Category: English

#2 Stop security guard violence!

In German camps, violence and harassment by aggressive and neo-nazist securities are daily business. Their cooperation with police is regarded as unproblematic and self-evident. #Donauwörth, #Burbach, or #Berlin are just examples for the daily violence that refugees are exposed to. We remember the ensuing criminalization of victims,for example in Bamberg and Fürstenfeldbruck. We remember the struggle of refugee women against (sexualized) violence by securities. In Donauwörth the residents have pointed to the issue of daily attacks as well:
“The Malteser security personnel were so hard on our colleagues: For instance when a colleague had some misunderstanding with a security guard, before you knew it you would see the whole security personnel running from all angles of the camp towards that direction and reaching the scene, without asking any question, they would pin the refugee on the ground while others would be on the head, some on the body and some others on the leg.”

#1 Start of campaign on Rindermarkt in Munich

On Sunday, September 30th 2018, the campaign “#DW32 – Racist Violence Sparks Refugees’ Anguish” started at Munich’s Rindermarkt. A sign with the slogan “Listen to the voices of the oppressed” was affixed to the Rindermarkt fountain. In 2013, Rindermarkt has been the scene of a protest, during which refugees underlined their demands as ‘Non Citizens’ with a hunger strike, and were brutally and unlawfully evicted by police.

With this campaign, we want to make the struggles that take place in camps like Donauwörth visible to a wider public, stand in solidarity with those who are affected by repression, and reverse the accusations. Earlier this year, Donauwörth experienced a strike against 80-Cent-jobs. Prior to and during the strike, refugees continuously tried to enter in a dialogue with those who are responsible, without having success. With the visit of the minister of interior in the reception centre, the opportunity of being heard was rejected again: “We thought we will have now the possibility to tell him our point of view of the happenings. But then we heard that the minister don’t want to talk to Black people”.

Join the Solidarity-Action: 32 demands – 32 detainees of Donauwörth

14th of March 2018: Massive police violence took place in the Donauwörth reception center. 32 people were taken away by police. 29 were detained, many of them deported afterwards. [A slightly older piece about these events can be found here].
On the 7th of November, the trials will start in Augsburg. Not only Donauwörth – but also recent events in Deggendorf, Ellwangen, and  Waldkraiburg show that racist police violence and criminalisation of refugees are everywhere.
Let’s bring anti-racist demands everywhere!
Join the campaign: Print out one of the demands, show it on a public place or monument, take a picture and send it to us. Get in touch with us for more info:

solidarity.with.refugees@riseup.net  Twitter and Facebook:  @antira_muc

Chronology of the Events in the Donauwörth Reception Camp – David Jassey

David Jassey, a former member of the Gambian Integration Committee and its executive, tells about the self-organisation of the Gambian refugees in the Donauwörth asylum camp (Bavaria, Germany) and analyses the effect of the massive police attack in the the camp on 14 March 2018. The 30 Gambian refugees who were arrested in this operation still suffer from their victimisation (more information on the support campaign, see end of the text).

by David Jassey (July 2018)

Between November 2017 and March 2018 Gambians were the majority among the refugees in the Donauwörth asylum reception camp even as there were also other nationalities like Turkish, Georgians, Pakistanis and Somalians. We Gambians came to first know one another in the camp. Although we were confronted with a lot of difficulties in the camp as asylum seekers, we knew we needed to organise ourselves if we wanted to be integrated in our new German society. Continue reading “Chronology of the Events in the Donauwörth Reception Camp – David Jassey”

There is nothing to celebrate! – Protests against the opening of the Landesamtes für Asyl in Manching / Ingolstadt on 27/07/2018

Against Deportations and forced camp residence.

On the morning of Friday 27th of August, Söder and Herrmann are coming to Manching to celebrate the inauguration of the state office of asylum. We find this sickening. The CSU is hereby realising its plans to accelerate deportations and augment their powers on a state level. They are making true on their threats, motivated by racism, to take the violent deportation of people into their own hands and to make the situation of refugees even less bearable. Deportations and the right-wing election campaign of the CSU are no cause to celebrate. Continue reading “There is nothing to celebrate! – Protests against the opening of the Landesamtes für Asyl in Manching / Ingolstadt on 27/07/2018”

Freedom for the refugees in Donauwörth, Ellwangen, and everywhere! #FreeDW32!

[>> deutsch]

At least since the recent events in Ellwangen, the conditions in German deportation camps have once again been back in the public eye. But Ellwangen is not an isolated case. A series of police violence that is even more massive than usual is spreading across Bavaria. The further expansion of the competences of the state administration in May 2017, as well as the recent tightening of the PAG (Police Tasks Act) in 2017 and 2018 also mean more violence. People have always been isolated, degraded, deprived of their rights, harassed by police and injured in deportations in so-called ‘community accommodations’. Violence and raids in these camps are therefore not new. At the same time, the excesses of violence and repression are not onlyh increasing, but are even made easier in legal terms. The number of police attacks has grown precisely in the months in which the discussions about the PAG have become louder, and the AnkER centres have been on the wish list of the CDU, CSU and SPD. Continue reading “Freedom for the refugees in Donauwörth, Ellwangen, and everywhere! #FreeDW32!”

Massive police violence during a raid in Deggendorf and Hengersberg on 14/05/18: The view of the inhabitants

[>> deutsch]

Series of massive police violence: After Ellwangen and Donauwörth, two major police operations took place in Deggendorf and Hengersberg in one week. Already on Monday, 14.05.2018 police carried out a major operation in the deportation camp in Deggendorf and the reception centre in Hengersberg.

More than 200 officers combat dress and with police dogs stormed the accommodations around three o’clock in the morning. The declared aim was to intimidate the refugees in order to avoid future solidarity of the inhabitants during deportations. In addition, ten people were to be deported: A family of two children, four men, a woman seven months pregnant and her son. The 21-year-old woman was tied up, separated from her four-year-old child by force and taken into deportation custody. Another person injured themselves for fear of deportation and had to be admitted to the district hospital. Two people were not found despite the search of the entire building. Another person stopped her deportation at the last moment at the airport. Continue reading “Massive police violence during a raid in Deggendorf and Hengersberg on 14/05/18: The view of the inhabitants”

Statement on police brutality in the reception center in Donauwörth on 14th of March

[>> deutsch]

On Wednesday, 14th of March, police forces showed extreme brutality towards the inhabitants of the reception center and arrested at least 29 persons. This happened after a legitimate protest against an attempted deportation. The location of those who were arrested is still unclear. There was no violence against humans on the side of the refugees. The charges of “breach of peace” and “grievous bodily harm” are utterly unfounded and constructed and will need independent evidence.

Refugees and human rights organisations have been criticising the inhuman living conditions in the reception centre (EA) in Donauwörth for months. The minister of the interior, Herrmann, used the false accusations against refugees spread by police as a pretext to personally travel to Donauwörth on Friday to continue his electoral campaign with right wing demands such as more police and more deportations.

The refugees in the EA of Donauwörth have released a statement (see below), in which they reject the unfounded accusations against them, demand the release of the prisoners, the recognition of their asylum applications, working permits and protection from the police.

Antiracist innitiatives and human rights organisations are stating their solidarity with those involved and with their demands. In addition to this, these groups demand the dismissal of the social workers who have violated their mandate towards the refugees in the EA.

Continue reading “Statement on police brutality in the reception center in Donauwörth on 14th of March”

From the perspective of the residents

[>> deutsch]

Below, you see a medical certificate and a video statement concerning the events of the 14th of March 2018 in Donauwörth. To protect the identity of those concerned, the voices are distorted and the faces are covered.

Anamnesis:

The patient originates from Gambia and is residing in asylum seeker housing. For reasons unknown to him, police suddenly appeared there, while he was merely wanting to leave the building. During the police procedure, he says the police suddenly drew out pepper spray which they sprayed in his eyes, causing him to feel faint and hindering his breathing. The patient is visibly intimidated and is shaking all over.

Diagnosis:

Hyperventilation after police procedure using pepper spray

Stinging eyes and throat after use of pepper spray

Dizziness eases gradually

Therapies:

The patient was innitially intimidated and hyperventilating but without any pathology. The dizziness, as well as the stinging in throat and eyes ceased of its own accord. The patient was discharged to your care in improved condition.

Attempts to eliminate the protests in Donauwörth

[>> deutsch]

In the early hours of the morning on 14th of March 2018 a deportation was successfully prevented in the reception center in Donauwörth. That afternoon however, a large police operation took place. 29 people were arrested and taken into custody overnight. One person is currently on remand. Several, according to current information, are in deportation custody. One person was released an hour ago and reported that his finger prints, photoghraphs and DNA samples were taken. The accusation is of breach of peace. This is a charge that serves the criminalisation of uprisings as well as inducing forced transfers, which aim to destroy the 500 person strong protests in Donauwörth.

The same strategie of arrest was also used in the summer of 2017, when the residents of the camp in Memmingen revolted against the conditions in the camp as well as against the racist security personell. 4 people were imprisoned on charges of breach of peace, 2 of whom have still not been released.

Herrmann, the minister of the interior made a statement on the prevented deportation in Donauwörth. He construes the protests as violent excesses. In fact the residents of the reception center showed civil courage by preventing the deportation of their friend through their presence. In doing so they were threatened with dogs, subjected to pepper spray and suffered other forms of physical violence on the part of the passively and actively armed police. As there was no faulty conduct on the part of the activists, the procecution is now construing the charge of breach of peace.

Video: Police at EA, 14.03

Video: Festnahme

More backgroundinformation: hier