Germany: "Unite Against Deportation" conference
01 November 1999
Preparations are being made for the first national Refugee Conference of The Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in Germany (Die Karawane), to take place from 21 April to 1 May 2000 in Jena, East Germany (Thuringia). Die Karawane, a loose network of illegalised refugees and migrants and various anti-racist and refugee groups, toured and demonstrated in 44 German cities last year. Under the slogan: "We have no vote but we have a voice", this "travelling demonstration" aims to highlight the criminalisation, exploitation and isolation of Germany's refugee communities faced with increasing racist attacks, social exclusion and the constant threat of forceful deportation.
In an attempt to strengthen a refugee movement from below in Germany, the refugee conference next year is hosted by the first self-organised African Human Rights Group in east Germany, The VOICE e.V., Africa Forum, and is aimed at stimulating discussions about the situation of refugees and migrants in Germany and Europe.
Under the title "Unite against deportation", the main focus of the conference will be the "Social Exclusion of Refugees: restriction, isolation and deportation". Osaren Igbinoba, one of the chairmen of The VOICE, commented that:
"the theme of the congress is particularly important because of the increasing deplorable conditions of asylum seekers in Germany, against the background of social exclusion and isolation, the threat of deportation and the actual continued mass deportations of refugees from Germany and other European Union member states, even to countries where neither the safety of their lives nor their security could be guaranteed. The congress particularly welcomes the contribution of refugees themselves, interested individuals, student and social groups, trade unions, pro-democracy movements and the entire "sincere" progressive block in order to organise resistance and rise up to the challenge and unite and fight assiduously against deportation of any kind, where ever it exists."
The Conference will examine state policies of isolation, restriction and deportation, information on human rights abuses against refugees during detention and deportation is being compiled and related to the state toleration and acceptance of fascism and racism in modern day German society. On a European level, anti-racist and monitoring groups from different countries are being invited to discuss the developments within the restrictive harmonisation of European asylum and immigration law, with specific focus on the Amsterdam Treaty together with the Draft Action Plans of the High Level Working Group on Asylum and Migration, EURODAC and the European border regime in relation to eastward enlargement and the adoption of the Schengen acquis.
The conference also aims to raise awareness amongst the German public on problems of social and political struggles of refugees. The grassroots resistance movements of the
illegalised and marginalised, such as the sans papiers in France and Kein Mensch ist Illegal in Germany, will serve as a starting point to try and strengthen the relatively recent development of a self-organised resistance struggle against criminalisation and deportation of refugees in Germany. Plans are being made to invite the sans papiers to hold their next European-wide meeting in Jena (the first was in Paris in March 1999, the second is taking place in Amsterdam this December) in order to improve networking across Europe.
The Conference will, uniquely, link Europe's border regime to a wider political analysis including the involvement of European based transnational corporations in countries of origin and their role in stabilising and perpetuating repressive and dictatorial regimes. The conference also aims to take a critical look at the positions and ideologies of non-governmental organisations, proposes that their human rights activities might be selective and tackles the question as to whether church asylum<