For Freedom of Movement - Anti-Lager action Tour
Bramsche-Berlin-Eisenhüttenstadt-Halberstadt-Hannover-Neuss-Parchim/Tramm...these
are some of the names on the map of non-places, places of exclusion
for those who are supposed to stay OUT even inside this country.
Abschiebeknäste-Abschiebelager-Aufnahmelager-Ausreisezentren-Containerlager-
Gemeinschaftsunterkünfte-Flüchtlingswohnheime-ZASTen...
this is the alphabet of refugee camps in Germany.
to exclude-to scare off- to discriminate-to humiliate–to lock
up-to isolate-to ignore-to illegalise-to manage to oppress-to persecute-to
rape-to chase down-to coop up... This is the declination of the deprivation
of rights of all those who have to live in refugee camps, here and
next door.
Ever since there have been refugee camps in Germany, people have
been struggling everyday against living in the camps: against the
inhumane conditions under which they are forced to live, isolated
deep in the forests, in former military bases, in industrial areas,
and in container ships. Their struggle at those non-places is a struggle
to get back their dignity and the right of self-determination, a struggle
against a racist legislation, against the persecution through special
laws that deny them the right to freedom of movement, minimise their
means of existence, stigmatise them in everyday life, and deny them
medical treatment. A struggle against such living conditions that
makes you go mad and feel small. In German deportation prisons, refugee
camps and refugee lodgings, more people commit suicide than in any
other European country.
Our campaign against all forms of refugee camps is a struggle against
borders. To divide and classify us, to isolate us, to make us accessible,
easy to control, and usable. We will not participate in this classification
and exclusion of human beings, nor in this separation of societies
and the world into zones of poverty and wealth, into those with access
to rights and those without rights, into zones of war and of a false
peace. We will fight to undermine the foundations of the current relationships
of domination, of the fences around the refugee camps, and of the
visible and invisible borders of those areas, and we want to share
our knowledge and our experiences of resistance.
We are united in solidarity in our struggles for liberation. Our
autonomy is our self-organisation, our solidarity and our right to
move freely that we claim for ourselves. Our resistance is against
all forms of refugee camps, against deportation, against social exclusion
and against migration control.
No isolation camps for refugees - not here, nor anywhere!
Refugee isolation camps – everywhere in this country, there
are places that cannot be found on any map.
We want to draw new maps. Maps of resistance
to attack the visible fences and walls, to tear them down loudly
or sail around them quietly, to hollow them out, undermine them, and
take what we need.
The loud and soft “NOs” of our everyday resistance,
The loud and determined NO – NEIN! Lager – Anti-Lager
For Freedom of Movement - Anti-Lager action Tour
Against deportation and social exclusion
20 August – 5 September 2004
We demand the closing down of all camps: deportation
prisons, deportation camps and mass collection camps. And we demand
the abolition of the Law of Residenzpflicht!
Every person has the right to live wherever she or he wants to!
For freedom of movement – ANTI-LAGER action TOUR
against deportation and exclusion
DEPORTATION CAMPS, “DEPARTURE CENTERS”
In early 1998, the first special deportation camps (Projekt X, „Ausreisezentren“)
were opened in Germany. They are a new version of camps in the German
system of refugee camps created by the ministers of interior. Even
though deportation or the so-called “voluntary” emigration
are the official goals of the camps, they are in fact camps designed
to illegalise migrants – refugees who are directed into these
camps are confronted with so many constraints and so much pressure
that half of them prefer to go underground and live without any rights.
From the official viewpoint, this is a success, since further Sans
Papiers and irregular workers are being created. Refugees, whose application
for asylum was denied, but who cannot be deported because they, for
instance don’t have a passport, are ordered into deportation
camps. In the words of the bureaucrats, this is called a “Verfügung
einer Wohnsitznahmeverpflichtung als Auflage zur Duldung”, which
doesn’t mean much else than detention.
The refugees, many of whom have lived in Germany for a number of years,
have to leave their homes, leave their town and their social environment,
maybe their work, their kids have to leave their school and have to
go into the deportation camps. Refugees in these camps don’t
receive (pocket) money, they are constantly controlled. At times their
rooms are inspected, and their personal belongings, that they supposedly
are not allowed to have, are taken away from them. They have to show
up to inspections on a regular basis, from time to time they are interrogated,
worn down by questioning sessions, and pressured into leaving Germany.
For the refugees, this means that they are permanently under a high
level of stress; the psychological pressures and the massive restrictions
in their lives are hard to take. The introduction of so-called departure
centres in various federal states of Germany has provoked resistance
both within and outside the camps’ fences. In the State of Bavaria,
the government could not open up another “departure centers”
after lasting protests - especially after the action days in Fürth
of the recent year. In the meantime, particularly in Bavaria and Lower
Saxony, new versions of deportation camps have been introduced, however,
they are not officially called such. In Bramsche (Lower Saxony), people
who have just recently arrived in Germany and who still undergoing
the asylum procedure, but who supposedly have no chance of receiving
asylum, are ordered into these camps.
BRAMSCHE-HESEPE
In Bramsche-Hesepe, a town close to Osnabrück and the Dutch
border, a new and repulsive type of deportation camp has been created.
In former times, the camp (Lager) had been a military base, and later
a reception camp for ethnic Germans and Jewish emigrants from the
Soviet Union. Since November 2001, it is used as a deportation camp
but it is not officially called so, it is called “federal state
reception center”(LASt). At first there were 200 spaces, in
March 2004 it was expanded to 550 places. Theoretically, the buildings
could offer space for 1200 people. As a result of the recent massive
protests against the conditions in the deportation camp, today refugees
who are minors and travelling without parents are no longer ordered
into this camp. Despite this, in March of this year, a school was
opened within the camp to offer so called special courses in an effort
to isolate the children living in the camp from the outside world.
In this manner, their total exclusion had been achieved. Part of the
camp has offices of the IOM and the Foreigners’ Office, but
there is no legal advisor and no medical nor psychological assistance.
While the staff of the camp had been reduced by one third, the police
in Bramsche received two new positions in conjunction with the expansion
of the camp. Against the isolation and illegalization of refugees
and migrants! No one is illegal!
NEUSS
Since 1993 the only deportation prison for women is located in Neuss
(in the state of Northrhine-Westfalia). This jail is situated in a
quite street right in the city center of Neuss and is hidden behind
an ordinary façade. Currently about 60-80 women are imprisoned
there, among them are frequently pregnant women and underage women.
Arbitrarily the women are locked up in cells containing for two or
six prisoners. Food is served only in these 9m² cells. Also,
a sink and a toilet are crammed into these cells, which are only separated
by a curtain. Medical treatment is fully inadequate. There are no
psychological services; there is also no social worker, nor a legal
advisor. The only reason why these women are imprisoned here is because
they migrated to Germany.
DEPORTATION PRISON
Deportation Prisons are the extreme form of refugee camps in Germany.
Deportation prison means: To be locked up behind high walls and barbed
wire for up to 18 months, and to be guarded by armed security personnel.
Cells, lock up times, time in the open air, restricted times for visitors,
restricted possibilities for using a phone, exposed to the arbitrary
actions of the prison staff and the arbitrariness of the democratic
state. Deportation prison means: Waiting for deportation or resigning
oneself to leaving the country “voluntarily” leaves no
space for self-determination. A slight hope for a change for the better
can only exist for those who have a legal advisor. Over and over again
there are collective and individual hunger strikes in deportation
prisons, but even attempted and realised suicides. Therefore: Build
up solidarity! Down with deportation prisons! For the freedom of everyone
to stay!
HANNOVER
Hanover, a deportation airport – from here, refugees are also
deported forcefully. Every year, 50 000 people are deported from Germany
by the German border patrol. Repeatedly there are cases of death,
for example, on 28 May 1999, the Sudanese refugee Aamir Ageeb was
strangled during his deportation from Frankfurt airport by officers
of the German border patrol.
In Hannover-Langenhagen, right next to the airport, is the central
deportation prison of the State of Lower Saxony since the year 2000.
Up to 250 refugees are detained here. In the first year after opening,
on 8th of december 2000, the 17 year old tamil refugee Arumugasamy
Subramaniam committed suicide in the prison before being deported
to Sri Lanka. Soon, refugees from Bremen will be sent to this deportation
prison, since doctors in Bremen decided not to voluntarily assist
in deportations like the deportation authorities expect. Under the
current Chancellor Schröder, the government in Hanover was responsible
for “Project X,” the first German prototype for a “departure
center”. Currently, the ruling CDU also propagates a closed
system of refugee camps and would prefer to impede all contact between
solidarity activists and the refugees. Smash racist structures!
HALBERSTADT
As of May of this year, up to 1 000 refugees have been ordered into
the central reception center (ZASt) in Sachsen-Anhalt, a structure
made up of three five-story concrete buildings with about 1200 spaces.
From here, refugees are sent to various parts of the state.
The central reception center located in the buildings of a former
military base of the red army is located 7 km outside the city in
the countryside (which means about one hour of walking) and is guarded
by video cameras, security personnel, and a fence. The formation of
a ghetto is intended. In part of the structure are offices of the
health and welfare agency, the agency for the recognition of refugees
(BAFl), the foreigners’ office and the federal police. About
100 people reside on the fifth floor in the first block of this so-called
departure center. They are called “refugees with a blue ID.”
After having lived for a number of years in homes in various parts
of the country, they were forcefully ordered into the camp, where
their odyssey through Sachsen-Anhalt began. But this time, it is not
clear how long they will have to stay.
After two years, the federal state government deemed the “departure
center” to be a complete success and decided to make it a permanent
institution this year.
Along with the already existing measures of repression – the
denial of any sort of cash money, packaged foods, restricted medical
treatment, residency permits (“Duldungen”) that are only
valid for a couple of days and constant interrogations, – the
Ministry of Interior is now implementing new measures. The deportation
camp has increased to 250 spaces. Along with single men and couples
without children, soon single women will be ordered into a separate
women’s block. Refugees in the reception camp will be separated
from those with the blue ID. Additionally, the Ministry is “luring”
others by reducing some repressive measures (e.g. ending the residency
restrictions, paying pocket money or offering a work permit) in order
to coerce them into some sort of “co-operation” in gaining
a passport, thus making them participate in their own deportation.
Tear down all fences! Free housing for everyone!
Close all deportation camps!
PARCHIM, TRAMM/ZAPEL
200 asylum seekers, among them families, live in the mass collection
camp (“Gemeinschaftsunterkunft”) Tramm/Zapel, close to
Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Children who are born here only
know this country from within the refugee camp. Every step of the
refugees is controlled in this camp which consists of three ramshackle
buildings at a former military base. It is situated in the middle
of a forest and surrounded by barbed wire, video monitoring devices,
controlled at the entrance by guard dogs and security personnel: it
is a well-structured system of control. In every block there are only
two kitchens, and the next town with a store is 9 km walking distance
from the camp. Usually the refugees do not have enough money for the
bus. Frequently, there are protests in the camp: against the isolation,
the control, the denial of medical services, the reduced social benefits
in the form of coupons that stigmatize them. For example, one night
someone painted a picture on the wall of the Foreigners’ Office
showing an open door with bars behind it. Along with demands for the
rights of refugees, these pictures show the desperation and the feeling
of being imprisoned in this camp. The police are still searching for
the painter. The residents keep on protesting against living in this
camp in the forest and mockingly call the camp a “home in the
jungle.” Their demand: At first, they want to move to the city
of Parchim. A similar resettlement was achieved by the residents of
the former refugee home in nearby Peeschen. Even though a directive
of the Ministry of Interior from 2001 mandates that all asylum seekers
have to live within the proximity of a cultural center, the camp in
Peeschen would never have been closed without the protests from the
inside. The former residents made their demands clear, e.g., by hindering
the employees of the Foreigners Office with a street blockade. We
would like to support the protest of the refugees in the camp in the
forest and let the state government know our anger!
BERLIN - DEPORATION PRISON BERLIN-GRÜNAU
Grünau is part of the town of Köpenick. About 210 people
are detained here in order to deport them. For more than one year,
the inmates have been fighting against the miserable living conditions
in this prison. At the beginning of last year, there had been one
of the largest collective hunger strikes in the history of German
deportation prisons.
CAPITOL CITY: We will bring something nice along to Berlin, in order
to show the Capitol our anger.
EISENHÜTTENSTADT
In Eisenhüttenstadt, 120 km east of Berlin, there are both the
Central reception camp (ZABH) and the deportation prison of the State
of Brandenburg at a former military base. Both are within the 30 km-zone
along the border with Poland, which until May of this year had been
the border of the Fortress Europe. The town is notorious. Until now,
there is one room in the deportation camp which is called the “pacification
room,” in which people are imprisoned for many hours and bound
with straps. The use of this inhumane measure could be publicized,
but until today not much has changed despite the annual report of
the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in 2000.
Only the metal rings attached to the floor which had been used to
tie down the refugees were taken out and replaced by a system of straps
tied to a bed. For example, last year, a man had been tied up for
a total of 42 hours within three days and had been videotaped the
whole time. For people in deportation prisons, medical treatment is
not suitably provided: The only medical personnel is a nurse, and
a doctor only comes out twice a week to administer only pain killers
and sedatives. Refugees are told that even with serious illnesses,
they cannot to go to hospital, because they would have to pay for
their treatment. The section “foreigners’ and asylum rights”
of the German Advocates Association appealed to the Ministry of Interior
in Brandenburg to receive a permit to offer legal services in the
prison on a regular basis. This the Ministry rejected, because they
didn’t see any need for it.
Today, the maximum time deportation prisoners have to stay in jail
is 1 ½ years. Even though these are only some (action) days
– people inside the prison should notice that we are here. We
will shake the system of deportation prisons and camps from the west
to the east border!
For freedom of movement – ANTI-LAGER – ACTION-TOUR against
deportation and exclusion!
In the so-called “Third World,“ millions of people have
died as a result of the direct colonial violence perpetrated by Western
states and its consequences. Today people in these regions are still
exploited and exposed to the effects of neo-colonial and capitalist
policy. Millions of people flee from war, persecution, or because
their livelihood has been destroyed. Others are looking for a better
life. The rich capitalist countries segregate and close themselves
off more and more. They further militarise their borders. There is
almost no possibility left to migrate without being exposed to dangers
to Western countries. Many people die during their journey of escape.
Nevertheless, many people manage to escape and reach these countries.
After arriving here, though, they have to face racist attacks, controls
and they are put into all types of refugee camps, are detained and
deported.
Exclusion, control, deportation – the decentralised refugee
camp system in Germany
New types of refugee camps have been developed in the past years
all over the world – this is also true for Germany with its
so-called “centres of departure,” of which the aim is
to illegalise or deport. The many forms of refugee camps range from
small hotels in city centres to huge collective lodgings somewhere
in the forest, to deportation camps and finally to deportation prisons.
Racist laws such as the Law of Residenzpflicht create an entire system.
Under this law, refugees are prohibited from leaving the county in
which they reside without permission. Currently there are approx.
600,000 people affected by the German refugee camp system. The last
stop for the refugee in the refugee camp system is the deportation
prison or the deportation camp - from which the only possibilities
existing are either to (go underground” into the complete lack
of any form of human rights as being so-called “illegal,”
or be deported.
Unwanted migration– the political aims of the refugee camp
system
With the new law “Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz“ (AsylbLG)
and with the changes in the law for foreigners in 1993, the basic
human right to asylum was practically abolished. The AsylbLG regulates
the prohibition of work for asylum seekers and financial assistance
through in-kind payment– drastically reduced - to support refugees’
livelihood. This is supposed to make Germany an unattractive place
for immigration, as stated by the former president of Baden-Württemberg,
Lothar Späth, at the festivities of the first anniversary of
the first German collective refugee camp: “ We want the bush
telegraph to say – don’t go to Baden-Württemberg,
you will be put into refugee there.” The effectiveness of blunt
racist animosity contributes to this atmosphere. Only by putting many
refugees together into former military bases can the image of “the
poor of the world flooding into Germany” be produced.
To exploit and profit – the economic organisation of the
refugee camp system
From an economic point of view, the refugee camp system functions
as a kind of link between the regular and the irregular labour market.
In the federal districts with a low unemployment rate, the camp system
offers refugees as cheap labourers for unskilled jobs – in Baden
Württemberg 40% of all the asylum seekers work officially. The
inhabitants of eastern German refugee camps travel between their monthly
appointments at the welfare office and their job in western Germany
– they are part of the 1.5 Million workers without papers who
do the “dirty” and physically heavy work.
Property cuts itself off – the “Lager”-system
of the EU -
The EU-wide system of refugee camps (“Lager”) is currently
being built. A series of refugee camps already exist at the border
regions of the EU. Here, the refugees who are on their way to the
capitalist centres are detained until their deportation. The EU-administration
is also planning the so-called “Transit Processing Centers (tpc)”
at the borders of the EU and in “safe” Tricont-countries.
People who apply for asylum in the EU are supposed to be put into
those “tpcs” to wait for the decision. The outer circle
of the Lager system are supposed to be the so-called “Regional
Protection Areas (rpa),” in which refugees from regions of war
and of crisis are to be detained in co-operation with the military,
the IOM and the UNHCR. This concept of regional detention has already
been applied during the wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq as well as in
parts of the African continent. This system of “Lager”
is part of an attempt to control migration world-wide means and to
direct it according to economic and political expediency.
The right to have rights – the tip of the iceberg
The system of the “Lager” is the most extreme form of
exclusion from society and of treatment of people without a German
passport. People are granted different rights and their profitability
is regulated. We support the struggle for rights, against oppression
and exploitation on all levels and within all structures of power.
Every woman and every man has the right to live where she or he wants
to. We broaden the concept of the political refugee through the slogan:
“We are here because you are destroying our countries.”
This means rejecting the hierarchalisation of the different reasons
for migrating. It doesn’t matter if the reason is torture or
oppression, genital mutilation or forced marriage, starvation, poverty,
or the hope of a better life. Together we have the chance to fight
for a better life everywhere.
Many are here, we are here, and we will fight together against this
policy of refugee camps (“Lager”) and for our rights!
The right to stay, the right to live, the right to work, the right
to a life in dignity! We declare our solidarity with the struggles
of all those who do not obey the Residenzpflicht and who fight against
their deportation and for their right to stay!
| 20.-24. August |
Camp in BRAMSCHE (Niedersachsen) |
| 22. August |
Demo in NEUSS (NRW) (esp. FrauenLesbenTrans-mobilisation) |
| 25.-26. August |
HANNOVER |
| 26. August |
HALBERSTADT (Sachsen-Anhalt) |
| 27.-31. August |
Camp in PARCHIM-TRAMM/ZAPEL (Meck.-Pomm.) inkl. actionday in
SCHWERIN |
| 01. September |
BERLIN |
| 02.-05. September |
Camp in EISENHÜTTENSTADT (Brandenburg) |
All over europe refugee camps but also resistance against it are
expanding. With this Anti-Lager-Tour from the netherlands to the polish
border for 17 days we want to make the resistance against this system
of Lager and areas of exclusion audible and visible and we want to
actively support the struggles in the refugee camps. The politicians
and bureaucrats who are responsible, the businesses and organisations
that make profit from this will also be targets of our resistance!
The tour and the three action camps are to be seen as a “space
of experiment”, a laboratory of united and self-organised living
and protest that builds upon the experiences of the antiracist bordercamps
of the past years, the caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants
as well as the action days against the “Ausreisezentrum”
in Fürth last September. There will be rooms and sleeping areas
for women-lesbians-transgender and there will be groups that can be
contacted in case of sexist or racist attacks. In case of trouble
with the racist “Residenzpflicht”-laws collective support
will be provided.
The information about the places and time can be found on the website
(without internet access use the phone numbers). This is supposed
to give everyone the possibility to participate in planning the tour
and actions, to organise events and workshops – for this is
what makes the tour alive.
There will be public kitchens, medical aid and an information tent.
Please bring extra tents and sleeping bags for those who don’t
have their own. For places in busses and lodging during the tour there
will be information on the website: www.nolager.de
Further information:
www.nolager.de
www.campbramsche.de.vu
anti_lager_actiontour@no-log.org
Infotel: 0163-4634594
The Voice Refugee Forum: 03641-665214, mobile 0174-7295853
Brandenburg Initiative Group of Asylum Seekers: 0160-98623633
Donation
Receipt of donation can be given for the tax-declaration , if you
give your name and adress on the transfer form
Transfer to:
Arbeitskreis Asyl
Sparkasse Göttingen
Kto: 130450
BLZ 260 500 01
Key word: Anti-Lager-Tour
ViSdP: Dee Fencer, Waldweg 1, 65087 Grauwacke
