October 30th, 2012
Enough is enough. It's time for resistance!
Statement zum download auf
Berlin – Statement of the Refugee Protest Camp at Oranienplatz Berlin
Enough is enough. It's time for resistance!
It's necessary to realize that refugees do not flee their native countries for fun. They do it for extremely serious reasons, such as political persecution or extremely adverse social conditions that are sometimes life-threatening. Hoping to live in peace and freedom, they face great dangers in order to flee their countries, leaving behind their entire existence, their friends and family.
In Berlin Oranienplatz, refugees have put a protest tent camp in solidarity with the refugee protest tents in other cities. Every day and night we are protesting against the inhuman conditions that asylum seekers in Germany are exposed to. We suspect that the reasons for this treatment are racist attitudes, the continuation of colonial injustice and the exploitation of the refugees' native countries, as well as political propaganda.
In solidarity with all refugees and asylum seekers concretely we demand the following:
1. Stop Deportation!
Deportation is an outdated practice dating from the racist colonial era. Accoriding to the Geneva Convention on Refugees of the UNHCR a refugee shall not be deported to a country where he or she faces a danger for life and freedom. Together with the strategies of encapsulation of the Fortress Europe and the practice of deportation of Germany many refugees though loose their freedom and their lives. We therefore demand the immediate stop of all deportations and the implementation of the right for asylum!
2. Abolish Residenzpflicht!
The law prevents refugees from moving freely, making it illegal to leave the "Landkreis", the region where we are registered. Through monetary and jail sentence this law for instance impedes refugees to visit relatives in other “Landkreis“. This law is as well part of the German colonial legacy. It was invented by the imperialist invadors to control and oppress the locals in their occupied lands. The German Federal Republic is the only (former)colonial state which asserts this law still on the (formerly) colonialized. This law demonstrates the isolation of refugees and constrains their freedom of movement although according to §13 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights every human being shall be able to exercise the right for unlimited freedom of movement.
3. Close all Refugee Lagers!
It's illegal to lock up refugees in lagers where they are treated like prisoners. German institutions force the refugess to live in lagers where they face neonazi attacks and are being isolated from any social, health and infrastructural access.
We are human beings and we do not want to have our human condition and human needs
questioned. We want to change the inhuman circumstances in which we are forced to live. In that way
We broke our isolation and now organize our lives and our resistance collectively and in solidarity with each other on the Protest Camp on Oranienplatz (Kreuzberg).
Since March 2012 refugee protestcamps have started to spread all over Germany. Refugees broke the Residenzpflicht by marching 600 kilometers from Würzburg to Berlin arriving at Oranienplatz on 6th of October 2012. .We organized a big demo on 13th October to the Parliament which 6000 people supported. On 15th October we occupied the Nigerian embassy protesting against its collaboration with the german State and Frontex company for
organizing deportations. On 24th of October some of our comrades went on hunger strike at Brandenburger Tor. On 27th October we demonstrated together with the inhabitants of the lager in Waßmannsdort against their isolation in the lager and the frequent neonazi attacks. We do as well organize weekly actions in and at German institutions that are putting the racist and colonial asylum policies of Germany into practice. You can find the dates for our actions on the calendar on our homepage.
www.asylstrikeberlin.wordpress.com
www.refugeetentaction.net
The struggle still continues from the Protest Camp. We will fight until our political goals are
realized!We are encouraging and inviting the Refugees to break the isolation and come to
join the Protest!
“We are no victims, we are fighters!“