We are happy to tell you that 4 years after the brutal attack of the Hungarian state on the protests after the closing of the Roeszke border crossing and the arrests of the eleven people, the so called Roeszke 11, the last person Ahmed H. was finally able to leave the country to Cyprus, back to his family, on the 28th of September 2019.

After several years in prison and through the court instances, the Hungarian state ignored the European wide protests and convicted Ahmed in a fake trial of “terrorism” to prison for 5 years in the end in 2018. Since January 2019 he we was meant to be released from prison but had to stay in deportation detention as Cyprus didn`t want to let him return to his family there.

We wish Ahmed and his family all the best!
Thanks to all people supporting Ahmed and his family and the Roeszke 11 – solidarity will win! Lets fight injustice and the border regime!

Read the statement of Amnesty International:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/hungary-syrian-man-unjustly-jailed-finally-allowed-home-to-cyprus/

The following post is originally published on September 25, 2019 by Infomobile: information with, for and about refugees in Greece, published here: http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2019/09/25/refugee-squats-in-centre-of-athens-under-attack-by-new-government-while-thousands-housed-in-state-run-camps-are-dumped-in-tents-and-containers-under-inhuman-conditions/

The Cyprian government denies Ahmed’s return to his family

Today four years have passed since the “Röszke riot”, the attack of the
Hungarian riot police and TEK (counter-terrorism unite) on protesting
migrants against borders and limitation of freedom of movement in
September 2015. During and after this riot eleven people were arrested
and later faced a court trial.

Ahmed H., one of the arrested eleven people was convicted for terrorism
and sentenced first to 10, than to 7 and on the last court instance to 5
years prison.

On the 19th of January 2019 he was supposed to get released on parole,
after he finished two third of his sentence. But instead of returning
home, he was transferred to the immigration prison in Nyirbátor, in the
east of Hungary. He was waiting for months there for Cyprus to renew his
visa, which expired during the time he spent in prison . He used to live
in Cyprus before his arrest for more than ten years together with his
wife and children. He left the country and ended at Hungarian-Serbian
border, because he accompanied his parents from Syria to Europe.
Although the authorities promised him that he can return home with his
renewed visa after the administration procedure is over, after months of
waiting he learnt, that the government of Cyprus refused his return. The
interior ministry of Cyprus stated that he is a security threat and
cannot get visa.

There is apparently no state willing to let Ahmed enter, so he remains
trapped in the Hungarian jail. In the last months we could not publish
anything about the case because his family did not want to go public
with this further developments until now. We were silent, but we did not
disappear.

During the trial, there was very strong criticism against the Hungarian
state. The liberal media, international organisations, and even the EU
parliament were accusing Hungary of not respecting european values.
Cyprus’ refusal to renew Ahmed’s visa prove, that his situation is not
exclusively the
fault of an ‘undemocratic’, ‘dictatorial’ regime. The racist
anti-immigrant and anti-terrorist
discourse is an essential part of the idea of ‘Europe’ and the european
border regime,
that all european states follow.

This is a call for solidarity actions targeting this time the Cyprian
state and its institutions. A strong international public pressure is
needed for Ahmed’s release and return home. The government of Cyprus has
to let him join his family again and be finally free from the
imprisonment! Spread the news, spread solidarity!

Let us not forget the prisoners of the Fortress!
Freedom for Ahmed H.!

“Free the Röszke 11” solidarity group

freetheroszke11@riseup.net
https://freetheroszke11.weebly.com

published by www.pushbackmap.org

Zagreb, June 18th 2019
A Tool to Collectively Fight the Repressive Border & Control Regime

Currently we are witnessing an increase in institutional violence across Europe. At the EU’s borders expulsions, direct deportations, readmissions and other forms of forced returns across borders are happening on a daily basis. These violent practices are called push-backs.
They are a systematic institutionalised technique used to suppress movement across borders. With our newly developed online tool The Push-back Map, www.pushbackmap.org, we aim to map, document, visualise and denounce these practices.

Continue reading →

We publish a text written by comrades from the campaign InEUmanity (also included in our new broschure):

On the 17^th of April of 2019, the European Parliament adopted a new Regulation[1] radically reshaping the tasks, powers and organizational structures of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The increased deportation of fugitives, the primary objective of which is laid down in the first article, is Europe’s only and brutal response to the still unresolved “migration issue”.

The initial situation is that from spring 2015 onwards more and more migrants came to Europe to seek protection, better living conditions or future prospects. However, the borders of the Balkan route open by the Schengen Code were practically closed in March 2016 in order to prevent arrivals from reaching the often desired Western European countries. The Non-Refoulment commandment[2] not to reject those in need of protection at their own borders is systematically violated in order to take account of the xenophobic shift to the right in the member states. Since then, there has been no forwards, no stays and no backsliding. For the fugitives this is a hopeless and indeed hopeless situation.

A solution in the form of a new European regulation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has been lying idle for a long time because the member states could not reach agreement. So the new regulation is supposed to resolve the “congestion” immediately and in the future.

The core element of Frontex’s new field of activity is to support third countries in deciding on the need for protection of refugees and to organize repatriations in the event of their refusal. In addition, there will be an increase in the staffing and financial resources of the Border Management Agency, as it will be given a more comprehensive remit to implement the measures. In concrete terms, this means an increase in staff to 10,000 (wo)men by 2027 and an increase in the budget for the period 2021-2027 to a total of 34.9 billion euros. Frontex is made up of agency staff (EU officials) and teams seconded from the Member States.

Until now, Frontex has only been active in member states of the Schengen area if a constitutional decision by this state on entry or stay in the country was available. Frontex can now also become active in third countries on its own initiative. Frontex is responsible for the preparation, provision of relevant information and advice on repatriation decisions and their implementation. The repatriation decision is therefore formally taken by the third country, which alone serves to circumvent the European protection of fundamental rights.

Frontex employees have a general authorization to carry out all border controls and measures relating to rejection, which are actually reserved for the respective states, which is an obvious breach of the Schengen Code. Access to an asylum procedure can therefore simply be thwarted. This is also to be expected, as the Member State Teams have no special training to be able to recognize the need for protection of people and the entire restructuring is aimed at preventing the entry of “illegal migrants”.

There is also talk of setting up “early warning systems”. On the basis of EUROSUR data sets and “risk analyses”, it is to be indicated when large crowds of people set off to cross the border illegally. The teams then have the task of preventing this. The rhetoric of the law thus leaves no doubt about the misanthropy of the whole project.

So-called controlled centres are to be set up to carry out these operations. The text of the law does not say whether they will be open or closed and whether they can also be set up in third countries. It is very likely that the centres in which asylum procedures are to be carried out within eight weeks will be as bad as the Greek and Italian hotspot camps in terms of congestion, miserable living conditions, systematic violations of the law and exclusion from social participation.

A liability gap also means that there is no legal protection for those affected. In third countries, civil servants are subject to directives issued by third countries which are not bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Although all states in Europe belong to the ECHR, it does not contain any right to asylum, so that no action can be brought before the ECHR regarding repatriation. An action before the European Court of Justice to review the legality of Frontex’s actions is impossible for the persons concerned, since the decision was formally taken by a non-EU state and the repatriation took place on its instructions.

In addition, the Regulation provides for the use of force (pepper spray, blows, as a last resort, the use of firearms) as a legitimate means of enforcing the tasks. However, if someone exceeds the limits of the proportionate use of force, criminal proceedings are also excluded: Frontex officials enjoy immunity in the third country, no complaint can be filed in the sending country and there is no European criminal procedure.

Even extrajudicial institutions do not promise any protection: A Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and a complaint mechanism for the prevention and clarification of human rights violations are largely ineffective, as this means a purely internal and thus not independent examination of incidents. When the regulation was adopted, MEPs focused above all on the Balkan countries in order to open up internal European borders. There is no regional restriction, however, so that nothing would stand in the way of application in Libya or Turkey in the future[3].

The regulation is argued on the basis of the absurd assumption that EU officials working in other countries are exporting their own standard of protection of fundamental rights. Their real aim, however, is to deport people from non-EU countries before they enter EU territory.

This was exemplified by the debate in the European Parliament, in which there was hardly any mention of the human rights of refugees. On the other hand, the importance of the internal openness of the EU was repeatedly stressed. Fugitives are thus (re)brought into unworthy life situations so that EU citizens can travel freely.

The Regulation is therefore a new expression of a racist and Eurocentric worldview. Even though the law repeatedly describes compliance with EU law, international law and human rights, its practical application, on the other hand, is an immanent violation of human rights. The adoption of this law makes visible the new quality of the shift to the right in the EU.

 [1]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0415_DE.pdf

[2]“The Non-Refoulement Principle prohibits the extradition, expulsion or return of a person to another country if there are serious reasons for believing that the person concerned is at serious risk of torture or inhuman treatment or other very serious human rights violations in the country of destination. https://www.humanrights.ch/de/service/menschenrechte/non-refoulement/ ; accessed 7.5.2019

[3]Further critical points are discussed by ECRE (https://www.ecre.org/an-eu-agreement-on-reform-of-frontex/; https://www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ECRE-Comments-EBCG-proposal.pdf and ProAsyl https://www.proasyl.de/wp-content/uploads/PA_Zur-Frontex-Verordnung_Stellungnahme.pdf) in a detailed critique.

Selforganized Migrant Protests, Police Raids and Random Prosecutions in German Refugee camps

In German Refugee Camps – especially in the very big initial registration camps – selforganized protests are happening on a daily basis. The people are demonstrating for better living conditions or acceptable food. Also, there is a lot of protests against the German asylum system, which is constructing unbearable situations for many Migrants, who are held in a state of structural paralysis, not being able to organize their lives or move autonomously. During large parts of the asylum process, they are forced to live in camps, not allowed to work, not allowed to cook on their own, only given very little money – actually less than what the German state defines as humane.

One of the biggest issues is the constant threat of deportation. Police is breaking into private rooms on a nightly basis, screaming and using physical violence in order to find people whom they want todeport. By now, many court decisions are confirming that such police operations are violating §§13 of German constitution which ensures the inviolability of the home.

The Migrants often oppose attempted deportations and police raids with protest and resistance. In Osnabrück, early summer of 2017, 200 people had to live in self organized camps in order to prevent deportations on their own. They installed observing shifts every night, so that people could see when the police approached. As soon as they saw a police car approaching, they blew a whistle that woke up everyone in the camp. All together they went outside and blocked the entrance. Police was not able to find the person they wanted to deport. With this method, they were able to prevent uncountable deportations. Cops did not succeed to enter the camp for more than 100 days.

In line with the ongoing worsening of the German asylum system, Migrants are more and more criminalized. Protests similar to that one in Osnabrück are often followed by a right media shitstorm and even more repression by the state. In some cases, even when people did not protest collectively, police and media simply make up fairy tales about mass actions, violence and resistance against police to justify massive raids and arbitrary attestations of Migrants.

In March 2018, police entered in the initial registration camp in Donau-Wörth, Bavaria, for deporting one person. The man was neither in his room, nor in the camp. Nobody resisted the police, some people simply argued that the police had no right to wake random people in the middle of the night because they searched a person. A fire alarm started.

The next day police raided the whole camp with 200 cops using physical violence, CS-gas and pepper spray. They randomly arrested 32 people, 30 of them were held in custody in isolation for 2 months, charged with disorderly conduct, bodily harm, assault and resistance against police. Some of the people were directly deported from prison to Italy. 7 persons succeeded in filing complaints against their penalty orders, 3 of them were deported, nevertheless. In November 2018, the first court case against 2 of the Migrants took place. The jury had to admit that there is no evidence for violent resistance against police. In spite of everything, the accusations were maintained. The accused people will take the case to the next instance.

Another case happened in April and May 2018 in an initial registration camp in Ellwangen, Baden-Würthemberg. In the middle of the night of 30th April, Police wanted to deport a person to Italy. When he refused to enter the police car, 30-40 people got aware of the situation and went outside to protest in solidarity with him, discussing with police about the inhumanity of the Dublin System. More and more people joined the protest and together they succeeded in stopping the deportation.

4 days later, a large-scale operation of 500 cops disturbed the whole camp. They broke in and raided several private rooms even though they had no order from the court. Thus, the whole operation was illegal. German rightwing people afterwards made up a story of violent protest by hundreds of Migrants attacking police. That story was copied by the mainstream media, legitimizing the excessive, unnecessary and illegal police operation, which actually had the single aim of criminalizing the Migrants. This criminalization peaked with 25 penalty orders against Migrants. Several people were put into custody. Many filed complaints against this penalty order. One person was released after 3 months of custody after having been acquitted finally of the charge of having attacked police. Another person was condemned to imprisonment of 6 months without probation because police asserted that he was hitting one officer 3 times against the helmet. With this case, the state wanted to set a deterring example for all Migrants protesting against deportations and police brutality.

The trial of 3 more people should have been in March 2019, but it was repealed as the court told the prosecution to do more investigations.

The two presented cases depict the arbitrariness in which police and state operate for criminalizing Migrants. Also, they are perfect examples of racism and racial profiling police is using on a daily basis, because all arrested Migrants are Black and police arrested them randomly because of their skin colour.

Published on 13th May 2019 by dm-aegean

Many people who come to Europe looking for freedom and safety find themselves imprisoned. While the EU politics forcibly keep people trapped in overcrowded and barbed wired camps on the Greek islands, the Greek police uses harsh crack down strategies in order to suppress conflicts and protests arising from the unbearable living conditions in the camps.

Migrants on the Greek islands find themselves in a situation of detainability – regardless of whether they committed an offense or not, they do not only have to bear the constant insecurity of the camp but have to live under the constant threat of being arrested and detained.

Below, we reproduce the account of Aftab Mohammadi (name changed) who was arrested in Moria camp in July 2018 and has since then been held in the prison of Chios Island. It is one of many stories of a senseless and cruel detention practice beyond any reason.

Nine months ago, it was a night like other nights. There was a fight in the camp between a few people that lasted for more than two hours. The fight started between two people and after a while others in the camp got involved. It all started because of the bad conditions of the people who have to live in the camp. Some have mental issues, because they live in these terrible conditions and do not have any mental support.

The police was present and they saw what happened. I felt terrible this night, especially when I saw that the children were holding onto their moms, they were very scared and crying. But for the police it was a special night. They were laughing at the people. For them it was like a watching an online movie. We were asking them for help but they were only laughing at us, taking photos and recording us.

Finally, they rushed in the camp but to the people who were not involved in that fight, and they attacked the innocent people. We did not have any place to go, we were about 18 persons and I was one of them. The police took us to the police station, hit us, treated us very badly and called us aggressors. For several hours our hands and our feet were handcuffed. We could not communicate with them because we did not know their language and they opened a file for each of us for no reason. After the paperwork they separated us and put us in different cells.

Before going into the cell, I thought we were the only people there for no reason, but when I went inside, I saw many people who were there for the same reason. The prison was full of refugees. The Greek police does this to people like us in order to show their power, to show that justice does not exist here. I asked the other people why they are in the prison.  ​It was because of small things. Most of them were not Greek. We only committed the crime that we were born in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. I also saw plenty of other people who were arrested for the same reason like me and they had been in the prison for many years.

Afterwards, the court recognized them as innocent. I do not know if is fine to put innocent people in prison and open a file for them in the police station or in the court, when in the end it was for nothing, for no crimes.  I do not know what the Greek government will achieve with this kind of thing.

The European Union and the people who are in power are always talking about human rights and they are going around the world to ‘protect’ human rights. They say that everyone should have freedom and everyone has to be free. I find it very strange that they are not looking at Greece which is a part of them. In this country that is part of the European Union you can see the most vulnerable people who have been forced to leave their home country and are seeking for asylum and looking for a shelter. But this country is using them for their benefits and they are taking the people’s freedom to do their business. They are keeping the refugees here because they think they can improve their economy. I am sure this plan will not work.

Whatever you read here, it came from my heart. The people lost their freedom because of being a refugee and they lost their dreams inside the democratic prison. And we know that there are some nice humans who are trying to help others. Those people who are helping the others, they do not care where people come from, where they have been born, what are their religion and believes. They believe that we are all the same and we should help each other. In the end I hope they are going to stop making business with the humans. I hope one day I can see that everyone is equal. It is a shame to see what is happening with people’s life.

Like Serbia, Macedonia is one of the main transit countries on the Balkan route. Thousands of people passed through this country on their way fleeing towards the EU. But this route from Greece over Macedonia, Serbia and more north doesn’t only exist since 2015.
After all, with the so called “long summer of migration” and the by that forced short opening of the borders it has become much more visible. In this time one could see thousands of people walking next to the railway line and the highway. The geography of Macedonia is very mountainous, but both of those routes cross the land from South to North and run mainly through the valley of the river Vardar, so in comparison to the rest of the country they are easier to pass. In 2016 the borders of the so called state-run “corridor” over the Balkan route have been closed and basically hermetically sealed by radical militarization which led to making the migration nearly invisible. Repression and criminalization by the state towards refugees and those, who offered support in any way, increased heavily. Macedonia as a transit country became a huge and dangerous challenge for many.
Also, the self-organized and independent activist groups, that were active in Macedonia for months, moved back because of the repression. Only NGOs like Legis still can work at the official transit camps Gevgeljia and Tabanovce. The people crossing Macedonia on their flight don’t want to stay there but move on as fast as possible.
Since 2015 only few people asked for asylum in Macedonia and even less were approved for it. There are still illegal pushbacks to Greece or imprisonments of refugees. In spite of the unfavorable circumstances, people manage to pass the country unseen. On their way, they risk their lives. In March 2019 a person died when a group of refugees had to jump from a driving truck to avoid a police control. 14 more were hurt. Tragedies like that were more frequent especially before the opening of the “legal corridor” through the country.
Besides the situation for migrants, the social-political situation in Macedonia is tense and repressive in general and many people live daily in precarious conditions. Next to Bosnia, Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe. The social system doesn’t offer any financial support, so everyone depends on wage work. In the same time, the wage is so low that people need to work an extremely high number of hours every month to be able to afford the life. For left activists that means, that next to wage work there is only very few time for political work. Additionally, the financial resources for the political work are missing: money for the monthly rent for the Social Centre, for printing flyers, posters, the travelling expenses to important meetings or the organization of actions and protests. Most of the spending is covered by crowdfunding campaigns or supported by other European groups that show their solidarity. Because of that, the left movement in Macedonia is mainly based on single persons that manage to be politically active besides their jobs. According to them, the number of active people, apart from NGOs, is sinking. For example, one of the few radical left groups in the Macedonian capital Skopje lost several members in the last years. With that, the few activists especially get in the focus of the police and the repression from the state. In spite of everything, they manage to maintain structures like the Social Centre Dunja in Skopje. Right now, there is crowdfunding campaign running to support this project: https://de.gofundme.com/social-center-dunja-a-call-for-support

The following text is written by Bordermonitoring Bulgaria

Bulgaria is about to deport a political refugee to Turkey

On March 1^st 2019, the Bulgarian police has detained a Turkish citizen from the Kurdish minority Mr. Ilhan Karabag, who was living in Bulgaria for 3 years. He lived in Ovcha Kupel in a camp of the State Agency for Refugees (SAR). The reason given for his arrest is a request for deportation from the Turkish state on the account of participating in a political organization which is banned in Turkey. He is not persecuted for any other crimes aside from being a member of the said banned organization.

Since the moment he was arrested Mr. Karabag is detained at the main building of the National Investigative Service with the right to receive visitations only two times per month. Until now he has attended three sessions in the Sofia City Court (SCC). On the last two of them a representative of the Turkish diplomatic mission in Bulgaria was present in the court hall. The presence of this representative is seen as a brutal attempt to put pressure on the decision of the court. On April 9^th the court has decided to deport Mr. Karabag but the decision is appealed in front of a higher court – the Sofia Court of Appeal (SAC).

The date for the next session is still to be announced. The unfortunate decision of the court means that Mr. Karabag is facing a long-term prison sentence in Turkey for being politically active and without committing an actual crime. The Initiative for Migrant Solidarity issued a statement against the deportation of Mr. Karabag: „Taking the decision for the deportation of Mr. Karabag in Turkey, the Bulgarian state is easily sending a human life into the hands of the Turkish authoritarian jurisdiction and violates the international conventions for providing refuge to the politically persecuted people.“

<https://balkaninsight.com/2016/10/18/bulgaria-denies-controversial-deportation-of-gulen-supporters-to-turkey-10-18-2016/>

In the recent years there were other instances happening, that have ended quickly with the deportation of Turkish citizens from Bulgaria to Turkey.

<https://bulgaria.bordermonitoring.eu/2016/08/15/push-backs-bulgarian-turkish-cooperation-will-lead-to-more-violation-of-human-rights/>

Bordermonitoring Bulgaria (BMB) is sharing the concern of an unfair asylum procedure, which is furthermore based on the statistics of applications and granting of protection status at first instance in the last year:

<https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/bulgaria/statistics>

Not a single person from Turkey who asked for asylum in the year of 2018, was accepted by the SAR.

On May 29th 2019 the Sofia Administrative Court will decide to accept or reject Mr. Karabag’s appeal for political asylum in Bulgaria. In the previous court session there was at least one presence of a Turkish diplomat. On May 28th 2019 the SAC will decide on his deportation. His eventual following deportation would result in his immediate incarceration, as Mr. Karabag has been sentenced in Turkey to 6 years and 3 months in jail.