Berlin: Demos against deportations to Afghanistan +++ Balkan route: Pushbacks everywhere +++ Röszke 11: 10 years of prison in show trial +++ uprising in Bulgarian refugee camp +++ escape after fire in deportation prison in Istanbul +++ Campaign: You can`t evict solidarity! +++ Central Mediterranean Sea: record year for arrivals +++ New map of internment camps and hot spots by Migreurop +++ 7.1. in Dessau: Oury Jalloh – not an isolated case +++ 14.1. in Göttingen: Welcome2Stay +++ 21.1. in München: For a big unified AntiRa conference 2017? +++ 28.1. in Karlsruhe: countrywide refugee conference +++ Reviews: Protest against Valletta process, protest against interior minister conference in Saarbrücken +++ Previews: call for action day on 18th March
Dear friends!
When we spoke about “sanctuary cities”, the matter of safe refuges exemplified by the United States in our last edition, we didn´t seriously expect Trump to win the US presidential election. He announced the deportation of two to three million illegalised persons from Mexico as one of the first actions of his office, a crisis which will challenge sanctuary cities especially. Trump´s win will also further encourage European right-wing populists. The polarisation of Europe – currently in Austria and Italy, in France in spring – will in all likelihood increase further. At the same time the Turkey-EU deal is about to collapse and all military build-up in the Central Mediterranean did not prevent the number of arrivals to exceed the 2014 record by the end of November already. Over 170 000 people have made it to Italy in 2016 while the Dublin laws are being reinstalled forcefully there and in other places. Dublin IV is supposed to tighten this “European compulsory residence” immensely in 2017, and since once again refugees and migrants will not adhere to it and will continue to exercise their right to freedom of movement, a chaos of deportation attempts and mass deprivation of rights is inevitable.
EU citizens who migrate northwest from the southeastern countries of crisis are threatened by the same if they can´t find work immediately: they will be excluded from all social benefits according to plans by the SPD minister of labour Andrea Nahles. The scene of the near future: hundreds of thousands being pushed back and forth, in a racially structured multicosmos with few or no social rights, oscillating between poverty and lowest wages...
“What kind of society do we want to live in?” In the face of social crisis and increasing polarization this simple yet fundamental question should be asked in a new and stronger manner and across movements. We can and must fill the answer with positive, attainable outlines and position openness, inclusion, social and climate justice against neoliberal austerity and right-wing populist nationalism. This can only be achieved if we connect our mobilisation – locally and transnationally, wherever possible – with practical initiatives for everyday life. Our anti-racist field has several approaches: from campaigns for the right to stay – like currently for Afghanistan – to flight support, from – mostly invisible community solidarity to numerous church asylums, from medical offices to the best hotel in Europe.
“We live together, we fight together – this is not just a slogan on a flyer. It is more a description of our everyday reality in City Plaza since seven months. It is an actual example of solidarity actions and at the same time an experiment of political and social emancipation for us all”. This is how the delegation from Athen described the everyday challenges on their magnificent journey through their series of events in the south of Germany and Switzerland. In the following days they will be on tour through six cities in northern Germany and there they will present their suggestions for a European day of action on March 18th.
It is not only the first anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal as well the complete shutdown of the Balkan Route but also the second anniversary of the Blockupy mobilization to Frankfurt against a policy of austerity. Comrades of City Plaza say that “there are no other options, this story will yet again presented to us when it comes to the current crisis and border regime. We think that we can show with actual fights and demonstrations that there are alternatives and we can make them happen”.
With this in mind we wish a good start into a new year and come back with a new edition of Kompass in the end of January 2017.
The Kompass Team.
Information and dates and announcements for December 2016 and January 2017
December 6th and following days in Göttingen, Cologne, Lübeck, Hamburg, Kiel and Berlin
Hotel City Plaza on Tour II
After six events in the south of Germany and Switzerland in November there a new delegation from Athen as well as another former member going into second round in the north. They wrote a impressive essay on the everyday life in City Plaza and have pictures and video footage to show. The tour is accompanied by activists from the network Welcome to Europe as well as the Bag Mohajer project.
Dates and places:
Tuesday: 6th of December, Göttingen, at 6PM, Our House OM10, Obere Masch-Straße 10;
Wednesday, 7th of December, Cologne, at 7PM in Alte Feuerwache (Großes Forum), Melchiorstraße 3;
Thursday, 8th of December, Lübeck, at 7PM in Solizentrum, Wlly-Brandt-Allee 11;
Saturday, 10th of December, Kiel, more information on www.cantevictosolidarity.noblog.org
Sunday, 11th of December, Berlin, at 6PM in K9 (Größenwahn), Kinzigstraße 9
Saturday, December 10th in Frankfurrt, Hildesheim, Bremen, Berlin:
Demonstrations against deportations – Afghanistan is not safe – Link to the song
In regards to the international day of human rights there a demonstrations against deportations in several cities. One issue especially is the EU-Deportations bill with Afghanistan. Link to the amazing Song “No One Is Save in Afghanistan”.
Frankfurt:
Stop Deportations! Right to Stay for Everyone!
Saturday, 10th of December, 2PM, Frankfurt airport, Terminal 1, Departure B
“(...) On December 10th we want to gather to be strong against the fear and to support each other – to fight harder for the right to stay for everyone. We want equal social rights and the right of free movement for all people.
There are further information against the fear of the deportation in Afghanistan
English:
Dari:
Against Dublin deportations in Europe:
How to stop last-minute deportation:
Against fear – the right to stay for everyone!
Everyone who is here is from here.
Alliance against deportation Rhein -Main
Aktionsbündnis gegen Abschiebung Rhein-Main
Hildesheim:
CALL by young Refugees from Afghanistan to join the demonstration on the 10.12.2016 in Hildesheim. Start: 2:00 pm, central station Hildesheim.
“Afghanistan is not safe! Deportations endanger human lives! We, young Afghans, therefore demand: Protection and security for Afghan Refugees in Germany!”
Bremen:
AFGHANISTAN IS NOT A SAFE HOME COUNTRY! NO MORE DEPORTATIONS TO AFGHANISTAN! STOP IMMEDIATELY!
WE PROTEST*
- against the planned declaration of Afghanistan as a secure home country
- against the EU deportation agreement with Afghanistan
- for the IMMEDIATE country-wide BAN OF DEPORTING to Afghanistan
Saturday, 10.12.2016, 12:00, start: Am Brill
Berlin:
Demonstration on 10.12.2016, 11:30 am, U Turmstraße
“Afghanistan is everything but safe. No deportations to Afghanistan! (…)
Therefore we demand:
- the immediate Europe-wide ban of deportations of all people from Afghanistan;
- the immediate stop of the psychological terror by the threat of deportations and the exclusion of Afghan Refugees from integration programmes;
- the immediate inclusion of people from Afghanistan into the integration and participation programmes (…)
- Solidarity with all Afghan Refugees! Stop all deportations!“
Balkan Route: Push-backs everywhere
More and more “illegal push-backs” by border police units are happening at country borders in the Balkans. From Macedonia to Greece, from Serbia to Macedonia, from Hungary or Croatia to Serbia – it seems to happen randomly in order to deter and discourage.
Since the Balkan Route was closed at the Macedonian border in March 2016, people are systematically and illegally pushed back. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Pro Asyl are exemplarily supporting eight people with their complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg:
“From Idomeni to Straßbourg: Refugees demand their right to have rights before the ECHR – Illegal push-backs at the Greek-Macedonian border:
Eight people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan resist against the restriction of their rights on their flight route through Europe. They filed a complaint to the ECHR in Strasbourg on the 13th of September 2016, because of a push-back in March 2016 from Macedonia into the border camp Idomeni in Greece. They argue that the praxis of illegitimate and often violent push-backs by Macedonia is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. (...)”
Further information and the special newsletter “Migration”:
On the website “Balkan Route Info” there are reports of push-backs from Serbia to Macedonia. See here: https://live.w2eu.info/en/serbia/ :
„There are more and more reports of people being brought to the closed camp in Presovo, Serbia, and are subsequently brought to the border of Macedonia where they are pushed-back. These forced returns to Macedonia are not based on any legal ground and are not coordinated with the Macedonian authorities. (…)“
Further information about the current situation in the countries and border regions on the Balkan Route in English, Arabic and Farsi: https://live.w2eu.info/
Röszke 11: 10 years imprisonment in a show trial
„After border crossing in Hungary – 10 years imprisonment for Syrian
Ahmed H. could have passed the border legally but tried to mediate between police and refugees. Now he will be severely punished.
“I'm very sorry if I have broken the law. But I feel not guilty. I'm not a terrorist.” These has been the last words of the Syrian Ahmed H. before the court in the Southern Hungarian city Szeged sentenced him to ten years in prison. It has been the last and by far hardest judgment of the “Röszke 11”. Those who has been picked out of 5.000 people crossed the Serbian-Hungarian border in Röszke on 16.9.2015 ...”
Here are an article by the TAZ and a report by Amnesty about this unbelievable show trial:
Short report by Aljazeera:
Riot in Bulgarian refugee camp
„Today, after more than two days of quarantine, at noon a massive riot broke out in Harmanli’s refugee camp, which is located not far way from the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The revolting migrants protested against the closing of the camp and for freedom of movement. Hundreds did not understand why more than 3000 people have to stay inside the camp and are not allowed to go out, while not everybody is ill from deceases. The closing of the camp was already a longer plan of the authorities and an answer on the permanent ongoing protest of right wing parties, neo-nazis and their supporters. …“
Already in early November there was a hunger strike going on in the deportation prison Busmantsis:
Outbreak after fire in deportation prison in Istanbul
„This Saturday, on November 19th, 123 migrants managed to escape the Kumkapı deportation center in Istanbul, after starting a fire in their cells. While the fire brigades were working to extinguish the fire, the migrants broke through the gate of the courtyard and runaway despite the policemen shooting in the air. …“
The whole text by Migrant Solidarity Network:
You can't evict a Movement – You can't evict Solidarity!
"Information about the campaign – What has happened so far?
In Greece has started a new wave of repression against a movement of self-organized and solidary refugees as well as against Greek and international activist. In the early morning of 27.7.2016 the three squatted houses in Thessaloniki Orfanotrofeio*, Nikis and Hurriya, were evicted [*].. The houses were inhabited of migrants and Greek and international activists.
On the same day the eviction of the “Social Center For All” organised by NoBorderKitchen Lesbos and the camp in the harbor of Piraeus took place. Simultaneously the mayor of Athens complained against the refugee squats inside of buildings owned by the city. All these places are and has been places where we could meet, connect, live and struggle together beyond racist, nationalist, sexists categories... "
More information about the international campaign:
The flyer of the campaign:
Central Mediterranean: record year of arrivals
In the introduction to the last Kompass issue it has been predicted and already at the end of November it became a fact: the existing record number of arrivals of boat people in Italy from the year 2014 (170,100), has been exceeded by steadily high numbers in October and November 2016. A statistic overview is offered by the UNHCR at : http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=105
On the same subject the Alarm Phone also mentions in its current 6-week report:
“ … Contrary to the usual seasonal decline in autumn, we saw in October the highest number of crossings to Italy in all of 2016. Not only that, never before have so many people crossed the Central Med in a single month – more than 27,200 travellers in October – and the numbers remain high in November. With winter approaching, and despite the worsening weather conditions, thousands of travellers try to quickly escape the violent and devastating situation in Libya, not least as even harsher deterrence practices are anticipated for the months to come. They take the risk to depart on unseaworthy and ever-more overcrowded boats. Meanwhile, many civilian rescue initiatives have stopped their missions in the Mediterranean Sea, which leads to a further decrease in rescue capacities off the coast of Libya…”
And in an article worth reading, the Süddeutsche Zeitung summarizes the scandalous efforts made by German politicians to negotiate a further refugee deal with the Egyptian government:
New Migreurop map about internment camps and hotspots
The Migreurop network has made an up-to-date map showing all closed camps, refoulement prisons and so-called hotspots existing throughout Europe and beyond.
From the introduction: “Today, as in the past, many exiles are seeing their hopes dashed in closed camps in European countries, which on the one hand claim to be models of human rights, while on the other, demand that migrants remain outside the European Union (EU). Using the pretext of ‘massive’ arrivals, the EU and neighbouring states have constantly reinforced their detention systems: from 2011 to 2016, the total known capacity of camps identified by the network, has gone from 32,000 to 47,000 places…” More on this subject and the geographical map at:
7.1. in Dessau: against the #burning-#concealment-#hush-up-#persecution – Oury Jalloh # Not a unique case! It was murder! -#No single perpetrators!
Next year 7.1.2017 and thus the commemoration of the twelfth dying day of OURY JALLOH, who by police men was first robbed of his freedom, then of his legal capability to act and whose life was finally taken in a most bestial way, will fall on a Saturday! On 7.1.2005 the police of Dessau-Roßlau first unlawfully arrested Oury Jalloh and then, again unlawfully, kept him in custody, whereupon he then was fixed by all four extremities to a fireproof mattress in the tiled prison cell no. 5 and burnt beyond all recognition… In the best racist tradition, the German ‘state under rule of law’ from the outset created a perpetrator-victim reversal and – against all facts and up to the highest judicial authorities – held up the unproved hypothesis of Oury Jalloh burning himself to death. Until this day the perpetrators are protected by the doing away with and manipulation of proof, as well as the logic-defying ignoring of obvious pieces of evidence, the family and the victim are ridiculed, responsibility and justice are denied! Instead, those who fight for solving the murder of Oury Jalloh have to be silenced by massive state repression! We invite all people who care about preventing further racist murders by state officials with or without uniform, with or without robes, but anyway with human-life-degrading sanctimoniousness, to directly support our commemoration on 7.1.2017 in Dessau-Roßlau and to bring about a strong demonstration against state racism within all agencies and ministries of this country – not only in Sachsen-Anhalt, not only in Germany, not only in Europe. Germany plays an important and active part in the death of people all over the world who are defined as ‘aliens’: from pillaging street Nazis to the political fire raisers, from envious precarity workers to the ‘traders of death’ in pin-stripes, from the ‘worried’ cowards to the ‘unconcerned’ onlookers…
COME TO DESSAU-ROSSLAU ON 7.1.2017
OURY JALLOH IS NOT A UNIQUE CASE – NO-ONE WILL BE FORGOTTEN!
RESPECT OUR EXISTENCE – OR – EXPECT OUR RESISTANCE!
14.1. in Göttingen: Meeting of Welcome2Stay
“The Coordinating Committee of Welcome2Stay met in Berlin on 30.10.2016. We discussed the political perspectives of Welcome2Stay, concrete projects and the division of tasks. Our most important plan is a decentralized action day throughout Germany on 10./11.2.2017. Main subject of the action day will by the right to stay. We want to prevent the refoulement of refugees and simultaneously we want to reconfirm our basic claim: ‘the right to come, to go and to stay’. To prepare the action day there will be a nation-wide meeting on 14.1.2017 in Göttingen…”
21.1. in Munich: for a large joint antiracist conference in 2017?
As announced in the last Kompass Newsletter, 25 active people from several cities met on 19./20.11.2016 in Frankfurt in order to discuss the proposal for a large, joint antiracist conference in 2017. There was agreement as to the sense and the necessity of such a meeting, but it was also clear that the preparation of such an ambitious project has to be carried by more groups. Therefore a follow-up meeting was agreed to take place in Munich in January 2017, for which further groups will be contacted and invited. The preliminary results and further preparation process will be communicated on a mailing list set up for that purpose in two languages (English/German). Those who are seriously interested can apply at: kmii-hanau@antira.info
28.1. in Karlsruhe: nation-wide AntiRa-Conference
„…The conference will take place in Anne-Frank-Haus. It starts 10am and is supposed to be finished at 6pm with concrete results. The conference is one more step after the successful demonstration on 1st of October with more than 800 participants. (…) There will be three introductory speeches (…) and multiple working groups who deal with the following topics:
I. Changes of law, mass deportations, Dublin IV. Criticism of a discriminating asylum and migration policy. How do we deal with excluding laws?
II. Causes of flight and EU-isolationist policy. Where are the starting points for more protest and resistance. Which organisations are already active? What contribution can everybody do?
III. Neo-liberalism of the refugee law, social split or equal rights and solidarity4all. Where is criticism necessary, which protest needs to be developed?
IV. Welcome citys – Which experience do already exist? Which contents should contain a manifest towards a welcome city? What local creation space do we have to demand?
The complete programm and the call for the conference will be here:
Reviews:
Protest against Valetta process – manifestation in Berlin in front of several african embassys and GIZ
Almost 100 people have demonstrated in Berlin on 11th of November in front of the embassys from Niger, Mali and Marocco against the current EU-migration and deportation policy, following the call from Afrique-Europe-Interact. There is also a threatening willingness of some african governments to work together with the EU. Many of the participants were refugees, among them Women in Exile, Lampedusa in Hamburg and Voix des Migrants and there was also a bigger group of refugees coming from Saxony-Anhalt. More, including videos and pictures:
Protest against IMK Saarbrücken
Also in this year “JOG” (Youth without borders) organised a conference and protests conerning the interior ministery in Saarbrücken, have a look:
“Teenagers vote Karl-Heinz Schröter (Brandenburg) as the minister of deportation 2016. On 28th of November 2016 Karl-Jeinz Schröter has been voted within the frame of a gala night as the minister of deportation 2017 by JOG.”
Outlooks:
Call for an europe-wide action day on 18th of March
As mentioned in the introduction, activists of the squatted Hotel City Plaza in Athens propose to make the 18th of March 2017 as an europe-wide action day against the border regime.
Find below the call:
