Anti–Lager–Tour in Germany 2004

Anti – Lager – Tour in Germany begins on the 20th of August to 5th of September 2004.
For Freedom of movement,deportation against deportation social exclusion
We demand the closure of all detention camps, lagers, deportation prisons and deportation centres and we demand the abolition of the Residenzpflicht laws.
link to the general call and actions: nolager.de.

Refugees calling:
Millions of people throughout the third world died under colonial expansion because of the exploitation of their wealth and their natural resources. Today we are confronted with the problems of neo-colonial globalisation, the capitalistic machinery of global trade and the militarisation of border controls.

The Lager regime and militarisation of borders are now even intensified beyond Europe to the countries and continents where the refugees and migrants come from. The western countries have advanced their rigid policies against migrants in general, including those who flee due to persecution and in solidarity with the oppressed.
The Majority of the refugees and migrants in Europe are stigmatised, persecuted and socially excluded.

Many refugees and migrants get killed or drown in the sea while attempting to reach the richer and safer countries. Those who survive to reach the borders are put in lagers by the European military border guards.

The refugees are packed together first in the ZAST (Reception and Transit camps/Lager), then in asylum homes and later in inhuman lagers, deportation centers and deportation prisons.They face constant racist controls and are permanently threatened by deportation. In Germany refugees are criminalized by the law of the residence obligation (“Residenzpflicht”), which restricts their movement to their local districts.

In the last years the German deportation regime succeeded in reducing the entry of refugees into Germany, with the politicians supporting the continous mass deportations and social exclusion of the foreigners.

The Lager culture of the deportation regime breeds racism, violence, prejudice, stupidity, hate, ignorance and xenophobia, including the public´s fear of migrants. Segregation and isolation expose them to discrimination and exploitation, Terror, torture, sexualized and/or racist attacks and dehumanisation.
Lager, represents the systematic abuse of foreigners by the repression of the state, for persecution and for the restriction of movement of refugees and migrants against their will.

In the last 10 years, more than ever before, refugees have been protesting against the lager regimes, even more so against the inhumane conditions of accomodations in the forests, in former military barracks, in industrial lagers and container ships.
Refugees did struggle to close lagers in Zittau, the ship containers in Bremen, Saalfeld Lager, forest home in Tambach Dietharz and Jena Forst in Thueringen, and Parchim-Dschungel-Heim Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, of course with the support of non – refugee activists, and more so with the resistance of those living inside.

We will support the refugees’ struggle and the protest campaigns of the renowed refugee activist from Nigeria Akubuo Chukwudi against lager and police racist controls/brutality, social exclusion, residenzpflicht, and deportation. His engagement in Parchim also inspires the refugees in Tram to protest against the Lager there.

The refugees oppose the Otto Schilly’s Zuwanderungsgesetz which advances migration control for the purpose of Brain draining and selection at the expense of migrants by intensifying the lagerisation and deportation of refugees and migrants.

Refugee activists will co-organise the Anti-Lager-Tour 2004 against lagers and deportation prisons in Neuss, Bramsche, Hannover, Halberstadt, Tram and Eisenhüttenstadt and others in Germany.
During the tour the significant efforts of the refugee struggle will be emphasized.

Solidarity begins at home! We call on refugees and migrants committed to solidarity with the oppressed all over the world to continue to condemn and expose the colonial dominance and exploitation of the west in their home countries, including the criminalisation and discriminaton here. We call on all Germans to stand and fight for an open society, and to share with us the burdens of the oppressed people here in concrete solidarity without any form of discrimination. In solidarity, our struggles for liberation are bound together!

We will act together in solidarity to protest against lagers, the permanent state of controls and the deportations

Our Autonomy is our Self-organisation, our Solidarity, our Freedom of movement and our Resistance against lager, deportation, social exclusion and migration control.

No lager here or anywhere! No deportation! Become an activist!

Silence will not protect anyone. Free movement is for everyone! We are here and we will fight!

There will be demonstrations, discussions, direct actions, festivals, theatre, music, arts, exhibitions, films and etc.

The VOICE Refugee Forum

english-nolager2003

Stop all deportations! Close all detention and deportation centers for refugees and migrants!

When the people of continents such as Africa, Asia or Latin America first came to Europe, we were brought over as slaves, and many of us were literally placed in human zoos, where the Europeans could see how exotic, savage animals looked and dressed. In our homelands, millions throughout the world died under the colonial expansion and exploitation of our wealth and resources. Left behind were the neo-colonial servants and slaves drivers, also known as our supposed governmental leaders, so that the capitalistic machinery could continue.

Today, this reality is not much different. Our countries remained the same colonized and exploited countries as before; we are still looked down upon for who we are and we only gain respect when we are considered as folklore; we are still trampled upon, spat on and excluded, and we refugees are placed in Heims far from many possibilities of integration into the society like in Freienbessingen or Markersdorf in Thüringen and Eisenhüttenstadt in Brandenburg.

The construction of modern day, brutal neoliberal deportation and persecution centers such as the Projekt X in Braunschweig and Bramsche, the Ausreisezentrum in Fürth or the innumerable deportation prisons throughout this country represents nothing more than the decadence of a neo-colonial power that has never been capable of making the empty slogans and promises of liberty, justice and democracy or even nie wieder! a reality. On the contrary, their abused and hollow meanings have long since unmasked the truth of the injustice behind their supposed help and goodwill: terror, hunger and injustice!

With an ever increasing racist and repressive system, the restriction of our freedom of movement is lashed out from the whip of the slave driver with the „Residenzpflicht“ restrictions of movement against the refugees in Germany, racist police controls and police brutality. Even in our own countries the local police receive European financial aids to criminalize the peoples' desire for justice. If we manage to make it past the increasingly rigid and brutal controls of the European Fortress then we are immediately considered to be terrorists and criminals and our deportation is prepared even before they know who we are.

When something is to be done to fight this inherent injustice, then the European sees the refugee as someone who needs to be helped and given charity. However, if the boot of oppression is on the back of the majority of the world, then no helping hand will be worth more than any but a simple empty gesture, just like their slogans of liberty, justice and democracy. And it must be clear that this symbolic boot on our backs is the reality of our lives in our world today, whereby few countries and a handful of rich and powerful corporations and individuals try to control the wealth (human and material) of the entire planet

No matter where we are, whenever we attempt to live a decent life, feed our families, enjoy education or even struggle for the right to life, we are criminalised, imprisoned and sent to our deaths (be it through hunger or repression) by the very societies which benefit most from our devastation and misery occasioned by their greed and economic intervention. The bureaucratic machine of oppression and injustice continues to work endlessly to keep us as a people without faces and rights. They simply want us to remain as objects to be stared at and talked about as they envisioned for us in the human zoos they constructed hundreds of years ago.

Stop the deportations! Deportation is a human rights abuse. So it is a crime.
The German authorities must be held accountable for the consequences of these deportations and the deportation threats which often led to absolute desperations and frustrations with repressions and death of the refugees or migrants here in Germany and after their deportations, including the imprisonments, persecutions, tortures or death of those deported.

When we are deported, we are sent back to the very lands that have been destroyed and raped of any future. And like when colonialism began, we are treated like animals not worthy of the so-called Europeans ideals of liberty, freedom and democracy. We are placed in Cages (Heims, Ausreisezentrum or deportation prisons) which they do not consider good enough for their dogs. They "wisely" expect us to accept this injustice without complaints and be grateful to them for their purported "magnanimity". They expect us to praise the U.S.A and European governments, WTO, IMF, World Bank, NATO,IOM and etc. for "trying to rescue us" from the poverty and ugly situation they imposed on us.

Yet after so many centuries of colonialist and capitalist exploitation of our wealth and peoples, after so many massacres, repressive regimes and torture, we are still fighting both in our countries and here to overturn this injustice once and for all! We are still here, we are still strong and we still have our dignity! In Germany, France, Italy, Nigeria, Colombia, Palestine, Cameroon, Iraq, Peru, Iran, Irak, Togo, Sri-lanka and many other places, no matter where we are, our resistance - inherited from so many generations who fought and died for our liberation before us - continues and will not be defeated!

We call on all refugees, migrants and progessive-minded peoples to come together in order to demonstrate that another world is possible and that solidarity, justice, brother- sisterhood and liberty are more than mere words and slogans without substance (unlike the words of the powerful that are nothing more than masked lies!), that each finger by itself is weak and can be broken, but that when the fingers come together, they form a strong and resilient fist of resistance!

Free Movement Now! Close all detention and deportation centers!
Stop the deportations! Abolish the“Residenzpflicht“ restriction of refugees to local districts in Germany!

Wherever the repression is, we will be there! No injustice is secure from our resistance!

Karawane for the rights of refugees and migrants in Germany.
The VOICE Refugee Forum, Jena. E-mail.: voice_mail@emdash.org http://www.thevoiceforum.org