It was around 22.30 o'clock in the evening of January 15th 2014, when a three-persons-family was deported from the refugee camp of Rockensußra to Macedonia. Neighbours reported that the chief of the foreigners' office came together with three policemen and told the concerned family to pack their things for their own deportation within a few minutes. Other inhabitants of the camp reported that the family already arrived at an airport in the morning of January 16th and that they were supposed to be deported by airplane with the destination of Skopje.
Further Roma families are currently threatened by deportation as well. Among them are also people, who have already been deported once and who experienced to be taken just behind the borders of their country of origin, from where they were forced to make their way back to their place of origin on their own. The so called „winter deportation stop“ lasted until the 15th of january. The local administration office in Sondershausen obviously didn't want to waste time in their ambition to deport Roma refugees back into a life of lacking perspectives, structural exclusion and into the Balkan winter.
Furthermore the inhabitants of the Rockensußra camp reported that the have already faced racist assault in various forms in the Kyffhäuserkreis. It already occured several times, that the bus to Sondershausen didn't stop at the station the village, when there were obviously just refugees waiting for the bus. Then it also came to racist insulting in the street and in public transport in Sondershausen.
Netzwerk - Break Isolation Thueringen
Coming saturday, the 25th of January, there will be a demonstration in Erfurt for the immediate stop of all deportations, that is organised by active refugees from the network of Roma Thüringen. It starts at 13pm at the central station. The VOICE Refugee Forum calls for participation in this demonstration and for solidarity with all self-organised refugee protests.
Demonstration am 25.01. um 13.00 Uhr in Erfurt, am Hauptbahnhof - Für einen sofortigen Abschiebestopp von Roma! https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3448
The VOICE Refugee Forum, Jena
Email: thevoiceforum@gmx.de
English and Deutsch:
ROMENGO DROM – The WAY OF ROMA PEOPLE
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3291