Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants calling for protest against the German Interior Ministers Conference in Jena
Stop all deportations! Stop state repression! Human right is no privilege!
United resistance against the German Interior Minister Conference in Jena from the 19th to the 21st of November in Jena
Nationwide Demonstration under the slogan:
Equal rights for all! Stop all deportations!
Time: Thursday, 20th of November 2003, at 1 pm
Starting-Place: Holzmarkt, city-centre of Jena
From the 20th to 21st of November, the interior ministers of Germany will meet in Jena. It is a meeting of the executioners of our rights and aspirations of justice and dignity. It is a meeting of the perpetrators of police repression, surveillance and control of the individuals.
Even more than for other people, the issues that will be discussed by the German interior ministers will have crucial consequences for refugees and migrants:
They will talk about the acceleration of deportations. They will talk about how to improve the collaboration with the embassies of the refugees‘ home countries, in order to get „travelling documents„. They will talk about how to force refugees who are „unwilling to leave„ to get out of Germany. They will talk about how to make it impossible for refugee-activists to stop deportations at the airports. They will talk about so-called anti-terror-laws which criminalise refugees and migrants. They will talk about deportation camps, about Europe-wide persecution of paperless people, about data exchange...
It is clear: The measures discussed at the German interior minister conference are nothing but attacks against the lives and the freedom of refugees, migrants and every human being who doesn’t belong to the winners of German capitalist system!
All groups of refugees are terrorised by the interior ministers’ policy of deportation and deportation threat. Here some alarming examples of up-to-date deportation policy:
refugees from Togo: The Togolese have been living under the dictatorial regime of president Eyadema for 36 years, persecution and human rights violations have forced many people into exile. But in total disregard of the socio-political situation in Togo, German authorities and courts reject almost all the asylum demands of Togolese refugees. Many have already been deported and others are facing serious deportation threat. At the same time, France and Germany keep close economic and political relations with the Togolese regime. Among the Togolese facing serious deportation threat, there are also some engaged activists of the Caravan: Komi Akalo, member of The Voice Jena, John Agbolete from Bremen and the Idrissou-family from Munich.
Roma from Ex-Yugoslavia: During the last years, a lot of Roma people left South-Eastern European countries because of discrimination and policies of „ethnic cleansing„. As a consequence of the NATO-war on Yugoslavia, most of the Roma living in Kosovo had to flee, like all the other non-Albanian minorities. Now, as the wars in former Yugoslavia have officially been ended, German authorities try to get rid of all refugees from that region as quickly as possible. Roma people - many of them children or grandchildren of the victims of Nazi genocide- are one of the groups facing mass deportation. Up to now, massive public protests by Roma people hasn't been able to stop the deportations- but the struggle has to go on.
refugees from Cameroon: Under the regime of president Paul Biya, many activists of political opposition have been made political prisoners. There have been reported cases of torture and of death in jail. Especially in South Cameroon, the situation is very unstable. Anyhow, Germany, the second important creditor of Cameroon, keeps deporting refugees back to this country.
refugees from Iran: Well-known are the massive human rights violations committed by the Mullah regime in Iran. Many times, Iranian students, women and workers have stood up against the regime, many times the regime has responded with mass arrestations, torture and executions. For years, Germany has been one of the most important economic partners of Iran. Iranian refugees in Germany are victims of this partnership: Many have been deported, and the so-called „reform process“ in Iran is cynically used as a justification of this deportation policy.
refugees from Congo: For several decades, Congo has been troubled by brutal dictatorship and by a war which has already killed more than 1 million people. Local warlords and European and American corporations make good business with that war, exploiting the rich natural resources like coltane, diamonds and petrol. Although the situation in Congo is still far from a peaceful solution, German authorities haven’t stopped the deportation of Congolese refugees. They even try to organise mass deportations of Congolese people, together with other African refugees, by charter planes from Holland.
Repression, racist persecution and the anti-social transformation of German society
Deportation policy, police repression and the creation of harsher laws goes along with a process of dismantling human, economic and social rights on all levels of society. With increasing frequency, German society is undergoing a profound social and economic change that is destroying the rights that we legitimately achieved through many forms of struggle: Union rights, the rights of workers and unemployed people, the right of free education, of adequate and reasonable health care coverage, and -not least- the rights of asylum seekers and other refugees. This means a drastic increase of poverty, creating a destructive fear of survival for large sectors of the population
On the other hand, fundamentalist and right-wing sectors of society take advantage of people’s fear and loss of social safety in order to preach intolerance, harsher laws and more and more repression. Those in society who have the least amount of rights and protection from governments, especially refugees, are generally targeted as being a „danger for public security“, and not, as we all are, victims of governmental and right wing propaganda and abuses.
The „security“ the interior ministers talk about is the security of the banks, of the large corporations, of the politicians, of the rich and powerful. Those who suffer are students, women, the elderly, the unions, workers, the un- and underemployed, and in particular refugees and migrants.
As refugees and migrants who have already experienced decades of these very same policies, we are extremely concerned about the path which Europe and Germany in particular is taking. It was and is, after all, these very same policies of taking away our rights while at the same time increasing police and military spending, poverty and injustice, that have led millions of us throughout the world to flee our countries in search of justice and a way to feed our families.
We refugees, migrants, Roma and our German supporters denounce these unjust and inhumane policies that the interior ministers of this country are carrying out against the German people and refugees and migrants in particular.
Even in our diversity of experiences, coming from so many countries as well as personal, cultural and religious backgrounds, we are united in our determination to fight against this injustice! We and our families have been made victims of these policies for decades, we have been forced to abandon everything we have to seek out a decent living and survival. Now, once again, we are confronted with a policy of systematicdestruction of our social and political rights, with a policy of social exclusion and restriction of our freedom of movement, including the Residenzpflicht law - (The German law that restricts the movement of asylum-seekers to their local residence district.), with a policy of criminalization,including camps - “Ausreiselager” - and deportation prisons and with a policy of deporting us back to where we fled from.
We call on all progressive forces of society to join us in Jena from the 20th to the 21st of November in our resistance to these policies that are nothing more than an attack on our rights!
Equal rights for all - Stop all deportations!
Human right is no privilege!
We demand justice!!!!
Abolish Ausreiselager and Deportation prisons!
Abolish the Residenzpflicht law!
For Freemovement and Residence Rights in Germany!
Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants network in Germany:
Caravan groups: Bielefeld, Bremen, Hamburg, Munich, Nuerenberg,.Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart,Thueringen/The VOICE Refugee Forum, Hamburg, Iran -SPI, Philippines -Migrante Europe, Nepal -INSOF;
The following Pro Refugee and Migrants groups/networks also participatein the mobilisation against the German Interior Minister Conference:
Togo: Perspective Togo, URTT, La Voix du peuple; Congo : ACOTHU; Roma Solikreis Goettingen; Flüchtlingsinitiative Brandenburg; JAPS Jena; Gerberstrasse (weimar); Flüchtlingsrat Hamburg; Büren-Gruppe Paderborn; Bündnis gegen Abschiebungen Mannheim;Plattform fuer eine welt ohne rassismus (for a world without racism) andVolxTheaterKarawane / PublixTheatreCaravan in vienna, austria
Info-Telephone: 0174-7295853
Donnations: Osaren Igbinoba, Bankkonto: 231633905, BLZ: 86010090, Postbank Leipzig, Betr.: imk protest.
Contact address in Jena: The VOICE Refugee Forum, Schillergäßchen 5, 07745 Jena, Tel.: 0049 (0) 3641 665214. e-mail: voice_mail@emdash.org
Internet: www.basicrights.de/munich