> Migrants in detention complex Schiphol Airport fight brutality, call
> for help
>
> M2M Radio, Migrant to Migrant, calls on activists and artists for
> international collaboration in solidarity
>
> Amsterdam, NL. March 2009 ---  http://m2m.streamtime.org ----
>
> On the 18th of February the inmates of Block L demanded clear
> information on their fate. “How long can they keep us here? Is
> asking for asylum a crime in this country? Why are we here?” In
> Block L migrants are detained who are supposed to be deported back
> home. They did not fulfill the tough requirements to be accepted as
> a refugee. But it can take a long time, even more than a year, for
> the Ministry of Justice to find out how to deport a single person,
> especially when s/he is from a country like Sudan, Somalia or
> Palestine, where the civil registers are not quite up to date.
> According to Dutch law the simple fact of not having the proper
> documents is not a violation. The reason for detaining thousands of
> migrants is administrative: to facilitate a smooth exit when
> opportunity knocks.
>
> Hunger strike
>
> When satisfying answers to their questions were not available from
> the staff and the director, some 40 of the migrants, decided to
> insist by sitting down on the ground of the cage for fresh air and
> refuse to return to their cells. This action was then broken by
> forcing them one-by-one back to his or her cell, handcuffed and when
> “opportune” in isolation cells. Fifty riot police in full gear
> entered the stage and used “proportional violence”, in the terms
> used by the managing director of Penitentiary Institutions in a
> report of Dutch NOVA TV. Twenty inmates were forced to watch how
> Surah Keladze (from Georgia) was beaten up, how Ibrahim Hussein
> (Sudan) was hit in his genitals. That same day 36 of the inmates of
> Block L went on hunger strike and are now organizing their
> resistance, their fight for freedom. And they call on us to fight
> with them.
>
> In Dutch detention centers the conditions are worse than in regular
> prisons. There are women among the men, which is against the law.
> People have to sleep in paper sheets. There are less facilities for
> recreation, medical care and communication. This adds to the
> isolated locations and the lack of family in many cases. This drives
> many of the detained sans-papiers crazy and mad. Resistance is met
> by violence: isolation cells, hand cuffs and beatings are regular
> practices. It is not the first time that a group of inmates starts a
> protest, but it is a new that inmates manage to communicate directly
> with activists and advocacy groups in the country of Holland. M2M
> Radio, Migrant to Migrant, receives daily reports from several
> outspoken detainees in Block L over the phone. This is made possible
> by people who donate eleven Euro for phone credit. You can listen to
> their recorded phone calls at the M2M website:
>  http://m2m.streamtime.org/index.php/2009/now-every-day-block-l-calling-for-freedom/
>
> The number eleven is a direct symbolic reference to the eleven
> migrants who died in the fire in Block K in October 2005. This fire
> has been a turning point in the growing social movement rallying
> against these detention centers and for a humane treatment of
> migrants. The survivors of the “Schiphol Fire” are united in their
> quest for truth and justice and M2M is their platform.
>
> The cause of justice for all survivors boils down to the case of the
> only man that has been accused so far: his name is Ahmed Isa. He was
> condemned to three years in jail in 2007 and will stand to appeal in
> spring 2009. Parallel to the proceedings against Ahmed Isa, criminal
> charges have been brought up by an ad hoc committee of human rights
> groups and other advocates of the survivors and relatives of the
> deceased against the two directly responsible ministers accusing
> them of creating the conditions that made the fire possible and for
> inhuman treatment of the survivors of the fire. The European Court
> of Human Rights has endorsed the accusations and this means that for
> the first time the authorities are brought to account. They have to
> reply to all points of the accusations. A proper administration of
> justice is of the highest importance for the well being of the
> survivors and indeed for their lives.
>
> The Dutch detention complex
>
> More than three years after the Schiphol Fire no substantial change
> has been made in the migration politics: migrants are chased, locked
> up by the thousands and either deported or rotting a way like dead
> dogs in detention. The lesson learnt by the state is to build new
> and permanent facilities for detaing migrant, including special
> child friendly facilities for minors and mothers. At Rotterdam
> Airport and Schiphol these new prisons will replace the redundant
> temporary and substandard hangars and containers. Worse even, the
> Dutch deputy minister is succesfully promoting this Dutch approach
> as a model for the European Union: Italy, Spain and the UK have
> adopted the same regiem and the EU has opted for a maximum period of
> one-and-a-half year of administratieve detention. So far Holland had
> no legal time limit.
>
> Many people find it hard to believe that the Netherlands, a country
> that poses as a champion of human rights and international justice,
> is guilty of this systematic violation of human and civil rights.
> Not only undocumented migrants, also legal immigrants and complete
> communities and neighbourhoods are disturbed and disrupted by this
> state policy. It is a policy that goes hand in hand with the wave of
> xenophobia and anti-islamic nationalist parties. That is why M2M
> does not hesitate to call this region a frontline in the global
> struggle for the acceptance of migration as a fundamental freedom of
> man. Outlawing human beings is not only brutally humiliating, it
> undermines the core values and the basic rights that any civilized
> society is held to respect.
>
> No borders between us! Cross the line. Break the silence!
>
> Every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. People come to perform together
> in acts of witnessing, protest and solidarity at the fence of the
> detention complex at Schiphol Oost.
>
> Address: Ten Pol, 1438 AJ Oude Meer (bus 187 from Schiphol Plaza)
>
> The M2M Foundation promotes free communication of migrants.
> Look with us, not at us.
>
>  http://m2m.streamtime.org
> e:  m2m@streamtime.org
> +31624248872
>
> Donations to Postbank 3452284, Jo van der Spek, Amsterdam. Ref: M2M,
> Hungerstrike