Thursday, June 19, 2014

THE PROTEST OF ASYLYUM SEEKERS IN HOLOT

Jun 18, 2014
Holot, Israel – From Asylum seekers’committee in Holot
[Partial Hebrew Translation Below – תרגוםחלקי לעברית למטה]



Holot is a prison located in the desert of Negev,built for Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers. Currently, there are more than2.300 inmates. The government calls it as an open facility, but in fact it is aprison because we are locked inside different sections without a possibility ofgetting out. Even though they say; we can have 48 hours a month as a vacation,but actually doesn’t happen. The government imposes penalties, on account ofour illegal entry or presence knowing for certain that we came from countrieswhere our life and freedom are threatened.
Holot is illegal because it violates our rights to liberty,freedom and also our rights to life which are considered a fundamental humanright.
The international standards state that everyone has theright to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, but inHolot there is no even a basic medical treatment.
Therefore, the decision of stopping signing in and out willcontinue; since Holot is an open facility we see no need for us to sign threetimes a day. In addition, we announce daily protests inside Holot starting fromtomorrow Thursday June 19, 2014 from 13:00 pm until 18:00 pm for the followingdemands:
• If Holot is an open facility, then why and until when westay here? And if it is a prison, then what is our crime?
• Immediate reform to the medical system, and treat ourpatients immediately.
• Immediate release of detainees who have been in prisonsover 2 years, the victims of torture from Sinai and all the prisoners inSaharonim and Holot with legal status according to international standards.
• We ask Israeli government to hand over our case to UNHCR,and we are hereby no longer asking for acceptance and for the UNHCR to deportall of us to any third country.

To our brothers and sisters all over the country, we knowthat you are subject to arbitrary arrest, detention and exile as we are.Therefore we have made a commitment to keep on struggling for our basic rightsand we will never give up, the justice and equality will last forever.
To Israeli citizens we know that many of you do not agree with the harsh policies of the government, knowing that you are a people who know what it is like to suffer persecution. We are not your enemies. We entered Israel illegally because we had fled danger and needed a place of safety. We have no intention to harm Israelis, and we have no desire to destroy your home.

We will keep you updated.

Thank you,

Asylum seekers’ committee in Holot
June 18, 2014
www.facebook.com/holotrefugeeprisoners
Contacts:
054.259.3619 (English)
054.915.6075 (English, Hebrew)
054.873.8494 (Arabic, Hebrew)
Photo Credits: Mutasim Ali


כותבים מנהיגי מחאת מבקשי המקלט בכלא חולות:

 ההחלטה שלנו לעצור את ההחתמה הביומטרית תמשיך;מכיוון שחולות הוא מתקן פתוח אנו חושבים שאין צורך לחתום שלוש פעמים ביום. בנוסף,אנו מודיעים על הפגנות יומיות בתוך כלא חולות החל ממחר יום חמישי 19 יוני 2014מ13:00 עד שעת 18:00 בערב בקריאה לדרישות הבאות:
• לקבל תשובה- אם החולותהוא מתקן פתוח, למה ועד מתי אנחנו נשארים כאן? ואם זהו כלא, אז מה הפשע שלנו?
• דורשים רפורמה מיידיתבמערכת הרפואית, לטפל בחולים שלנו באופן מיידי.
• דורשים שחרור מיידי של עצורים שהיו בכלא מעל שנתיים, שחרור קורבנות עינוייםמסיני ושחרור כל האסירים בסהרונים וחולות בעלי מעמד חוקי בהתאם לתקנים בינלאומיים.
• אנו מבקשים מממשלת ישראל להעביר את הטיפול בנושא שלנו לנציבות הפליטים שלהאו"ם, ואנו בזאת כבר לא מבקשים אישור מנציבות האו"ם לפליטים לגרש מישהומאיתנו לכל מדינה שלישית.
לאחים והאחיות בכל רחבי הארץשלנו, אנחנו יודעים שאתם כפופים למעצר שרירותי, מעצר וגלות כפי שאנחנו. לכן יש לנוהתחייבות להמשיך להאבק על הזכויות הבסיסיות שלנו, אנחנו לא נוותר לעולם, הצדקוהשוויון יימשכו לעד.
לאזרחים הישראליים : אנחנויודעים שרבים מכם לא מסכימים עם המדיניות הקשה של הממשלה, בידיעה שאתם אנשיםשיודעים מה פרוש לסבול מרדיפה. אנחנו לא האויבים שלכם. נכנסנו לישראל באופן בלתיחוקי, כי נמלטו מסכנה וזקוקים למקום של בטוח. אין לנו שום כוונה לפגוע בישראלים,ואין לנו שום רצון לפגוע בבית שלכם.
[עוד מידע בגרסה האנגלית]

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Help! Hamburg Police Brutalizing Lampedusa refugees peaceful protest

Register your protest by Telephone, Fax and email to the Authorities in Hamburg and Luxemburg:
Please act to stop the police violence that is taking place in Hamburg against the 50 to 60 refugees of the Lampasas’ group in Hamburg who are on sit-in-strike in solidarity protest in front of city hall.
The refugees demand a reaction from the city administration regarding their request for a residence permit according to paragraph 23 and working permits and also to express their solidarity with the victims of police brutality in Luxemburg.
At about 15.00Uhr in Hamburg: The courageous Lampadusa refugees led a spontaneous protest in front of the city hall to continue the protest against their homelessness, till now several people have been wounded in the bloody attacks of the police in Hamburg. The refugees are facing continuous repression, many refugees and activists are forcefully arrested and detained in the police station.
At about 12.noon in Luxemburg: The Europe-wide refugee protest “March for freedom of movement” from Strasbourg to Brussels has been attacked violently and gas sprayed by the Police in Luxemburg during their protest at the EU conference of the internal ministers.
http://freedomnotfrontex.noblogs.org/
The VOICE Refugee Forum call to protest the bloody violence of the German police against the protesters and that Police should act as “civilized” citizens as we demand the immediate release of the protesters, we demand public apology for their ignorance in favor of the discrimination and repressions of the people in Europe while we hold the ministers responsible to investigate immediately the abuses of the police.
Please act to stop the police violence and intimidation of protesters and condemn the police violation of our democratic rights to protest and for public assembly in Germany and in Europe.
You can organize public protests in your communities and Register your protest by Telephone, Fax and email to the Authorities in Hamburg and Luxemburg to Free Our Brothers and Sisters :
Mayor Office Hamburg,
Senatskanzlei Address
Postfach 105520
20038 Hamburg
Tel.: 040 - 42831-0
040 - 42831-2555
poststelle@sk.hamburg.de
Luxemburg:
Call the Luxembourg police station and tell them to free our friends
immediately:
Tel: 00352 4997 4 500
Also per fax: 00352 4997 4 599











Police brutality against Lampedusa in Hamburg

http://www.lampedusa-in-hamburg.org/








Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Refugee protest camp in Hannover under attack of the police

Announced demonstration hampered



Right now the refugees of the selforganised protest camp are threatened by massive police forces. The whole area of the park is enclosed by police while other forces started to remove the tents.
Just two days before politicians of Hannover and the district mayor visited the refugees from the protest strike. They had nothing to counter the arguments of the protesters and agreed to tolerate the camp.
This is a call for solidarity with the refugee protest strike in Hannover

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Refugee Protest Camp in Hannover at Weißekreuzplatz







Isolation, restriction of movement, restriction of having a Job, threatening of deportation,Administrations governmental harassment and racism, poor health care, ignorance,depression, slow death.
These titles summarize our lives here in Germany as human in need of protection.German government blocked our legal excess to our basic human rights through its administrative bodies, and it  had full support from the administrative court in Niedersachsen, in presence of dangerous carelessness of politicians,  We saw this as a part of German racist & discriminative policy against foreigners, and mismanagement of productive human resources in tomorrow Germany.
We are rejecting to accept the situation of refugees in Niedersachsen; we see all German administrative, legal and justice departments are responsible of this continuing suffering .Our demand is so clear and simple. We call for immediate abolishing of all asylum laws, because they reflect the face of racism of this country,  we call for immediate protection of our basic human rights according to what had been declared in the universal declaration of human rights. Based on the German constitution (according to article 16-a of the We striking and protesting to save our lives, it is not a matter of something neither to negotiate nor to delay, and we are ready to pay the price, no matter: how much it costs.
Our right: right here and right now.
Weißenkreuzplatz, Hannover, May 24th, 12h

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Protest in Schwäbisch Gmünd against Police Brutality and Administrative Repression


Protest info tent against police brutality and administrative repression in (Schwabisch Gmund) Ostalbkries - the role of the media working together with these offices to cover their crimes with false propaganda against the resistance of refugees.
Marktplatz Schwäbisch Gmünd
saturday 10am to 15pm
sunday 10am to 15pm

Offener Brief der Flüchtlinge an die Schwäbisch Gmünder Bürger - Protest against Police Brutality and Administrative Repression

More infos

March of Refugees and Sans Papiers to Brussels for freedom of movement

We come from everywhere to march from Strasbourg to Brussels.
Let‘s march for our freedom! 18.May - 28.June 2014

Interconnected Refugee & Migrant Movements – Protest March against Fortress Europe!
From Strasbourg to Brussels, May and June 2014
The European council and the European ministers of foreign affairs make racist and prohibitive policies against refugees and migrants on a very high level. In reaction to the recent admitted mass drowning in the Mediterranean, they only concluded to arm the forces that control and aggressively prevent people’s movement, such as frontex. They will hold their next summit at the 26th and 27th of June in Brussels.
Different groups of refugee and Migrant movements in Europe plan a protest march from Strasbourg to Brussels. This will begin shortly before the European parliament elections at the end of May. The marching refugee and supporting activists will walk about 450 km within one month. In an action week before the council’s summit, we will raise our protest against the policies of fortress Europe!
*17.5.2014*
Demonstration with Blockupy and School and University Strike at
Oranienplatz (Berlin), then Protest March leaves Berlin
Demonstration mit Blockupy und dem Schul- und Unistreik startet am
Oranienplatz, dann verlässt der Protestmarsch Berlin
Manifestation avec Blockupy et la grève écolière et étudiante à
Oranienplatz (Berlin), puis le groupe de la marche quitte Berlin
*18.5.2014*
Crossing “Bridge of Europe” from Kehl to Straßbourg
Überqueren der “Europa Brücke” von Kehl nach Strasbourg
Traversée du “pont de l’Europe” de Kehl à Strasbourg
*19.5.2014*
Actions at European institutions in Strasbourg, gathering for
the departure of the Protest March
Aktionen bei europäischen Institutionen in Strasbourg, Zusammenkommen für
den Beginn des Protestmarschs
Actions aux institutions européennes à Strasbourg, rassemblement pour le
départ de la marche
*20.5.2014*
Protest March leaves direction Saarbrücken
Der Protestmarsch startet in Richtung Saarbrücken
La marche part en direction de Saarbrücken
Actions in Saarbrücken
Actions in Schengen
*21.6. – 27.6.2014*
Action week in Brussels
Aktions-Woche in Brüssel
Semaine d’actions à Bruxelles
More info: http://freedomnotfrontex.noblogs.org/
WE HAVE A DREAM...
We are asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented migrants, migrants from many European countries, we are Europeans with a “migration background”, we are all those who have no full privilege of citizenship, but also citizens who share a common anger against the racist EU migration policy.
We decided to organize a European caravan which will go from the largest number of European countries towards Brussels (Belgium), where the European institutions are settled. Showing that we don’t respect the borders they impose us, holding us prisoners of the states borders and in the lagers, we will exercise our basic right of freedom of movement and address our demands directly where the decisions come from.
We have a dream:
- Freedom of movement and of residence for all asylum seekers,
- Stop the Dublin trap and the obligatory residence in Lagers throughout Europe
- Permanent documents without criteria (not depending on working contracts or individual state prosecution)
- Stop the imprisonment and deportation of migrants
- Same working conditions for all
- Same political, social and cultural rights for all: right to study and to work
- Stop the European imperialist policies: no more free trade treaties and NATO wars
- Abolish Frontex, Eurosur and other anti-migration policies and measures Join us !
Starting on 18th May 2014 with the EU Parliament elections, the transnational march will end in Brussels with massive protests at the EU-summit on migration policy, the 26th and 27th of June 2014.
The arrival will be one week before the summit, on 20th June, we will have a week of actions in the city of Brussels to make them aware of our anger.
http://freedomnotfrontex.noblogs.org/files/2014/04/English1.pdf
Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 27 – May 2014 in english!
+++ Come to Kehl-Strasbourg on 18 May: Start of the March of Refugees and Sans Papiers to Brussels +++ Struggles against Dublin II/III – e.g. on 8 May in Frankfurt +++ Movements of Migration at the external borders +++ From 15 May: International Days of Action of Blockupy +++ End of May, BuKo 36 in Leipzig +++ Review April: O-Platz Berlin and Lampedusa in Hamburg +++ Preview June: Residency Right Demonstration of Youth without Borders to the Interior Ministers Conference in Bonn, Refugee Women Conference in Frankfurt, Week of Action Brussels …
http://kompass.antira.info/files/2014/05/27Kompass_Newsletter_Mai2014_en...
Dear Friends!
All of you for whom it is possible, should come to Kehl on Sunday, 18 May, to support the start of the March of Refugees and Sans Papiers at the first border crossing to Strasbourg. The march to Brussels will take more than five weeks and it is desired that people should also participate in stages of the march, e.g. during the weekend of 1 June, when the march will stop at the highly symbolic town of Schengen.
Since 1995 the Schengen Agreement stands for the freedom of movement for EU citizens, whereas so-called third-country citizens have been confronted with even sharper border checks and visa restrictions. Schengen symbolizes the distress and the thousand-fold death at the external borders of the EU, which will be made a public issue there.
Further places of action will be, among others, Saarbrücken, Luxembourg and three other borders (see below), before the march will be welcomed in Brussels with a first welcome demonstration on 20 June.
For the subsequent week of action, many protests against those responsible for and benefitting from the EU border regime have been planned. On Thursday 26 June, on the occasion of the first day of the Summit Meeting of EU Interior Ministers, a big rally and central demonstration will be organized and the next day a counter-summit on the perspectives of the struggles of migration.
In the last newsletter we said: “The march and the days of action have not by accident been planned in an early summer which, with regard to the ‘Movements of Migration’, the social and political struggles of refugees and migrants, could get a downright ‘historical’ meaning. Because there is a new dimension to what has been happening in the past weeks at the external borders of the EU.”
These past weeks the dynamics have been uninterrupted: in the Aegean the highest figures of arriving boat people since the record years of 2009/2010; in Morocco unremittingly –e.g. again on 1 May– the well-organised attacks on the border fences of the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta; and nearly every day reports of rescue operations in the Strait of Sicily, with figures ten times as high as last year. Whether or not and how the Italian navy operation ‘Mare Nostrum’ will continue is not only in Italy controversial (see http://ffm-online.org/2014/04/24/lampedusa-28-000-boat-people-nutzten-ma...).
Despite all the militarisation and armament with Frontex and Eurosur, the ‘border guards’ are currently everywhere in the Mediterranean with their backs against the wall. The speedy development in Southern Italy, the ‘collapse of the reception capacities’ (topical quote by the Chief of the Italian Border Police), could soon also have direct consequences for the Dublin regime. For the authorities and the courts it will anyway become more difficult to hide the homelessness and non-existent care of asylum seekers who are pushed back from all European countries to Italy because of Dublin II/III. And when – after Greece from early 2011 – Italy also fails as a place of refoulement, the Dublin system can be chucked straight in the bin.
It is therefore important that the struggles against the Dublin Regulation are intensified, that those involved organise themselves in order to increasingly prevent push backs even inside airplanes, that with Kirchenasyl safe houses are opened and that, even in case of a subsequent push back to Italy, they are not forgotten but supported upon their return to Germany.
In Frankfurt the protests against Dublin continue with a demonstration at the airport on 8 May (see below); on 1 May an old school was squatted in Hamburg to create a welcome centre (see below). In April Berlin went through a concentration around the O-Platz, which was initially caused by the successful discord spread among the refugees (see below the short chronology).
Self-organised groups from Berlin are simultaneously the driving force behind the transnational march; they will set off to Kehl-Strasbourg on 17 May, after a common action with the imminent crisis protests in Berlin.
For on 15 May the Days of Action that are organized all over Europe by http://mayofsolidarity.org/ are beginning. On 17 May regional demonstrations from Blockupy Coordination are taking place (see below); not only in Berlin, but also in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, the struggles of refugees will play a prominent role. Moreover initiatives from several countries have published their own calls, which –as to their content– link up the struggles against the crisis regime with the struggles against the border regime and –from a practical point of view– connect all these Blockupy mobilisations with the march that starts one day later. In this sense we hope that ‘Solidarity beyond Borders’ will really produce an effect in May and June, all the same we are in for two extremely eventful months …
All the best,
the Kompass crew