Towards a convergence, a coming together of the struggle of 'sans-papiers', refugees and migrants in Europe
Facing the development of Fortress Europe which denies the most fundamental rights of immigrant and refugee people on its territory (housing, healthcare, work, education, citizenship, freedom of movement and of settlement), it has become essential to bring together the struggles of people who have no rights. Everywhere in Europe, victims of repressive European legislation are fighting for their basic rights and survival. The perspective of a network crossing nations should make it possible to create a collective, autonomous force, with mutual exchange, led by the protagonists themselves, capable of responding to the economic and political challenges emerging in Europe.
The following text is the result of a series of meetings of various European collectives of Sans-Papiers, refugees and migrants: first at the NoBorder Camp in Strasbourg in July 2002, then in Leiden (Peoples Global Action), Berlin (Caravan tour), Brussels, Florence (ESF 2002), and London (2003). This was continued by all organisations who attended the recent ESF in Paris-St-Denis, this document aims, among other things, to serve as a common platform to mobilise for the European Day of Action on 31 January 2004 agreed upon at the Forum.
Call for European day of action on January 31, 2004:Women and men Sans-Papiers, refugees and migrants are only the visible tip of the casualisation iceberg which extends to other migrants and then to all the other workers. In industrialised countries, Sans-Papiers are used by neo-liberal capitalism to progressively globalise casualisation and drive down living conditions. Migrants live in desperate circumstances which must be connected to the political, economical and military exploitation that industrialised countries force on their countries of origin. Consequently, Sans-Papiers, migrants and refugees are at the heart of the struggle for equal, fundamental rights.
- At the European level, we demand:
- Freedom of movement and settlement
- Immediate closure of all detention camps in all European countries
- An end to all deportations
- Recognition of a residency citizenship for all in all European countries
- Implementation of a real right to asylum
- The end of exploitation and neo-slavery, and the right to work based on the same pay and entitlements as the workers in the country where we settle
- Unconditional regularisation (right to stay) for all Sans-Papiers
Manifeste - pour une Journée d'action le 31 janvier 2004 [Fr]
Links: No Border Statement | manifesto of the No One Is Illegal Group (UK) | WOMBLES: Call for action | West Essex Zapatista Call | Campaign to Close Campsfield | National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns | Institute of Race Relations | campaign against racism and fascism
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
demands from an anarchist wot a cock
23.12.2003 21:38
translator
asylem in uk
08.01.2004 18:04
If I wished to emmigrate to russia I would have to forfill certain criteria it is a fact yet if I am Black/white and beaten up by Police in uk I could by pass those rules.
Further I could predtend to be beaten up by police and still get free into russia.
Do you see the inequality in that situation. If there are to be rules on emmigration then they should be equally applied not one rule for asylem seekers and another for emmigrants.
alan smith
e-mail:
smithutod@hotmail.com
non funny joke
08.01.2004 18:40
alan
e-mail:
smithutod@hotmail.com
Noise Demo @ Lindholme Refugee Detention Centre
12.01.2004 22:50
copy of the flyer - application/pdf 139K
Saturday 31st January is a Europe Wide Day of Action against Refugee Detention
and for Migrant Rights. There will be actions at Refugee Detention Centres
throughout Britain. As part of this day there will be a noise demo outside
Lindholme Refugee Detention Centre.
Why A Noise Demo?
The government's "detention estate" is a horrible human rights abuse. People
are imprisoned without charge, time limit or trial, with no proper reason
given.
It is part of a climate of racism and persecution of "immigrants" that is
making human beings "illegal". Detention is used to try and intimidate migrants
into accepting deportation and to put people off coming to Britain at all. By
taking our protests to the gates of detention centres we can communicate with
the people inside, sending messages of support that can break through the
fences erected to keep people isolated.
Why Lindholme?
Lindholme Detention Centre is a wing of HMP Lindholme, near Doncaster, South
Yorkshire, run by the prison service. It holds up to 112 men aged 21 and over.
A prison inspectors' report in April 2003 revealed that staff routinely imposed
random strip-searches after visits. Detainees are also strip-searched on
admission to the detention centre as a matter of routine, without any reason
given. Staff at this former prison treat detainees as offenders, rather than
recognising that they have not been convicted of any crime. There is a prison
atmosphere with detainees being made to wear prison clothes. Thier own money is
withheld from them and channelled into prison-like 'incentive schemes'. The
report describes poor food, heating and healthcare, and intimidation and
hostility. Detainees there do not feel safe
Bring what you'd like to find: Musical Instruments, Loud Hailers, Voices,
Saucepans, Things to make a Noise with; Wool, Balloons, Coloured Paper, Banners
Things to Decorate the fence with.
Needed: Help with Transport.
For more details, offers of transport, or if you need transport, please phone
`The Sumac Centre'
0845 458 9595 or
Email:
or check out www.veggies.org.uk/calendar/lindholme0401.pdf
Directions:
M18 Eastbound Junction 5,
M180 Eastbound
Junction 1, A18 towards Hatfield, Take the A614 on the left towards Hatfield
Woodhouse.
Tyrham Hall Hotel is on lefthand side after Hatfield Woodhouse.
Nottingham group against Refugee Detention
e-mail:
lindholme@veggies.org.uk
Homepage:
http://www.veggies.org.uk/calendar/lindholme0401.pdf
Day of Action in Hull
23.01.2004 21:58
HMP Hull is located on Hedon Road to towards the docks.
Huw, Hull Prisoner Support Group
e-mail:
daendini@hotmail.com
One World - One People
26.01.2004 17:15
Nations and nationalities are not ‘natural’ or ‘given’, they are social constructs, products of historical circumstances, and they consist of different people, men and women, rich and poor, with different and sometimes even opposing interests. We live in confusing times, but to regress back to some myth about the nation will only complicate matters. There must be an end to the random classification and allocation of people into nationalities and races. We are all human, we are all fundamentally the same. Borders have been moved around and redrawn throughout history, but we, the people, have stayed the same – culturally diverse and prone to empathy and solidarity, but also easy to manipulate. We must embrace the diversity and the opportunities of the globalised world, but at the same time resist its injustices. We are all in this world together, and the way you act, how you live, what you buy, and whether or not you stand up against injustices, affects other people around you. As it was expressed by Medka Patkar, spokeswoman for an organisation of landless peasants in Bangladesh, in June 2001 during the EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden;
“We are here because we will not let Europe’s 60 million poor stand alone in the struggle…”
(Quoted in Gardell: “Globalisering och dess kritiker” in Talltorp & Unsgaard (editors) 2002: Globalisering Hur Då?)
Dungavel – Scotland’s Shame
Today, in a world where millions of people live in fear and are denied their basic human rights, the richest countries in the world close their borders and treat refugees as if they were criminals. On several occasions, refugees have been sent back to the countries from which they fled and been executed or put in prison by dictatorial regimes. They flee from hardship and oppression and get caught up in an evil game of power, profit and control. Of the few people who, often by chance, find their way to Britain, many are sent away, and some end up in prison-like detention centres like the one in Dungavel. Refugees have spent weeks and months, even years, behind barbed wire and fences, only guaranteed one hour of fresh air a day.
Some people seem to think that Britain is too generous, that too many refugees are let into the country (as if human beings would have to ask permission to walk the face of the earth), but that’s completely groundless. Compared to most other countries in the world, Britain receives a very small number of protection seeking people. According to the Red Cross (www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2003/chapter5.asp) there may be over 60 000 000 refugees in the world. The UNHCR (www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/statistics) estimates that only 200 000 of those are currently situated in Britain (compared to 950 000 in Germany, and 3 400 000 in Afghanistan). However, Britain detains (imprisons) more refugees than any other European country (according to Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Migrant and Refugee Detention), while parts of the media and the government still call for more control and stricter rules.
Britain breaches international law on Children, Human Rights and Refugees. We say:
CLOSE DOWN DUNGAVEL!
END DETENTION!
NO BORDERS!
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!
ONE WORLD – ONE PEOPLE!
KEAL
World Music Night in Edinburgh
27.01.2004 12:05
Performances include:
Celtica Shmeltica (Jewish dance music)
Diwan (Senegalese groove)
Rise from the Bundu Boys (acoustic Zimbabwean jit)
Me Suena Tu Cara (Spanish rumba-flamenco)
£3.50 at the door, all the money goes to supporting refugees.
Welcome!
/Student Action for Refugees
STAR - Student Action for Refugees
unite against racist asylum and immigration laws,
01.02.2004 20:00
Would be good to make the point in a demonstration of the connection between economic policies, arms deals, wars and refugees. The UK is the world's second biggest arms dealer after the US. Wars cause more displacement of people than anything. Wealthy Western governments and big business are selling weapons and fuelling wars to get at raw materials as cheaply as possible to boost their economies. Those same governments then cynically try to refuse asylum to the relatively few people who manage to escape, stirring up racism as Blunkett and many before him have done and will do after him, when blood really is on their hands. The mainstream media never make that connection effectively. Probably not in their interests. And I don't think that the most powerful economies do want peace, prosperity and growing economies in 'developing' countries as that would challenge their hegemony.
pearl