Thursday, December 28, 2017

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Solidarity with the 'strike of closed doors' of 209 people from Sierra Leone in the transit camp Deggendorf (Bavaria/Germany)

On Friday, 15th of December 2017, 209 people from Sierra Leone in the transit camp in Deggendorf started a 'strike of closed doors'. In protest, the children and young people refused to attend the German class as access to other educational institutions is denied. The adults haven't left the accommodation and denied to work in the 80 cents jobs. On Saturday, 16th of December 2017 they started a hunger strike. The protest involves 44 children and young people, as well as 40 women (among them 12 pregnant women) and 125 men. The starting point of the protest was the violent deportation of a man from Sierra Leone on Friday morning, which was stopped in the last minute at the airport.


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Statement of striking refugees in Deggendorf

We are Sierra Leoneans seeking for protection here in Germany but have been frustrated instead of protected. And we have resolved to strike action based on the following reasons:


Every Asylum seeker from Sierra Leone in Deggendorf gets always negative results in the form of :

1. Dublin deportation
2. Rejection of asylum application
3. Asylum application is 'invalid'

- The next point is that we now stay in a camp for 2 years instead of the initial 6 months, with no schooling, no work permit.
- Very poor accommodation facilities with 8 occupants in a room, with poor hygiene and toilet facilities.
- Very poor quality of food.
- Deportation to Italy with serious torture and no proper arrangements for reinstatement of the immigrants in Italy thereby leaving the immigrants on the street suffering.
- Forceful deportation of pregnant women, children, sick people and sucking mothers.
- No medication for immigrants for certain sickness.
And now established to us that this is a private camp and cannot allow any journalists.

On this basis we have started on 15th December 2017 a close door strike with no schooling and on Saturday 16th December and Sunday 17th December hunger strike and on Monday, we will be going to city council to get clearances to have a peaceful protest accross Deggendorf with continuation of no schooling and hunger strike.
This is to let the whole world know how Germany is treating the immigrants.


Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Parade of solidarity in Bremen



No one talks about our situation. People talk a lot about us, but not with us. You might look us strange and change to the opposite street. Sometimes they call us immigrants, sometimes refugees, but always pejoratively. As if we are not humans. We are told we have to adapt. Whoever does not, can fly out. Out to Afghanistan, back to the war. A war your democratic government has brought upon our lives. Or out to Serbia, Kosovo, Albania. There is not even a war there, they say. Next it will be ‘Go back to Syria’.

They build expensive apartments that we, and like many, cannot afford. They say, we should wait a little longer. Put some effort. Then it will work. With the integration. We are diligent on the language-course, work, children at home, minimum wage and zero job-security. Now can we please stay?
Your police are controlling us. Day after day, Night after night. Because we look different. Because we have black hair? We are a danger, experts say. Many believe it. You can choose to do so too. There are already too many who do.

Yet, we are the happy survivors. The ones who made it. Too many do not succeed. Starving in Libyan concentration camps, paid for their failure at their fences, to try it over the sea. That is why they want to build even higher fences, even further south. For that there is plenty of money. But not for cheap apartments, they say. Or for more Kindergartens. For all our children.

But we are many. And not alone. Many want to understand, many want to help. But we do not want any help, no charity event. We want solidarity! We want everyone to have the same rights. We stand for the right to stay. We do not want anyone to be humiliated by the likes of Job Center or the police. That money is there for the needs of all and not for their weapons and profits.

That is why we come together. That is why we show ourselves. Show our will and our ideas for a completely different living together!

Monday, November 06, 2017

Libyan Coast Guard killing refugees on Europes demand

Dramatic first rescue operation for Sea-Watch 3

The violent and reckless behavior of Libyan Coast Guards has caused at least five deaths on the Central Mediterranean Sea this morning, as the crew of the Sea-Watch 3 was called to their first rescue mission by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center. A helicopter of the Italian Navy had to intervene to prevent more fatalities. 58 people are now safe aboard the Sea-Watch 3, despite all efforts, our medical team was not able to revive an infant in our clinic. The Libyan Coast Guards forced a few of the passengers on their vessel and took them back in direction Libya. By interfering in the rescue operation, the Libyans clearly violated international law: The incident took place at 30 nm off the coast, in international waters far outside of Libyan territorial waters.

At approx. 7 am, the crew aboard Sea-Watch 3 received a call of Rome MRCC. North of Tripoli a sinking inflatable boat in international waters had sent a distress call. The Sea-Watch 3 crew arrived on location at about the same time as a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat and started boarding of people in distress. The Libyan Coast Guard approached the boat as well and took over people from aboard the boat, however beating and threatening them. Onboard panic started and a numerous refugees fell overboard. The Libyan ship took off with inappropriate speed while people were still latching onto the side, being dragged by their vessel. After Sea-Watch had already repeadtedly alarmed the Libyans about their life-threatening practice, an Italian Navy helicopter had to intervene, briefly stopping the Libyan ship, to prevent further deadly maneuvering. At least 5 people were killed in the boat’s sinking, among them a child whom the medical crew onboard Sea-Watch 3 was not able to reanimate.
“Probably, nobody would have had to die today if only we had the possibility to operate reasonably in a calm environment. Instead of coordinating the rescue operation with the vessels present such as a ship of the French Navy, the Libyans tried to take as many people as possible back to Libya – and accepted the loss of several lives”, says head of mission Johannes Bayer. “These deaths have to be blamed on the Libyan Coast Guards who have obstructed a safe rescue with their brutal behavior. The responsability is on the side of the European Union, however, who trains and finances these militias. They act in the EU’s will. The European governments finally have to draw conclusions from this incident and stop the collaboration with the Libyan Coast Guards. The EU has to stop to rate migration control higher than human rights!”
Libyan Coast Guards have clearly breached international law by bringing an unknown number of people onboard their vessel, probably with the goal to take them back to Libya. “We were at high seas, outside of libyan territorial waters, about 30 nm north of Tripoli – even outside of the consecutive zone. There, the Libyans have no sovereign rights whatsoever”, says Sea-Watch captain Pia Klemp.
Almost a year ago, October 21 2016, in a similar disastrous event many people died when, during a rescue operation of Sea-Watch 2, the so-called Libyan Coast Guard had tried to displace refugees back to Libya from international waters.
All 58 survivors are now safe aboard the Sea-Watch 3. We will post updates here!
Photos: Lisa Hoffmann / Sea-Watch

Friday, November 03, 2017

In memory of Lamin, killed by Suisse police

"Last time I was sleeping on a wall next to Ouchy, police on bicycle draw me back from the wall and throw tear gas in my sleeping bag, on my face."

"They stop me in the street, ask me to come inside their bus, put handcuffs on my hands, they closed its windows in order that nobody could see or hear me, they beat me badly without no reason. After this they brought me to a place I didn't know and drop me there."

We are standing for our brother that passed away.
In the night of the 24th October 2017, Lamin Fatty passed away at the age of 23 in between the walls of the police station of Lausanne.












On the 7th October 2017, a black man was killed in Ticino under the bullets of the police.
Last year Herve Madundu was shot down by the police, in Bex.



Each and every one of us could have been victims of their own cases.
We don't want to wait to know who will be the next one to die in their hands.
Police brutality is increasing against blacks and immigrants.
Police brutality on black people in the streets and in the police stations has to stop, now.
Police have to stop to beat us and to take our money.
We need free movement and the respect of our basic humanity.
We ask the autorithies to let the family and friends see Lamin. We ask that the authorities stop blockinf the access to the investigation. We ask justice for Lamin.

Stop stressing us
Stop beating us
Stop killing us

Supported by:
AFU - Association Féministe UNIL
Allianz Gegen Racial Profiling
À Qui Le Tour
Bla*sh
Collectif Afro-Swiss
Collectif Faites des Vagues
Collectif R
Collectif Sans-Retour
Droit de rester pour tou-te-s
Groupe Regard Critique UNIL
l'Amar
Perce-Frontières
Sankofa -Platform for People of African Heritage
Sleep-In
SolidaritéS Vaud
SUD Étudiant.e.s et Précaires









PRESS RELEASE � 29.10.2017 (Lausanne)
Lamin, died in the hands of the police because he was black
He came from Gambia and had left his life there to try building a new one and getting medical care. It is in a cell of the police center of Bl�cherette in Lausanne that Lamin died, left alone, on the october 24th. He was 23 years old.
We met Lamin before, we knew he was sick and he has just left the hospital after undergoing a serious brain surgery from which he had a visible scar on his skull. The population office (SPOP-in charge of deportation) was aware of his situation and knew that Lamine needed regular medical controls and that he was unable to travel at that time.
Without having committed any crimes, Lamin was arrested at Lausanne station by border guards, real ��cowboys�� who act in a total opacity and are regularly using force, undermining the freedom and integrity of people
.
Lamin was black, considered illegal, despise his inscription in the population office (SPOP) and the asylum seekers assistance institution (EVAM). He was part of this ��deportable�� category of people, volontarily isolated from the rest of the population and victim of police violence on a daily basis, which is considered as normal�toward � non-white�� individuals.
According to the little informations we have, Lamin was taken by the police to the emergency services of CHUV (hospital) after loosing consciousness and, no one in CHUV opposed to his incarceration back to police station of Blecherette after examination. It is surprizing, as we all know he was recently hospitalized for serious health reasons�! Where is the coherence in medical officials who provided important health care to Lamin and who, at the other hand, gave a green light for his detention and expulsion�?
His death gave place to a brief information from the police, picked up by the medias, but presenting surprizing contradictions and aiming to criminalize Lamin.
No, Lamin was not just in violation of foreign law, he was receiving emergency help from the state and was in possession of the attestation of it, issued by SPOP. He was hosted in a EVAM center and was then available to the autorities at all times.
No, Lamin was not to be deported to Lucerne Canton. He had been assigned to Canton of Vaud and registered at the SPOP as his papers attested.
No, Lamin was not isolated, he had friends here and he was in contact with some collective organizations fighting for immigrants rights.
What really happened to Lamin between Sunday and Tuesday�? Too many unspoken words, contradictions, silences around his death.
Is it because � he�was just an illegal immigrant��,�Madam Procuror?
Why did you delay the recognition of the corpe�until Monday without any explanation?
According to today's statement by the Procuror, the border guards would have mistaken him with another person, which they had only realized on Friday�! If that is true, that emphasizes the way police (border guards, canton police, etc) commits constant negligence, bad treatments and abuses on black people or ��people without the right paper��, with serious consquences that can lead to death. Lamin had a document with him attesting that he had been assigned to Canton of Vaud and was presenting visible health problem. How could he have been mistaken for someone to be deported in Lucerne and moreover, how could he not have bee subjected to any precaution related to his health�!
Clearly he has not been heard and his individual situation was not considered�: all this because his words did not hold the same value as any other citizen who can claim his rights in the eyes of police.
We demand now that the veil be lifted on all those shadows�!
Because everything is incomprehensible and scandalous in his interpellation and in his death.
Because this is really a sadly emblematic case of the treatment reserved to immigrants in ��irregular situation�� and of the lack of attention given to them
Because this is showing the absurdity of the criminalization of non-authorized stay
Because the word ��illegal�� is not harmless�: it produces and spreads a message that this category of people are ��sub-citizens��, without rights and upon whom the autorities have all rights�!
Because violence against immigrants, and especially against black people, is still invisible, trivialized and without limits..
Because illegal immigrants� life matters. Asylum seekers�s life, rejected on not, matters. Black people life�s matter�!
We demand a public debate on police violence so that the autorities have to come out from the shadow and impunity in which they operate in a total indifference.
To say goodbye to Lamin, to show solidarity with his family and relatives, to show solidarity with every other black and immigrant people whatever their permit, who have been victims of police violence�:
We call for protest
(authorized demonstration, anyone can come, no matter ��illegal�� or not)
Wednesday november 1th, 17pm, Place de la Riponne, Lausanne

Collectif R

Monday, October 30, 2017

Demonstration to support the Anglophone Population in Cameroon

35 Years of dictatorship and Killings in Cameroon, Enough is Enough: Join the demonstration on November 6, 2017, Cameroon Embassy in Berlin


Saturday, October 21, 2017

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief volunteers attacked by SWAT Team in Puerto Rico

Repression vs. Resilience

https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/2017/10/16/repression/
Several police vehicles, an armored tactical vehicle, and law enforcement personnel including swat team pointed their guns at relief workers while surrounding and then entering our base of operations in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in the early hours before dawn of October 16th, 2017. Law enforcement communicated that they were acting from a call that Mutual Aid Disaster Relief volunteers were engaged in “kidnapping”. After checking everybody’s belongings without consent, they forced volunteers out of what was the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Puerto Rico hub at gunpoint and the threat of arrest.
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Law enforcement intimidation also included aggressive questioning of our purpose there and whether or not we were protestors or Antifa, had we ever used the raised fist, if we were distributing propaganda, and if we were planning to overthrow the government.
22550936_1955391471386033_264957150_o
The state used similar intimidation and disruption tactics against revolutionary disaster relief workers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Brandon Darby being just one example.
We know that repression from the state intensifies when our organizing is perceived by those in power as effective. Rather than be intimidated into silence and passivity, this just furthers our resolve to continue organizing from below to support people’s survival and self-determination.
And to answer the question, no. We are not planning on seizing state power and overthrowing the government. We do not need to. The state is decaying and will fall by its own weight. We are building relationships of support that can withstand every crisis and give people fertile imaginations full of the possibilities of what can be built in the power vacuums for when the inevitable does happen.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

We'll come united - Anti Racist parade in Berlin

16th of September 2017: 10.000 march on antiracist parade in Berlin

http://www.welcome-united.org/en/call-to-action/ 













Such a beautiful day!

We will stay united! Watch out!

Thursday, August 03, 2017

Stop deportation - Abolish the Dublin System! Freedom of movement for all!

Invitation: Refugee Black Box SOLIDARITY in Munich on 19.08.2017
http://thevoiceforum.org/node/4382/
Demonstration
Stop deportations“ Abolish the Dublin System! Freedom of movement for all!
http://thevoiceforum.org/node/4381/
When
Sarturday: 19.08.2017 at 1pm
Where
Demonstration: Meeting point at 1pm - 4pm in Munich Central Train Station, Germany
"Organizers: Sierra Leone United Association in Germany:
We want to protest together against deportations and the Dublin-system.
They destroy human dignity. In the German asylum system and the Dublin-System there is no freedom of movement. People are prisoners without freedom. This life destroys the mental health of the people and leads them into prostitution and criminal act."
Demonstration: „Stop deportations! Abolish the Dublin system! Freedom of movement for all!“
Start: 1 pm at Central Train Station in München
Workshops:
Start: 7 pm (place will be communicated later)
How to prepare my own interview? (Arrival Aid)
Informations about the Asylum system in Bavaria
Gettogther Party:
Start: 10 pm (Arabellapark, address will be communicated later)
Mixed-Music from Turn Tables: Bigger Rizer DJ&Musics-Performance / Music-Performance by Maligie Kappay / DJ Tims / DJ Salman / Sierra Leone cultural dance
Sprache des Events: English / German translation possible / more translations has to be requested before // Englisch / Deutsch ist möglich / andere Sprachen müssen vorher angefragt werden
Zielgruppe: all people who are interested and who are in solidarity / alle interessierten und solidarischen Menschen
End of Call
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Refugee Black Box SOLIDARITY in Munich on 19.08.2017
Refugee protest against deportations and for the abolition of Dublin deportations in public interest and for security!! - We want to protest together against deportations and the Dublin-system!
Refugee BLACK BOX Activists invited in Munich on 19.08.2017
Bavaria - Refugee Migrants Political Community Movement
Refugee Resistance and Protest Against Deportation for the Dignity of humans and for our Security in Germany.
We want to protest together against deportations and the Dublin-System.
“They destroy human dignity. In the German asylum system and the Dublin-System there is no freedom of movement. People are prisoners without freedom. This life destroys the mental health of the people and leads them into prostitution and criminal act." by Organizers of
Sierra Leone United Association in Germany and in the support with activists of Sierra Leone Refugee Community in Bavaria with The VOICE Refugee Forum Network Thueringen, Berlin and Bavaria @Solidarity#RefugeeBlackBox
We joined the Organizers of Sierra Leone United Association in Germany's demand to stop deportations and abolish the Dublin System: “Freedom of movement for all!"
We are resisting the injustice of deportation. We are collectively criminalized as refugees to become the crimes of deportation regimes in Europe because being a refugee is already a crime. We are criminalized to be deported before they know our names in forced return deportation.
We are demanding for immediate protection of refugee in freedom and for all rights to freedom of movement:
Stop Deportation and Stop Dublin Deportation Policies!
Fight against colonial Injustice!
Break Deportation for Freedom of Movement.
Our freedom is a movement.
Use your rights to freedom of movement!
Our democracy now!
All activists that are against deportation are invited to support our protest against Deportations for public interest and security!!
Demonstration Against Deportations on 19.08.2017 at 1pm - 4pm
in Munich Central Train Station, Germany
Later: Workshops with activists and participants of Refugee-Migrants Political Community Movement Activism Germany
Organizers: Sierra Leone United Association in Germany
All activists that are against deportation are invited to support our protest against Deportations for public interest and security!!
Stop deportations! Abolish the Dublin System! Freedom of movement for all!
http:thevoiceforum.org
https://www.facebook.com/RefugeeBlackBox/
Solidarity#ReefugeeBlackBlock
#RefugeeBlackBox

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Trump’s Muslim Ban Spurs Strong Resistance: Thousands at Airport Protests

Thousands from New York City to Seattle went on January 28 to the nation’s major airports to protest President Donald’s Trump’s order banning for 120 days Muslim immigrants and refugees from seven nations, an order issued that same day. The protests, initiated by immigrant rights groups through social media, took place not only at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York—where it grew to several thousand—but also at Dulles in Washington, D.C., O’Hare in Chicago, and at the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. The protests of the Muslim ban were only the latest of almost daily protests against Trumps policies around the country, the largest of which was the January 21 women’s march on Washington, D.C. that involved about four million in the United States. In New York City, where I joined the demonstration, some 5,000 protestors rallied at Terminal 4, in the parking structure, along the parking lot, in the walkways, and finally blocking the streets and stopping airport traffic. At one point the Port Authority, a joint New York-New Jersey agency, stopped Airtrain Service to prevent more demonstrators from arriving, but Andrew Cuomo, Democratic Party governor ordered service restored and protestors continued to arrive. In Seattle protestors marched into one terminal’s ticketing area. Demonstrators in New York chanted, “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here,” and held many handmade signs with slogans such as “Let Them In,” which was also a chant. When police appeared in riot gear to remove people blocking an entrance to Terminal 4 and then the roadway, the chant of the peaceful protestors became, “Why you wearing riot gear? We don’t see no riot here.” The protest had the flavor of the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011. People used the “human mic,” repeating together an announcement or proposal to make themselves heard. Some supporters brought dozens of pizzas to the march and distributed them, as others brought bags of food, bananas, granola bars, and also hand warmers. Most of the demonstrators had traveled at least an hour each way by bus, subway, and Airtrain to get to the protest in cold winter weather. The crowd in New York was made up mostly of young white men and women, though being New York there were immigrants from all over the world among them, and a number of Muslims, some of the women in hijabs. A number of women were wearing the pink “pussy hats” from the earlier women’s protests against Trump. As the size of the crowd grew after 1:00 p.m., with at least two organized protests at 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., the throngs became more militant, moving into the streets in defiance of police who everywhere seemed to behave with restraint. At one point the crowd of protestors, some from Jewish organizations, such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), some of whom carried pro-Muslim signs, chanted, “Never again! Never again!” The obvious meaning was that neither Jews nor Muslims should ever again face a holocaust again. The chant was taken up by all of the protestors. Those arriving at the airport on incoming or leaving on outbound flights found themselves awash in a sea of protestors chanting, “No ban, no registry, fuck white supremacy.” A few older white men hollered the usual, “Get a job,” but some Muslim Americans arriving with their suitcases joined the demonstration as protestors greeted them with “Welcome home!” News that the American Civil Liberties Union had won a partial suspension of Trump’s ban swept through the crowd at some point as did information about further protests planned for the following day. The resistance to Trump is growing, creating tens of thousands of new activists who are being radicalized by the protests and now see themselves as part of a national movement. While we are not there yet, we are heading towards a social protest movement that could reach the enormous proportions of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. Dan La Botz, January 29, 2017 P.S. * http://newpol.org/content/trump’s-muslim-ban-spurs-strong-resistance-thousands-airport-protests