In 2013, two men were deported from Germany to the wrong country, after being falsely identified. This case led our working group to create an online archive to present the knowledge, experiences, and analysis of the border regime generated in migrant self-organisation for activists to use in migration justice work. Break the Culture of Deportation… […]
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06.2.2019
Aino KorvensyrjäActivist Perspectives on the “Made in Germany” Culture of Deportation
Two Different Rescue Days
Since 2015, the NGO Sea Watch has patrolled the Mediterranean Sea to help migrant ships in distress. I spent two weeks in 2017 volunteering on their ship. At 3am we received a call from the MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) of Rome about a possible rubber boat right outside the territorial waters of Libya, in […]
Helsinki Needs to be a Safe Home for us too
The Right to Live demonstration formulated these demands addressed to politicians and officials of the City of Helsinki in spring 2017. Helsinki also needs to be a safe home for asylum seekers and the undocumented. In addition to these, specific demands were presented to the Minister of the Interior and the Immigration Service. In the […]
The “Closure” of the Balkan Route and Hungary After the Summer of MigrationResidence Permits instead of Deportations and Criminalisation!
Since 2015, the tightening of asylum policy in Finland has resulted in both a humanitarian disaster and an administrative deadlock. Thousands of applicants are still waiting for a final decision. The government is threatening forced returns and criminalisation instead of providing solutions that would guarantee the realisation of fundamental rights. Asylum policy fundamentally changed in […]
There was a thing […]
Disagreement in the Heart of Europe – On the Self-Organized Refugee Movement in Germany
In the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, violent clashes with the police are not unusual. The neighborhood is particularly renowned for its May 1st revolts. Yet one of the largest police operations in the history of Kreuzberg was undertaken on June 24, 2014. Depending on the source, between 900 and 1700 police arrived to evict the […]
Ninety-Five Theses from Wittenberg – a Skype-interview with Salomon Wantchoucou
Salomon Wantchoucou is a refugee and activist living in Germany. In 2009, the, he founded the Refugee Initiative Möhlau-Wittenberg together with other inhabitants of the Möhlau reception center in Sachsen-Anhalt. These isolated, run-down barracks are typical of the German asylum housing system, but the conditions in this one were particularly inhumane. The local government agreed […]
Translator’s note: What Do We Owe to the Sans-papiers Movement?
In March of 1996, a group of African migrants occupied the church of St. Ambroise in Paris. The occupation lasted only four days, yet sparked an expansive movement which opposed new limitations on migrants’ rights and deportations. The movement called itself Sans-papiers, those without papers. The central demand was “Papers for all”. Groups were created […]
Welcome to Hungary, welcome to Europe
In Hungary, the European Union’s policy of “securing the borders” finds expression in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s support of a “homogenous culture” without immigrants. Consequently, asylum-seekers and refugees who are fleeing war, poverty and ecological catastrophe are forced to struggle with an opaque asylum process and inhumane conditions in the refugee camps run by the […]
Amsterdam – Accra
23 Apr 2014 Dep: 15h 10 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) 589 A: So you filmed a deportation? S: As I entered the aircraft, I heard that somebody was screaming in the back. Eli was already there, and told me that they wanted to deport someone. I asked a stewardess what was happening. She answered […]
