„… in many places there are signs of communal initiatives and sanctuary projects, which are tied into a more universal perspective for an open and solidarity society. ´What kind of society do we want to live in?`- this social global question is always implied, and these approaches make the struggle for equal rights for all to an everyday practice by developing concrete alternatives to neoliberal and right-wing populist politics of separation and exclusion.“
Find the Kompass-AntiRa-Newsletter for February 2017 in full text attached and through the links below with layout on our website in english, french and german.
Again, the german version was published 3 weeks ago, unfortunately we had another delay in translation. Nevertheless not only the introduction but most information and the announcements and dates for March are all still valid….
Best regards,
hagen
german: http://kompass.antira.info/files/2017/02/56Kompass_Newsletter_Febr17.pdf
Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter No. 56, February 2017
4.2. in Frankfurt: Demo for living space for everybody +++ 10./11.2. in London: Meeting of the transnational social strike platform concerning the Migrant Strike on the 20th of February in UK +++ 11.2. in front of the countries parliaments: Demos for an immediate deportation stop to Afghanistan +++ 13 more charter flights planned to Kabul: Stop deportations to Afghanistan! +++ 8.3. Global Women Strike +++ 18.3. Transnational action days against the border- and crisis regime +++ 25./36.3. in Berlin: Get Together 2017 – for a common AntiRa Conference in autumn 2017 +++ storming the fences in Ceuta +++ Central Med/Alarm Phone: “They want the Sea to kill – We want a bridge to Life!” +++ Welcome to Europe about the situation in Greece +++ Balkan Route: Push Backs, family reunification, Macedonia/Serbia +++ Taz-Dossier-Migration Control +++ Place of refuges – Solidarity Cities +++ Reviews: New Paper from Afrique-Europe-Interact; Oury Jalloh Demo Dessau; AntiRa-Action conference in Karlsruhe; Refugees Black Box Jena +++ Outlooks: Against the G20 in Hamburg
Dear friends!
The new years begins in the same way as the old one ended: the mass dying in the Med continues, a second deportation flight went from Frankfurt to Afghanistan, Dublin readmissions to Greece are supposed to start again. The cruel attack on the Berlin christmas market serves as a welcome new reason for right-winged agitation and new security laws …. and then Trump! Can it get even worse? It can, as we know from the last 25 years of fight for asylum rights and freedom of movement. In the 90s there were racist propaganda and attacks even worse in Germany, deportations ended even deadly and keeping people in detention was usual.
In 2008, numbers of people who made it at all to claim asylum in Germany dropped under 30.000 and until the end of 2010 deportations to Greece were normality. From a migration-political perspective and in a longer-term review the years 2011 to 2015 may be stand for a phase of breakup. The arabic spring made an end to the time of externalisation to northern Africa, and also in Germany it led to a series of political-medial moments of success from flight movements (like for example against the residence obligation and the march from Würzburg to Berlin), to jurical improvements (for example social welfare in accordance with ALG II and against detentions) up to the breakthrough of the Balkan Route. There, the EU-border regime has been overrunned for a few months and therefore challenged like never before.
You can see that until today in the official statistics, a look in the “Report of December 2016” of the federal office for flight and migration might be worthwhile. It is said: “In the year 2016 all in all 695.733 decisions have been made. Total protection number of all countries of origin is 62,4% (433.920 positive decisions from a total of 695.733).” Thus more than 430.000 refugees – the majority of them have themselves fought through the borders in 2015 – received residence permit status. That topped all the numbers of the last 30 years and also shouldn`t be underestimated in its perspective effect. Flight-migration is enshrined in a new dimension in local realities.
We can and have to take this up, even if the signs for 2017 point in a direction towards more roll back.
Neo-liberal governments have decided – in case they are still in charge – for a more aggressive externalisation (have a look here: taz.de/migrationcontrol) and are acting – driven by right-wing and populist spectrums and campaigns of fear – especially with a so-called security policy.
If the right-wing parties are in power, like in Hungary, or will be in power, like now in USA, then an open racist exclusion is escalating. If in spring in France Le Pen wins the elections then we have to fear a new wave of structural racist violence in Europe. And even if an election victory of the AfD seems to be impossible in Germany, it is a difference if that rush party goes into the german parliament with 15 or 25 %.
Flight and migration are, and will be in the foreseeable future, a central political theme along which polarisation in society will increase. Our anti-racist movement - in its whole spectrum from enduring welcome initiatives to self-organised refugee groups, from refugee councils to noborder groups - has the potential to form a progressive pole and to contribute to a social mobilisation for an open Europe.
For this we firstly need a much tighter process of trans-regional networking and coordination. Until now only a small part of the movement seems willing to contribute, but below we name the efforts to increase momentum for this process, with decentral days of action (beginning on March 18th) and a potentially bigger conference in autumn.
Secondly we need a more comprehensive vision, a concrete design of everyday practical solidarity that must be tied to local structures. As an example of this we quote from an event announcement in Freiburg from mid-January 2017:
"Freiburg: a sanctuary city which protects all its inhabitants! Cities like Freiburg are committed to the well-being of all inhabitants, not just German citizens. Citizenship and residence titles should not lead to there being second- and third-class citizens. For this reason a movement of sanctuary cities has developed in the US, Canada, and the UK. Several hundred cities have announced themselves to be sanctuaries which provide access to public services for all and refuse to participate in repression against the undocumented and in deportations. One of them is Freiburg´s partner city Madison in the US. Madison declared in November 2016 that despite Trump´s threats against sanctuary cities it will not change its policy. In Europe a network of sanctuary cities including Barcelona and Oxford has developed. The city council of Barcelona, led by mayor Ada Colau, demands the formation of a European network of rebellious sanctuary cities.
We would like to start a debate how Freiburg can be turned into a city for everyone. We are calling on local politicians, local institutions (kindergardens, schools, businesses, chambers, hospitals...) and civil society to make Freiburg part of the sanctuary city movement. We would like to discuss what communal leeway we can use. What could be included in an agreement on a sanctuary city Freiburg?"
Around 300 interested people came to this event in Freiburg, and in many places there are signs of communal initiatives and sanctuary projects, which are tied into a more universal perspective for an open and solidarity society.
"What kind of society do we want to live in?" - this social global question is always implied, and these approaches make the struggle for equal rights for all to an everyday practice by developing concrete alternatives to neoliberal and right-wing populist politics of separation and exclusion.
In that sense - towards a solidary and open year 2017!
The Compass Crew
Dates and Information for February and March 2017
10./11.2. in London: Meeting of the Transnational Social Strike Platform about Migrant Strike on 20.2. in UK
From the call-out:
„With as many as 2 million EU migrants facing the uncertainty of Brexit, with many non-EU migrants asking for asylum or simply working in the UK facing the exacerbation of immigration controls, on the 20th February 2017 a “migrant strike” has been proposed in the UK called «one day without us». The term – initiated from the US in 2006 and taken up in France and Italy in 2010 – drove a need for migrants to gain centre stage in their struggles against exploitation and for the right of freedom of movement – not only of their generalised contribution to maintaining wealth in society as workers but as the expression of their power of disruption. It is these experiences of strike that we plan also to re-animate in the UK: in spite of Brexit, this migrant strike will be a real European matter. …“
The whole call-out and more information here:
11.2. in Berlin; Hannover, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Trier, Erfurt, Wiesbaden, Nuremberg…: Demos for an immediate stop of deportations to Afghanistan
On 11.2. national wide coordinated manifestations take place in front of state parliaments. They are directed towards the deportations to Afghanistan and try to pressurise those who are responsible for the execution of the deportations, namely the respective state governments. Some of the appeals to find in the following links.
Demo in Berlin:
Demo in Hannover
Demo in Erfurt:
Demo in Wiesbaden:
Stop deportations to Afghanistan!
Between November and December 2016 in many cities protests took place under the banner of “Afghanistan is not safe”. The protest were mostly carried by self-organised afghan groups. “While the Foreign Offices publishes
travelling warnings and its undisputable that the safety situation is getting worse, Thomas De Maiziere forces on mass deportation of Afghan asylum seekers. With authoritative influence of German politics the EU imposed an agreement on the Afghan government which shall enable the deportation of thousands of refugees. Therefor even a special deportation terminal should be build in Kabul.” Those sentences come from a press release for a demonstration which took place with 400 participants on 10.12.2016, the international day of human rights, in the airport of Frankfurt. At this day nobody guessed that only 4 days later the first deportation flight to Kabul had happened. At the spontanous protest in the airport terminal 600 people participated, but the departure of the first charter flight with 34 afghan men onboard couldn't be stopped. In the media mainly critisized the deportation into civil war situations and even a recent UNHCR report confirm that “whole Afghanistan is captured by inner state conflicts in terms of Art. 15 c of EU Qualification Directive. A distinction between safe and unsafe regions in this civil war countrys is not possible “due to the permanently changing safety situation”. See here: https://www.proasyl.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2017-Bericht-UNHCR-Afghanistan.pdf
Nevertheless a second charter deportation from Frankfurt to Kabul took place on 23.1.2017 and as it can be learned from a well informed source, the BMI (Federal Ministry of the Interior) “agreed on a package of 15 flights with the Italian Airline Meridiana”. One flight costs with the accompanying police officers inclusivly 300.000 Euro and is organised and (co)financed by Frontex. So it is about making pressure on all levels and especially to inform and support the potential affected persons (afghan man with toleration status). There are chances that the 13 further planned chater deportations can not pushed through trouble-free or at least will have to start with less unvoluntarily passangers onboard... So it should be referenced to the updated multi lingual flyer from Welcome to Europe. - Against the fear! - look here:
8.3.: Global Women Strike
If Our Lives Have No Value, then We Strike!
From the appeal:
„After the mobilization and women’s strikes occurred last year, after the huge women’s turnout during the inauguration day, in the US and beyond, in many countries all around the world public meetings and assemblies are taking place to turn the celebrations on the 8th March into a massive women’s strike. We invite all those who are planning any initiative towards March 8th to circulate this call to enhance the transnational circulation of the women’s strike movement. (…)
The strike will take place inside houses, where women take care of the elderly and kids; in the factories where women produce for the global markets; in the schools, the hospitals, the public and private services where they ensure the reproduction of society and yet get less paid than men, or not paid at all, often working in extremely precarious conditions; in the universities and schools where gender roles and sexual hierarchies are imposed together with impoverishment and privatization of knowledge. March 8th will be a day of protest for migrant women, who daily challenge their exploitation moving across the borders but still bearing the major burden of care work under the blackmail of residency permits. …“
Der ganze Aufruf hier:
18.3.: Transnational action day against border and crisis regimes
The first appeal for an international action day on 18.3.2017 came from the City Plaza in Athens, the by and with refugees occupied hotel, look:
Firstly, the occasion for this actionday is the first anniversary of the EU-Turkey-Deal. Secondly, two years before the blockupy protests against the opening of the European Central Bank took place in Frankfurt. The aim is to conntect the fights against the border regime to them against the crisis and austerity regime.
The network Welcome2Stay took up this initiative for 18.3.2017 and proposes action days until 23.3. with the
focus right to stay and anti deportation, see here: http://welcome2stay.org/de/2016/12/16/617/
And finally the new alliance meeting “Get Together 2017“ (see below) calls for activites on 18.3., here numerous groups inter alia from Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Rhein-Main are involved.
25./26.3. in Berlin: Meeting for Get Together 2017 – action days! and for a big joint anti racist conference in autumn?
At a meeting in January in Munich the new alliance circle (groups mainly from Munich, Belrin, Hamburg and Rhein-Main) decided first to mobilise for two joint decentral action days: for 18.3. (see above) and for the time from 2. - 4.9. The last one is the second anniversary of the successful March of Hope in Budapest (which leads to the break through on the balkan route) and is dated several weeks before the parlamentary elections. In this time more societal polarisation is expected where demands for freedom of movement and right to stay for all should bring into public, loud and colorful. Next to the evaluation of 18.3. and planning for September the meeting should decide if there will be a big joint anti racist conference in autumn.
Contact for the meeting in Berlin carlix@posteo.de
Fights at the fences in Ceuta, Western Mediterranean
From the FAZ on 9.12.2016, look
„Several hundreds of illegal immigrant, most of them black Africans, stormed in the early morning hours of Friday the border fence of the Spanish enclave Ceuta. According to statements of the police the people succeded to break an access at the eight kilometer long border to Marocco and then to overcome the six meter high double fence. Therby several people were injured, amongst them also police officer and border guards who tried to repel the intruder. Those exactly number – the estimations fluctuate between 200 and 300 – was in first time not to determine. The Spanish minister of the Interior Juan Ignacio Zoido said at the edge of an european conference of minister in Brussels that a quarter of the immigrants hide themselves in the streets of the city center. The others were detained and brought to the local reception camp (Ceti). There they were welcomed with cheers by countrymen from several states south of the sahara. ...”
In the night to new year around 1100 migrants tried another breakthrough, but failed.
A good overview about repressions and fights at the marrocan-spanish border, the enclaves ceuta and melilla, as well as about the tries to cross the Western Mediterannean with boats offers the website of Noborder Marocco:
Central Mediterranean/ Alarm Phone: „They want the Sea to Kill – We want a Bridge to Life!“
In a current report the Alarm Phone Project drew up the balance sheet of 2016 and was confronted at the very start of the new year with new death-at-sea cases, see: https://alarmphone.org/en/2017/01/18/two-months-report-want-sea-kill-want-bridge-life/
Already in December articles appeared in the media, according to which Frontex accused the civilian lifeboats (that carried out almost 30% of all the rescue operations in 2016!) of cooperating with human traffickers. Aurelie Ponthieu of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) published an appropriate answer to this: “The proximity to the Libyan coast is a humanitarian imperative as the closer we are, the more lives we save. It is only the legal barrier of 12 nautical miles, at which the Libyan territorial waters start, that prevents us to go closer still. MSF’s rescue operations are neither the cause nor the solution to the problem but simply a reaction to thousands of people dying in their desperation to reach Europe…” You find the entire text here: http://msf-analysis.org/bounties-not-bodies-smugglers-profit-sea-rescues-though-no-clear-alternative-available/
The simultaneous efforts of the EU, to set up with Libya another dirty deal for migration control (similar to the Turkey Deal), seem to have temporarily failed, see: http://ffm-online.org/2017/01/26/eu-libyen-schmutziger-deal-geplatzt/
But border policemen from the Libyan coast guard are nevertheless being trained for the purpose of intercepting as many boats as possible before they reach international waters. In 2016 already approx. 18,000 boat people (being 10 % of the arrivals in Italy) were stopped and returned to the Libyan prisons, which were qualified even by the German Embassy in Niger as providing ‘concentration camp-like conditions’, see
Welcome to Europe on the situation in Greece
In two reports, the Infomobile of w2eu elaborately described the intensified situation of the refugees who are stuck in Greece, which at the end of January even resulted in several death cases:
In an article activists from Thessaloniki also criticized the unbearable conditions in the camps and ended their text with the following sentences: “It is obvious that there is no intention neither to close down, nor to renovate these facilities. They remain and will remain prisons. They are militarized spaces with fences and metal bars, run by the cops and the military. Migrants in there are fully isolated, packed away from the voices, the sounds, the rhythm of life in the city. The State and NGOs are trading in Humanitarianism while slowly exterminating migrants. We will fight until the closing down of every detention place and ghetto. We want migrants in our neighborhoods.”
Balkan Route: push backs everywhere
The situation along the entire Balkan Route is meanwhile characterized by illegal push backs by the respective national border police and military. Pro Asyl describes it in an overview:
In a report the Welcome Initiative from Zagreb recently documented push backs from Kroatia to Serbia:
Against this background the Balkan Route Info (Livefeed by w2eu) opened its own section concerning push backs, requesting the persons concerned to document as best as possible these illegal push backs and report them to human rights organisations.
Film clips concerning family reunifications
With and for Moving Europe and Medico International, the film collective “Fish in Waters” made two impressive film clips concerning two families who were refused family reunification for months and years.
The good news is: for both families the entrance into Germany of their family members who were stuck in Greece for such a long time could meanwhile be achieved.
bordermonitoring.eu: new report concerning Macedonia and Serbia
“The growth and development of transit migration along the Balkan route in 2015 and 2016 highlighted the major role Macedonia and Serbia played, not merely as the main countries of passage, but as important buffer areas within the framework of the European border regime. This research paper first examines the development and transformations of Macedonian and Serbian national migration policies and legislation in the past two decades in the light of the EU accession process. It identifies the key historical and geopolitical factors that significantly shaped them, as well as the distinct strategies the two countries pursued in coping with often countervailing EU demands, local socio-political considerations and actual migration movements and practices. The paper proceeds to analyze the gradual establishment of a formalized corridor through the Balkans by tracing the ways in which Macedonia and Serbia strategically positioned themselves in how they governed the transit migration through their territory, dynamically shifting between humanitarianism and securitization throughout the time before the formalized corridor emerged, during its existence, in the process of its closure, and after it was shut down.”
Taz File on Migration Control
Who is being paid (by the EU) to stop the refugees of the world? “These months the fight against uncontrolled migration has the highest priority for the governments in Europa. Twenty-five male and female journalists, editors and correspondents of the ‘taz’ and ‘free’ – as well as several scientists together carried out research on this subject in 21 countries from July 2016. We wanted to know : what exactly is being done today to fend off migration? How much money is actually spent for this? What are the consequences for the people in Africa, for refugees, for labour migrants? Who are the winners and who the losers of these politics?...” Country reports, theses, background research at https://migration-control.taz.de/#de
Solidarity Cities
In the introduction to this Newsletter there is a quote from an event announcement in Freiburg, here the link to the full invitation with further information and interviews:
And we elaborated above why we consider this initiative especially important in the current situation of polarization in society. Accordingly we want to try to compile further materials and texts in the next months and regularly report on them in the Kompass Newsletters.
Reviews:
New newspaper from Afrique-Europe-Interact
In December the network Afrique-Europe-interact published a new newspaper, with articles on the Valetta Process, on migration and development, on the No-Stress Tour… see here, also to order:
Oury Jalloh Demo in Dessau
Two thousand people against lethal police violence and state racism in the streets of Dessau. Twelve years have passed, since Oury Jalloh burned to death in a police cell in Dessau with shackles at his hands and feet. This year’s commemoration of the day he died led to the until now largest demonstration in Dessau-Roßlau. An afterword by Thomas Ndindah of the Initiative to the Commemoration of Oury Jalloh, as well as many photos of the demonstration can be found on the website of Umbruch Bildarchiv: http://www.umbruch-bildarchiv.de/bildarchiv/ereignis/070117oury_jalloh.html
AntiRa Action Conference in Karlsruhe
From the press release: “The AntiRa Network Baden-Württenberg invited people to a conference in Karlsruhe on Saturday 28.1.2017. Approximately 120 committed people from several cities and communities, who are active in many different initiatives, followed the invitation. Thus there were male and female unionists, persons from antiracist backgrounds, from circles of the church, peace and anti-military initiatives, asylum initiatives, committed volunteers, private persons and refugees taking part in the conference. At the conference the reasons for seeking refuge were discussed, as well as the deadly exclusion, the cutback of refugees’ rights and the expulsions.
Refugee Black Box 27-29.01.2017 in Jena
Break the Deportation DNA Chain: "Refugee Black Box – The irrepressible voice and power of the afflicted" - Beyond the Court rooms!
“Our main focus of discussion will be breaking the deportation chain from within; with discussions on strategies of Break Deportation Acts: Our historical backgrounds and past political struggles against deportation and social exclusion will be the guide to our continued engagement for justice and human dignity. …” More at the website of The Voice:
Previews:
Protests against the G20 in Hamburg
There are only six more months to go: on 7 and 8.7.2017 the Heads of Government of the G20 will meet in the city center of Hamburg … The G20 Platform strives for a ‘triad’ of possible activities from 5 to 8.7.2017 in Hamburg. This triad will consist of a “Summit of Global Solidarity” on 5/6.7, an action day on 7.7 (Day of Civil Disobedience) and a large and broad allied demonstration on 8.7.2017. Moreover there will be many more initiatives and mobilizations.
On 3 and 4.12.2016 an action conference took place in Hamburg in order to plan protests against the G20 Summit in 7.2017. During the conference a working group on flight and migration was founded, which considered how we can – in this context – together achieve a massive protest against (neo)colonialism, border regime, deportations, racism and nationalism.
We emphatically want to invite you all to take part in the next action conference (provisionally in April) for the planning of the protests against the G20 and to share with us your experiences and proposals for political action and an organization in solidarity. We wish that the protests against the G20 are created by many different groups and make multiple perspectives and demands visible. In particular a platform should be created for struggles of male and female migrants and refugees, as well as a broad network between different groups…