Refugee Protest Camp Oranienplatz Berlin
MESSAGES FROM THE REFUGEE PROTEST CAMP ORANIENPLATZ TO THE UNHCR IN BERLIN
Dublin II: Deportation to Italy, deportation into homelessness!
December 10th is the international Human Rights Day. 64 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. Today, we're demanding a life in dignity for all.
The (live-threatening) situation of refugees in Italy needs to be recognized. In recent years, almost 90% of refugees deported to Italy under the Dublin II regulation had to live in the streets. Most basic needs are not fulfilled. Many refugees are denied access to healthcare and social security. Housing of refugees is generally run down and intolerable, and they're subject to arbitrary treatment.
Many courts in Germany have stopped deportations to Italy in 2012, because of systemic deficiencies and the congestion of the Italian asylum procedures. (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/urteil-fluechtlinge-duerfen-ni... ) So courts are coming to very different conclusions than the UNHCR – which, despite those shortcomings of the Italian asylum system, fails to condemn deportations to Italy. It rather chooses to become an accomplice of racist asylum policies.
Just as in the case of Greece, we demand a UNHCR memorandum on Italy that highlights and condemns the inhumane situation of refugees there. We demand a clear statement of the UNHCR against deportations to Italy.
Moreover, the entire system of asylum in Europe needs to be called into question. For 2008 to 2013, a fund of 614 Million Euro was set up, euphemistically called "Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows". At the same time, 1.2 billion are spent for the militarization of the borders of fortress Europe (including Frontex and giant IT systems).
As long as Solidarity in Europe means nothing more than a balanced quota of refugees and migration control, as long as migration to and within Europe is only discussed in terms of economic usefulness, as long as people are criminalized and illegalized, as long as they are denied to enter Europe by force, or die in the attempt, humanitarian commitments like the UN Declaration of Human Rights remain empty words of the privileged few in the global North.
Abolish Dublin II!
Stop deportations to Italy and elsewhere!
Stop racist and chauvinist asylum policies!
Respect the liberty to move and migrate freely!