Skip to content or view screen version

October 7th in Moscow

O. | 08.10.2006 21:11 | Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls | Anti-racism | Migration | World

On the 7th of October we did the action against migration control in Moscow. We started on the one of the biggest Moscow streets – Garden ring – and directed our steps towards the Federal migration service that is a part of Ministery of Internal Affairs and in charge of the migration politics in Russia.

There were 3 groups of activists – group of the people symbolizing refuges with a surgery masks on they faces and crosses on the mouths and brief life histories written on the paper on they clothes, samba band beating a tattoo of execution, ACAB (clown army) with lashes beating "refuges". We were moving on the street giving out a leaflets and "Crossing borders" newsletters. We met some people from the Caucasus (that are the main subject for discrimination in Russia) and they identified themselves with us as some others passers-by. When we came to the official building drummers shouted a slogan "Nobody is illegal!" and clowns started to blame themselves in awful behaviour and policy etc. At the same time in front of the Federal migration service people hanged a banner "Nobody is illegal". Then a cop went out of the building and he couldn't understand what's going on and we went away.

We did this action without any permission. Nobody was arrested.

Some photos are here:  http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/15482/index.php

O., Moscow

Ps You can find more info about the situation concerning migrants and refugees and Russia on the web-site of the Human rights organization "Civic assistance committee":  http://www.refugee.ru/english.htm



Pps just wanted to say about 2 awful events that happened in Russia this week:

Russian authorities started real ethnical purges against Georgians (because of the conflict in political affairs with Georgia), including kicking out of schools children of Georgian nationality, repression against of Georgian writers etc (before these discriminations was a rule mostly towards Chechens).

And second yesterday Anna Politkovskaya was killed with a shot in the lift of her house. She was one of the few journalists that took a risk to write the truth about some things that Russian authorities tried to hide – what's going on in Chechnya, repressions and "cleanup" of ordinary people in Blagoveschenk etc. If you want to know more about the war in Chechnya – find books of Politkovskaya, they're translated to many languages.

O.
- Homepage: http://www.refugee.ru/english.htm