PressRelease from THE VOICE Refugee Forum on Brandenburg State intention to loosen the residence restriction for Asylum seekers. >> https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1692
The VOICE Baden Württemberg on Isolation of refugees
https://thevoiceforum.org/search/node/Thevoice_bdw%40yahoo.de+%2B+isola…
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Break the Isolation - Mobilizing for Self Organization of Refugees by Flüchtlingsinitiative in Biberach
I am a lonely Bird, locked up in a cage that hangs on a Tree in a very beautiful garden.
I could see other Birds singing, dancing and flying about freely. Any attempt to move within my little space, earns me being transfered to a very dark corner.
Ooh darkness!! My greatest fear. That’s how it feels as an Asylum seeker here in Germany.(expressed an Afghanistan Victim).
Leaving our dear Families behind, risking through terrible Seas, wandering through Timid Deserts and journeys of life and death in search for security and better future. That expectation in the new world with guaranteed security.
On the way, we saw death with our eyes but we made it while many others lost their lives without an opportunity of farewell to love ones. Mysterious Death! No befitting Burial. Thanks to the Memorial of the Caravan 2010 festival.
We are here; our joy short lived and aggressively confronted with horrors of hatred only because we asked to be accommodated, we are Criminalised and put into abject Isolation and exclusion.
We are congested in open Prisons, striped off all rights to self-responsibility through imposition of various instruments of unjust control.
Our dignity has no relevance even thou the law stand contrary. We are seen as Liars and pest to the System. We are the Cause to Criminalities and possibly to the world financial Crises.
There is a special law that applies to us. That law contradicts the Universal declaration and the first Section of the German Constitution (Grundgesetzt).
We have no right to move except within a limited District. No right to Work, we must not be allowed to integrate in any way. We continued to face destruction which ends up with our deportation to be useless to our families and nation.
It is time to identify that inevitable potential in the abolition of injustice.That uncompromising success depends on the active participation of Victims themselves.
Support self Determination of Refugees! Mobilise Refugees to come together!!
Self-Organisation of Refugees in Schwäbische Hall Saturday, Jul 24 2010
Based on the out come of the Caravan Festival and the need to mobilise for Self-determination of Refugees, Rex Osa on behalf of the VOICE visited the Schwäbische Hall Refugee lager at Steinbeisweg 62, on 24.07.2010.
Report on the situation will be published soon.
The VOICE Baden Württemberg
thevoice_bdw@yahoo.de
The VOICE Baden Württemberg
https://thevoiceforum.org/search/node/The+VOICE+Baden+W%C3%BCrttemberg
Flüchtlingsinitiative in Biberach >> http://fluechtlingsbc.wordpress.com
http://fluechtlingsbc.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/fluechtlingsinnitiative-b...
Fluechtlingsinitiativ Biberach Riss: More than 40 refugees met to Support The VOICE call for Self-Organisation in BDW >> http://www.thevoiceforum.org/node/1672
Eng/Dt./Frz.: Refugee initiative Kicks up in Biberach - Our Strength is Our Identity.
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1596
Meinersen - Gifhorn: Asylbewerber greifen Kreisverwaltung an
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1678
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Karawane Festival On Social Exclusion - No Lager! No Residenzpflicht!
The German state exploits the refugees by collectively punishing us in the isolation lagers and with the apartheid-pass law in Germany, the „Residenzpflicht“.
Colonial and nazi policies of Residenzpflicht and Lager in Germany
The German refugee „Residenzpflicht“ law is an apartheid-pass law that forbids freedom of movement for refugees from their forced discrete residences that are often located in remote isolated locations, often times in the forest and abandoned military barracks.
It is a German colonial policy that was practiced in their occupation of Togo for example. This was continued under the fascist era of the National Socialist when the Nazi regime compelled the stay of certain foreigners to certain districts which they were only allowed to leave with a police permission else they were fined and imprisoned if they could not pay the fines. The similarity in the fines then and now leaves no doubt where this current law that has been in place since 1982 comes from.
Let's overcome the fear and regain the freedom to unite against colonial injustice.
Break the silence! We are here, we will fight! Freedom of movement is everybody's right.
During the CARAVAN-FESTIVAL from the 4th till 6th of June 2010 in Jena there will be speakers' sessions for statements and speeches on social exclusion, residenzpflicht and isolation camps and the struggles and protest against these injustices.
Installations, Paintings, Music and Film
Residenzpflicht: https://thevoiceforum.org/search/node/residenzpflicht
Lager: http://thecaravan.org/taxonomy/term/49
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Exchange on Political Networking on Self - Organizing and Solidarity in the Lagers
CARAVAN‐Platform: Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers - Camps
Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers - Camps made during the Conference on colonial Injustice held in Jena, from September 9 to 13, 2009
Our network is neither profit‐oriented nor caritativ. The activities are pushed forward by activists on voluntary basis. There is neither an official membership nor a membership cards. The members of the network and our community come together in the conviction that the experienced injustice has to be abolished.
Solidarity is our weapon. We set the rules.
- The most important principle is the solidarity among us.
- The fear set to control us can be overcome in solidarity.
- We, the refugees, have to fight for our rights ourselves. We must be aware of that and can be made aware in everyday struggle and in organizing.
- The districts are different from each other, but the offer all the same for us. Our gatherings and solidarity in our movement for our goals are the basis for our work. Therefore we concentrate on our own work and define our common goals. We confront the responsible persons and the politicians with our vision of a society without deportation and racism.
- The institutions have different ways of individual and collective punishment for us. Only through our solidarity we can defend ourselves and overcome the fear of repression.
- The so called integration is a lie. In practice exclusion, selection, and rejection reigns by law. The law does not allow any integration. We want a society in which everyone is accepted as he or she is. The state propagated Integration means assimilation.
- We oppose the threats and the laws of the state like Residenzpflicht, deportations and and and... with our legitimate rights of freedom of movement, right to choose where we want to be and our freedom of speech.
Organizing in the Lagers and in our communities
- Establishing and organizing bases in the lagers and in the refugee and migrant communities.
- Discussion and meetings with other refugees in the places where we are on the true conditions and their descriptions with evidences is our strongest way to expose the crimes of the system.
- Compile documentation that clearly describe the situation and from which our demands are easily derived.
- Invite activists from other places to exchange and strengthen the local structures.
- Compile specific and detailed information on the local problems and conditions, on the behaviour of the Lager and state employees, and on the local asylum policy. Analyze the local political context and the hierarchy structure and make it transparent.
- Transport and publish the documentation and the aims of the movement. Here the network of the CARAVAN plays an important role in spreading and distributing the information and building up support structures.
- Ask different organisations, parties, responsible people and human right organizations to position themselves, to write statements etc. Call for support of the movement.
- When all the above is done, protest can be organised. This protest then can rely on a wider basis and public interest.
Strengthen the movement by connecting the existing local struggles through exchange
- Exchange and coordination of the different refugee communities from different Lagers.
- Establish relations to migrant and mass organizations and build up continuous exchange.
- CARAVAN can offer technical and logistical support in compiling and distributing the information and aim oft he movement. The CARAVAN are we, we who contribute by the variety of our abilities and knowledge.
- The biggest obstacle is and remains the Residenzpflicht. Therefore its abolition remains one of our central demands and the focus of our struggle.
- An archive or database should be built up to gather the information about the different districts and the refugee struggles. Similarities and differences can be documented in this archive. Each documentation of a refugee and each report of a meeting is a contribution to the entire movement and enriches our experience.
- One of our aims by networking is to share our experiences to those who have been thrown newly into the asylum process. We want to share our experience about being a refugee in Germany.
- Seminars and meetings in Lagers and camps are necessary to break the isolation and at the same time to share the experiences of various struggles. This helps to develop and strengthen the trust and selfconfidence among us.
- Information of THE VOICE Refugee Forum and the CARAVAN fort he rights of refugees and migrants in different languages can be used as bases for discussions in the local groups and help strengthening the network. They can be copied and distributed anytime.
- Regular meetings and exchange on different levels (local, regional, and nationwide are important. They are the basis for continuity of our work and for reaching our aims.
The VOICE Refugee Forum
Address: Schillergässchen 5 ‐ 07745 Jena
Tel: +49 (0) 3641 ‐ 6652 14
Fax: +49 (0) 3641 ‐ 420 270
E‐Mail: thevoiceforum@emdash.org
Internet:
https://thevoiceforum.org
http://thecaravan.org