Successful protest in Nürnberg and solidarity-visit by the refugees in hunger-strike in the protest-camp in Aub / graphic report included
Five days after the protest on the 26th of July 2012 in front of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge BAMF) in Nürnberg finally the positive decision in the process Ali Safianou Touré vs. the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) were taken.
For ten years Ali Safianou Touré were denied his rights. Even so all of those years he fought, in the CARAVAN Network, in defense of Human Rights in Germany. He were active in the NoLager-mobilisation and also very much so in the Campaign against the Dictatorship in Togo. Last year the “Stage for Human Rights” in the play Asylum Monologues took up his story. In the year 2010 the CARAVAN wrote Eight years is not Eight days and kicked of the public mobilization in defense of the activist of the Hamburg unit. Two more years passed by until, after the negative decision of the local authorities in Parchim and the Administrative Court (“Verwaltungsgericht”) of Schwerin, the message was given to the Federal Authority in Nürnberg:” You can deny the humanitarian reasons for asylum and then you will face a new petition for asylum on political grounds. You can not stop the imposition of the Right of Asylum, the only thing you can do, by your obstruction, is to continuing ruining the life and health of Mr. Ali. But at the end you will realize that the deportation not can be put int effect.” (See: http://thecaravan.org/node/3306)
Almost fifty people rallied on the 26th of July in front of the Federal Authority to give this message. In the rally for our activists various speeches highlighted the struggle of the refugees in Germany and the responsibility of the Federal Authority for the horrors of racist exclusion, isolation and deportation. Activists from the refugees organization the Voice Refugee Forum and from the Togo Campaign spoke as witnesses of the crimes in their countries of origin – reaching from occupation and slavery, over theft of resources and genocide, to the until today ongoing military, economic and political intervention. Refugees activists spoke as witnesses of the racist persecution through the institutions of the State in Germany. Particular solidarity were expressed to the struggling refugees in the protest-camps (See: http://thecaravan.org/tent) in Aub, Würzburg, Regensburg, Bamberg and Düsseldorf - who also bring in the the campaign for Ali Safinaou Touré to their struggle. The three hour rally turned into a tribunal against German asylum politics, the Lager system and the role played by the Federal Authority. By the end of the rally a meeting with representatives of the UNHCR took place where the concrete case of our activist as well as the situation of refugees in Germany in general, the role played by the BAMF as that of the UNHCR were put on the table. The juridical line of defense of the UNHCR of the work by the BAMF stood in contrast to the brutal and lethal experiences of the refugee activists. “I have been helping several young immigrants male as well as females – including standing by them in their legal processes. I have seen several falling into psychological illness. Many have died. We tried to give the traumatized people strength and courage. But from the authorities they keep hearing: we will deport you. Many have been broken. It is a systematic way of destruction: isolation in the Lager, the prohibition to exercise ones fundamental rights and the constant threat of deportation.” (Gafar Djibril, speaker of the Togo-Campaign)
After the program in Nürnberg one group of activists from the VOICE Thüringen and the CARAVAN group Hamburg traveled on to Aub to make a visit to the refugees in the protest camp there that has been on hunger-strike since two weeks. After being a very heartfelt received and a tour to the local Lager – a downtrodden fort, in the small village with a population of some one thousand people – we learned that five refugees during the hunger-strike must be brought to a hospital. One activist, Farid Mirzai, due to kidney trauma has to receive stationary treatment ( see: http://asylaub.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ ).
Neither the immigration office in charge nor the representatives of the local authorities have taking contact to the refugees on strike regarding their demands. The demands of the strikers from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq are the handling of the asylum applications and the recognition of the reasons of flight, the end to the isolation in Lagers, residential restriction law (Residenzpflicht) and
the discriminatory and abusive treatment by means of the Law regarding the obligations of asylum-seekers (Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz). The protest camp on the main square – where also banners and information materials has been put on display – also is the place for photo exposition of the war situation in Afghanistan. Since weeks the refugees there are enduring. Faced with the continuing deportations to Afghanistan they have started the hunger-strike. The solidarity shown in the village is very limited but even so our friends have told us that there are people in Aub who stand tall and show solidarity. Several times it has come to racist insults and threats. As the sun went down we joined together on the main square and watched the new documentary that treats the Residenzpflicht. The attempts by some village dwellers to interrupt our meeting through calls to the police were result-less. By midnight we bid the staunch refugees in Aub farewell and promised each other to meet soon again.
Long live International Solidarity – our firmament and source in the struggle for freedom and peace in justice!
The Caravan Hamburg, 1st august 2012
We thank everybody who have supported Ali Safianou Touré and his struggle and we call for solidarity with the struggling refugees in the protest camps.
Below some photo impressions from Nürnberg and Aub - Photos by Thomas Kriska
http://thecaravan.org/node/3331
KARAWANE - Sektion Nord Ortsgruppe Hamburg
c/o Internationales Zentrum Brigittenstr. 5 20359 Hamburg
Tel: +49-40-43 18 90 37 Fax: +49-40-43 18 90 38 @: free2move nadir.org www.thecaravan.org