Fight to end fear and insecurity of being a refugee here
Meetings of The VOICE - Refugee community in Jena - Thueringen
In summer 2013 the complaints and demands of refugees in Germany were brought to the
International Refugee Tribunal in Berlin on Colonial Injustice in Germany which was organized by The Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants. In autumn 2014, refugee resistance in Germany will celebrate its 20th anniversary with 20 years of existence of the VOICE refugee forum. We want to keep the refugees’ struggles vivid and powerful.
Therefore we, The VOICE Refugee Forum Thüringen, we are meeting to inform refugees about our workshops and seminars on refugee struggles.
In March 2014, a series of meetings of the Thüringen refugee community has started with meetings in Beulwitz (Saalfeld) and Apolda on the refugee protest March to Brussels and the struggle of the Roma to stop their deportation from Thüringen.
Refugees in Beulwitz (Saalfeld) and Apolda have been informed about the refugee protest march to Brussels. For the first time they have the possibility to be part of the action and to fight for our rights and against this continuous system of the injustice that refugee suffered in the isolation and deprivation to live a life of human dignity in Germany. Nevertheless some of us are worried and curious about this action and its strength to break the EUROPEAN BORDER, as in Germany more restriction of movement still exists than in the other European countries.
In the refugee meetings in Beulwitz (Saalfeld) and Apolda the similarities in their various situations in the Lagers were much emphasised. It was reported on deportation threats and deportations, the exclusion and discrimination of Roma, the lack of adequate health care.
In Jena we met 29th March with Refugees from Eisenberg Reception Camp to discuss the threats of deportation on Forceful Fingerprinting by Dublin regulations against the migrants. We discussed the repression of the Afghanistan refugees from Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Hungary and Poland and their situation in their camp, as well as the problems of the African refugees from Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya who arrived Italy waiting for the uncertainty within the social exclusion here and the daily deportation threats that the refugees are already facing from Germany. More Afghans’ asylum applicant’s decisions are delayed for several months or years of refusal of decisions by the Federal Office for Migration to answer our demand in dignity of human right. The refugee are angry that they were only registered their personal identities and how they arrive from other countries to Germany without questions on information on their persecutions, oppression and human rights abuses they suffered on way and here in the reception camps.
Many of the refugees are eager to learn without right to vocational training or trades, without the right attend further education and without the right to work. Activists in the lagers complained of the lack of meeting places and communication service, without internet access in the lagers. There is the stigmatization by refugee food coupons which still exist only in Greiz and Apolda in Thüringen, there is the intimidation of refugees meeting with their visitors as public threat and violation of the refugees housing, even when the refugees are part of our refugees meeting in the Lager of Jena their right of freedom of assembly is violated as we found out
In Breitenworbis we are preparing for a refugee meeting and discussion on Mahmoud Yassine’s call for the closure of Breitenworbis refugee camp. The declaration of The VOICE Refugee Forum initiative Breitenworbis on the situation in Breitenworbis was delivered to the politicians and the state administrators hearing in the district parliament of Eichsfeld in Heiligenstadt on 26th of March 2014.
The Refugee community in Thüringen starts to prepare their testimonies and appeal to
International Refugee Tribunal on documentation of refugee abuses in Germany
In 20 years active resistance of The VOICE Refugee Forum (Germany) we experienced that self-organized solidarity in unity is the wining key to the struggle of the oppressed people: It is our aim to fight to ending fear and insecurity of being a refugee here. Substantial part of this has always been the fight to abolish the so called ,,Residenzpflicht" in Germany, to break the isolation of refugees and to close the lagers. Since 1996 we have closed down more than one quarter of isolated lagers for normal housing in cities of Thueringen. Many more refugees could fight to stop their deportation, leading to Nationwide Deportation stop campaign and international Network against Deportation. As a result of continuous racist police controls and police violence it has become our slogan to “control the police” and to fight colonial injustice in our aim.
Weekly refugee community meetings
To go deeper into the topics of our struggles, weekly refugee community meetings and seminars will be taking place in the different refugee lagers in Thüringen to inform refugees and discuss the community campaigns to break the isolation. During our solidarity events in the refugee community activists’ lagers in Thueringen we will be organizing discussions on the basis of the refugee appeals from The Caravan International Refugee Tribunal with The VOICE – Refugee activists in Thüringen.
Our topics concerning the refugee struggle in Germany
As part of the mobilisation and information we are organising as refugee activists to speak out and discuss about:
- The refugee appeals to the first International Refugee Tribunal in Berlin on Colonial Injustice in Germany which was organized by The Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants in 2013
- The 20years of Refugee Resistance and for the freedom of movement in Germany
- The refugee struggles to stop the deportation of the Roma in Thueringen
- The refugee protest March to Brussels - discussions on our position about it, the possibilities of our participation or of solidarity actions
- The European unilateral policies on abuses of refugee rights in Germany and Europe despite its contradiction and the threats to live a free life in human dignity.
- Our strategies in reclaiming our rights to live a free live without threats in human dignity. This includes as well:
o How to stop deportations
o How to stop the discrimination and criminalisation of refugees in general and especially the Roma Community
o How to break the isolation system by closing isolation camps and lagers, getting access to normal houses and to equal social rights such as medical service, access to work etc.
o How to find more effective ways to fight to abolish residenzpflicht.
o How to react to the limbo situation of Afghan refugees where there is no progress or improvement after they submit their applications.
o How to respond to the criminalization and legal persecution of political resistance of refugees and in the struggle for refugee rights.
o How to react to state racism manifested in racial profiling and racist authorities treatment, in police violence and even killings with impunity
There are further topics and references to be discussed to bring the persecution of refugees in Germany into a international political context. Amongst those are
The refugee struggle in an international context
- The fight for freedom of movement in Europe and from Coast to Coast in the conditions of Dublin treaty and the force – fingerprint regulation of refugees arriving in any European first country where they are kept under arrest in detention prison and in refugee isolation camp, living in the streets, forest, coast or desert without rights to freedom and not welcome in other European countries. … The community will speak on the years of refugee tragedy in Europe
- The situation of lagers and Refugees in the desert
- The Frontex-Euro-Imperium for global management of migration
- EU Management of the war against the refugees countries through conflicts and migration controls
Why a Refugee and why are we here?
- The Wars and Exploitations in Africa and Middle in East
- We are here because you destroying the refugee countries …
If you are interested in our struggle and refugee community organisation :
Every Tuesday we have the Break Isolation Meeting in Schillergäßchen 5, 07745 Jena in Jena at 4:00pm – 10:00pm.
For more information on refugee community meeting you can telephone or contact us in The VOICE Refugee Forum Tel.: 0176 – 234568988, 03641-9278815,
E-Mail: thevoiceforum@gmx.de, https://thevoiceforum.org
Donation to support our activities to:
Förderverein The VOICE e.V.
Sparkasse Göttingen
Kontonummer 127829
BLZ: 260 500 01
IBAN: DE97 2605 0001 0000 1278 29
BIC: NOLADE21GOE