Zella-Mehlis Refugee lager-Camp is 50 meters to the sign
VIDEO:"My Freedom is not for sale!" Miloud L. Cherif - A Refugee activist in Zella-Mehlis, Germany
Residence Obligation in Refugee Lager-Camp - Called "Residenzpflicht" in German
We are Abused, Insulted, and our Privacy and Freedom are taking away from US...
Residenzpflicht: In the district of LandKreis Schmalkalden - Meiningen.(Zella Mehlis)
Fact:
- The borders of the city Suhl is 50m away from our lager.
- From our lager to Shul centrum are only 4 KM, while Meiningen is 25KM far from Zella Mehlis.
-The bus ticket to Shul from our lager is 1,70, while to Meiningen is 4,20, clearly that going to Shul cost cheaper but we can't go there because it's out of our landkreis.
So do we have to aske for permission every time we go by the bus few stations in Shul's direction??
Logically the Landkreis Schmalkalden Meiningen is the JAIL of the refugees in Zella Mehlis.
A lot of times refugees here in Zella Mehlis reported that they asked for a permission to visit somebody here in Germany but they received negative answer.
We feel abused, insulted, and our privacy and freedom are taking away from US... .
It doesn't matter your age, old or young, cause you'll look like a child who cannot decide for him self in the eye of the landratsamt.
LOST OF PRIVACY:
Everybody has the right to have his own private life but we as refugees has no privacy, How is that? let's take a look on this issue, we ask and you, the reader help to find the answer.
*The guards are watching the entrance of the lager 24 hours, non stop.
* Everybody must pass by them when entering the lager, they know the life and routine of every refugee.
*The visitors of the refugees must leave their ID by the guards before entering, and the ID to be kept in the reception, till the visitor leave the lager. We see that the guards know all our visitors,same like the jail system.
-for what?, do we see guards in entrance of public building where German people live?, are we not people? Where is our privacy??? no, WE don't have Privacy.
Our mail is received by the reception, the mail pass by the guards, hausmeister, social worker, than back to the guards in the reception where we can get it after. By this we see that all workers know what kind of letter the refugee has got, and where from came letter, and in sometimes translating by simple language to the refugee what's in the letter. so they know everything.... everything.
-Is that happening where German people live?, are we not people? Where is our privacy???
no, WE don't have Privacy.
* refugee has to ask the social worker for a permission to visit somebody in Germany, so she asks him for the address he intends to visit, by this we see that Social worker will know his destination.
-Is that happening where German people live?, are we not people? Where is our privacy???
no, WE don't have Privacy.
*Refugees feeling that they are in an open jail, person can be jailed in a room, a castle, a city, or county...etc...
This is our life....abused, insulted, and our privacy and freedom are taking away from US...
and the struggle continues , and so our fight, to live with dignity and honor...
Some refugees and their families live in this Isolated lagers for more than 10years.
Our demands, we the refugees in Zella Mehlis are:
1. The closure of this camp and accommodation in a home that would give us back some of our dignity.
2. The abolition of the voucher issue and the granting of cash, the self-determination in matters of purchasing and clothing allowed
3. Access to medical care at the time of the disease instead of months of stalling.
4. The guarantee of the suffering of appropriate treatment by the doctors.
5. A better psychological care.
6. The right to freedom of movement, the abolition of the residence requirement.
7. One end of terror with the Abschiebedrohung - an end to the deportations!
Miloud L Cherif
Refugee Community in Zella-Mehlis,
LandKreis Schmalkalden - Meiningen
END
On Social Exclusion - No Lager! No Residenzpflicht!
Residency Obligation law "Residenzpflicht" Campaign
https://thevoiceforum.org/dossier15erfurt_socialforum
Archives:
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
Call for further support: Join the Caravan Festival Network! https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1627
Gerstungen Isolation Camp: "Die Leute hier sind fix und fertig" Karawane Festival - Delegation in Thüringer Flüchtlingslagern
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1616
The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena
* This text was first presented to The VOICE Refugee meeting on Friday 30.4.2010 in Jena
+++
Our Struggles in the Isolation Camps in Thueringen - Germany
Refugees’ Open Letter from Remscheid Refugees" Home to the City Administration of Remscheid April 24, 2010:
We, do not want to be forced to live in collective refugee housings. These types of accommodations make us sick and poorer.
The VOICE Refugee Meeting for the KARAWANE-Festival in Jena 2010
Refugee Struggles in the Isolation Camps
Discussion Papers: Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers made during the Conference on colonial Injustice held in Jena, from September 9 to 13, 2009
As part of the preparation and mobilisation of refugees for the Caravan Festival in Jena from 4-6th June 2010, The VOICE Refugee Forum is inviting refugee political activists and Asylum Seekers in Thuringen and the Nationwide Karawane Network.*
Particularly for some new refugees and those who have not been active with The VOICE and the Caravan Network since the last several years, we want to use this meeting for Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers
First, we want to restate the reasons and beginnings of our socio-political engagements in Thuringen. We want to assess our current situation and reiterate our immediate plans for the future especially as it pertains to the forthcoming Caravan Festival. We want to restate our common solidarity and express our belief in the struggle we’re engaged in.
Meeting and Discussions will be held with refugee activists from Ex. Jena Forst, Katzhütte, Ex. Gelhberg and Apolda in Thüringen, Möhlau and Haberstadt in Sachsen-Anhalt. Links to the campaigns and struggles of refugee in Thueringen and Nationwide
Our plan to organize a visit to the miserable and abandoned refugee Camps in Gangloffsömmern and Gerstungen lager isolation camp still existing in Thueringen as part of our mobilisation for the Festival will be discussed.
A summary of the The Caravan evaluation of our visit to Gerstungen und Gangloffsömmern/Thüringen in June 2009 will be presented while a detailed report will be available during the festival.
Continue, Continue, the Struggle Continues….
We want to solidify the continuity of our engagement with The VOICE Refugee Forum. After 15 years of relentless refugee struggle and protest against isolation lager and other acts of inhumanity in Thuringen forest and other Lagers in Germany, we want to see all refugees and activists re-energised to continue.
Therefore we will like to restate how this struggle started, what its impact has been and how we intend to move forward. We want to draw inspiration from our experiences, document our experiences in our own words and show that our solidarity is our empowerment.
The presence of The VOICE Refugee Forum in Jena has been a solid base and huge drive for the Caravan Network and the upcoming Festival. It is no wonder that the authorities have attempted to stifle our engagements by resorting to intimidation and employing dirty and racist tricks.
For more than seven years, Thuringen has become a no go area” for Black African asylum seekers, for fear that they will become politically active with The VOICE. If our engagement has stopped Africans from suffering the humiliation and inhumanity that refugees are subjected to in Thuringen, we are sure that our continuity will stop it for all others.
We have a long History
Since 1994, we refugees started to organise and mobilise ourselves to make our isolation and the unbearable conditions in the “Heims” public. From Mühlhausen (1994), Saalfeld (1995), Jena Forst (from 1996), Tambach-Dietharz (1988), Freienbessingen (2003), Gehlberg (2008) und Katzhütte (2008) and lots more, to the nationwide campaign to abolish the Residenzpflicht in 2000. We have been an integral part of the various nationwide Caravan Tours amongst others. And we have not relented ever since.
Our presence as The VOICE Refugee Forum is at the forefront of refugee community coordination network and activities of grassroots political empowerment and migrants’ struggles in the antiracist network in Germany.
Call for Support! Join us and help to distribute this call for participation and support to organize from your towns and cities for the Karawane festival!
The Caravan Festival 2010
For the rights of refugees and migrants in Europe (Juni 4th – 6th, 2010 in Jena - Germany)
"Unite against colonial injustice in memory of the dead victims of Fortress Europe"
karawane-festival.org
The Central Call to The Caravan Festival
Open Air Festival against Neo-colonialism and Racism
A place without racism, sexism and discrimination where everyone cares for each other!
A bastion of humanity and solidarity!
The VOICE Refugee Forum on behalf of the Caravan-for the rights of refugees and migrants calls for presentations and performances of socio-cultural and political arts of resistance that explores the background and complexities of the lives and political struggles of refugees and migrants in Germany *and Europe
Together with anti-racist and socio-cultural and political activists, these events will feature discussions and exchange of experiences that includes poetry, street theatre, live music concerts, traditional African drums and dance, masquerades and gyration, songs and tributes to the victims of Fortress Europe.
It will also feature concerts, films, arts and photo exhibition and a host of other activities that will suit the expected range of wide participants from across Europe, Africa and beyond.
With it we want to reaffirm our commitment to our fight for our right to freedom of movement, social justice and global solidarity.
Let us overcome the fear and gain freedom! Come to Karawane-Festival from 4 - 6 Jnue in Jena
Further concrete ideas and proposals are welcome and will be duly updated in festival homepage: karawane-festival.org
KARAWANE-FESTIVAL 2010 - NEWSLETTER 4 Termine: Mobilization und Kampagne
We want to keep up the flame!!!
And in solidarity we remain!!!
Osaren Igbinoba; The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena; E-mail: thevoiceforum@gmail.com
The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena
Adresse: Schillergässchen 5, 07745 Jena
Tel. Handy 0049(0) 17624568988,
Fax: 03641 / 42 02 70,
E-Mail: thevoiceforum@emdash.org,
Internet: http://www.thevoiceforum.org
Gegründet: 1994, Arbeitsweise: Kampagnen,Aktionen, Vernetzung.
Publikationen: E-Newsletter
CARAVAN‐Platform: Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers and 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.
++
Karawane Festival On Social Exclusion - No Lager! No Residenzpflicht!
(Artikeln und Presse) KARAWANE Festival - Eine Bastion der Menschlichkeit und der Solidarität
Fotos und Videos vom Karawanefestival 2010 in Jena - Mit politischer Kunst und Kultur gegen das tödliche EU-Grenzregime
Auf no-racism.net gibt es eine Artikelsammlung zum Karawane Festival 2010 - mit Berichten und Fotos. Ihr findet die ersten unter: http://no-racism.net/thema/124
Karawane Erklärung zum Festival - "Vereint gegen koloniales Unrecht"
''The VOICE Online: Karawane Festival Statements and Premier Videos - Preparing for 2010 - "Over come your fear for freedom" >>> https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1631
*****
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
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1640