by The VOICE Refugee Forum

With a strong and powerful fist raised towards the sky, we The VOICE Refugee Forum salute the bravery and courage of our fellow refugee brothers and sisters, for valiantly preventing the callous and inhuman deportation of a Togolese refugee and defending his right to human dignity.

Since the incident last Monday and the unsubstantiated Police allegation of “attack and violence” by refugees, the German mainstream and tabloid media have literally gone into overdrive to report on it. Yet, they are unable to report what the refugees are saying and experiencing. Any surprise? Not at all, because this is obviously an attempt to broaden and advance the underlying anti-refugee politics and policies of the German government, deliciously but dangerously spiced with racist motives and narratives. The press is refusing to report on the unhealthy, horrible and unbearable conditions that refugees are forced to live in, where refugees are crammed together like slaves on slave ships. They are failing to report that refugees are being deported with violence by the German authorities to countries (including Italy and others in Europe and beyond) where neither the safety of their lives nor their human dignity can be guaranteed. Is it any wonder that attempted and actual suicide by refugees are on the increase as a result of the hopelessness and lack of perspectives they are served with in this “Rechtsstaat”? Where is the press on these issues? There is a deafening silence!

…unsubstantiated Police allegation of “attack and violence” (“Several injured after huge police operation at ‘rebel’ asylum home” https://www.thelocal.de/20180503/hundreds-of-police-officers-deployed-at…)

Yes, rechtsstaat! The feckless politicians are head over heals tripping themselves on the way to see who can wear the badge of ‘the nastiest’ to the refugees. They are racing to the rotten bottom in condemnation of a legitimate resistance to oppression, violence and inhumanity in the name of rechtsstaat and hospitality that ‘must not be trampled on’. How cynical, disingenuous and hypocritical of you to even mention rechtsstaat and hospitality with your ‘lager’ mentality and how you treat refugees in those filthy camps. We are not even going into your shameless, dubious and corrupt collaboration with dictators all over Africa including Togo where this refugee fled from in the first place. You are so upright with your rechtsstaat that you reach agreements with and pay these dictators who in turn employ militias to brutalise and maim men, women and children seeking refuge from the dangerous situation that you facilitate with your economic interests. If the experience in these camps is what you define as hospitality, we heartily invite you to check into one of these camps (yes, there is still enough space for you and your family) and enjoy it. If you are too cowardly to take that offer, we ask you in very clear terms to take your hospitality and shove it!!!

The allegation of aggression, attack and violence by the police as widely reported in the media is so far, nothing more than a bogus claim as there is up till the moment of writing, no evidence to substantiate those claims. While the police managed to mis-inform and the press ran with the misinformation that the refugees injured scores of police officers – supposedly, officially the Police could only confirm that only one officer was slightly injured (see Taz, 3.5.18 “Was geschah in Ellwangen?” www.taz.de/!5500584/). Worse still is the allegation of weapons that the refugees supposedly had which also turned out to be flatly false. Unable to prove that the refugees were violent as alleged, the Police resorted to redefine and equate violence with coercion. Perhaps the Police need to be reminded of what violence is: violence is when you chained Oury Jalloh to the mattress in a police station in Dessau and burned him alive. Violence is when you forcibly pumped emetics into Laye Conde and killed him in a police station in Bremen, just as Achidi John in Hamburg. Violence is when you fatally shot Dominique Kumadio near his apartment in Dortmond just like you shot and killed Christie Schwundeck at the Job Centre in Frankfurt, and Mariamme Sarr in Ascherffenburg. Violence is when policemen raped women (who were to be deported) and filmed it, in police station in Bremen. Got it? The list goes on!!!

In our view, two things are particularly worth noting here. First, it is important to put these into some perspectives and understand that this is a carefully pre-planned and coordinated effort by the authorities to break the resistance of refugees to deportation. Moreover, it is to provide a political cover, legitimisation and justification for the unwarranted violence and brutality that the police are most likely to exert in any future deportation attempts. They have admitted this much in public and their action on Thursday confirms this. But it remains to be seen if the public will rise in support of human decency and respect of the vestiges of refugee rights in this country or they will submit to manipulation and be conned by these sinister machinations. For anyone who has been invested in any way in the pervasive and now-fading refugees welcome, it is time to shed that superficiality and get real and show some solidarity with these maligned refugees.

Second, there is nothing criminal about the desire to live a safe and secured life irrespective of how Germany and others may view it today. Millions of people migrated from Germany/Europe to seek better and secured lives in other countries and continents and so it is nothing new. Refugees are in this country exactly for this reason and “We are here because you destroy our countries”!!! So any attempt to deny us the opportunities to realise this is sure to be met with resistance. This is why refugee resistance is guaranteed to continue in Germany irrespective of the politics and policies of the German/European authorities or the number of policemen and women and their vehicles. It is in this spirit of resistance that we SALUTE the courageous action of refugees in Ellwangen.

Long Live the Resistance!!!

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deutsch

SALUT dem Flüchtlingswiderstand in Ellwangen

Mit einer starken und machtvollen zum Himmel gereckten Faust begrüßen wir, The VOICE Refugee Forum, die Tapferkeit und den Mut unserer Mitflüchtlinge, Brüder und Schwestern, weil sie beherzt die hartherzige und inhumane Abschiebung eines togoischen Flüchtlings verhindert und sein Recht auf Menschenwürde verteidigt haben.

Seit dem Vorfall letzten Montag und der substanzlosen Anschuldigung von “Angriff und Gewalt”, die von Flüchtlingen ausgegangen sein sollen, haben die deutschen Mainstream- und Boulevardmedien im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes die Automatikschaltung eingelegt, wenn sie darüber berichteten. Ja, sie sind nicht in der Lage, darüber zu berichten, was die Flüchtlinge sagen und welche Erfahrungen sie machen. Überraschung? Absolut nicht, denn dies ist offensichtlich ein Versuch, die zu Grunde liegende Anti-Flüchtlingspolitik und die Politik der deutschen Regierung delikat und gefährlich gewürzt mit rassistischen Motiven und Narrativen auf eine breitere Basis zu stellen und voranzutreiben.

Die Presse weigert sich, über die ungesunden, schrecklichen und unerträglichen Bedingungen zu berichten, unter denen Flüchtlinge zu leben gezwungen sind, wo Flüchtlinge zusammengepfercht werden wie Sklaven auf einem Sklavenschiff. Sie versäumen es, darüber zu berichten, dass Flüchtlinge von den deutschen Behörden gewaltsam in Länder (einschließlich Italien und andere europäische Staaten) abgeschoben werden, wo weder die Sicherheit ihres Lebens noch ihre Menschenwürde garantiert werden können. Ist es in irgendeiner Weise verwunderlich, dass versuchte und tatsächliche Selbstmorde von Flüchtlingen zunehmen als Resultat der Hoffnungslosigkeit und des Mangels an Perspektiven in diesem “Rechtsstaat”? Wo ist die Presse bei diesen Angelegenheiten? Hier herrscht ohrenbetäubende Stille!

Ja, Rechtsstaat! Die nutzlosen Politiker überstürzen sich dabei, um zu sehen, wer die Plakette desjenigen tragen kann, der am fiesesten gegenüber den Flüchtlingen ist. Sie führen ein Wettrennen zum verkommenen Boden der Verurteilung eines legitimen Widerstandes gegen Unterdrückung, Gewalt und Unmenschlichkeit im Namen eines “Rechtsstaates, auf dem nicht herumgetrampelt werden dürfe”. Wie zynisch, verschlagen und heuchlerisch von euch ist es, sogar von Rechtsstaat und Gastfreundschaft zu sprechen angesichts eurer Lager-Mentalität und der Art und Weise, wie ihr mit den Flüchtlingen in diesen dreckigen Lagern umgeht.

Von eurer schamlosen, zweifelhaften und korrupten Kollaboration mit Diktatoren in ganz Afrika, einschließlich Togo, von wo dieser Flüchtling geflohen ist, sprechen wir hier gar nicht an erster Stelle. Ihr seid so aufrecht mit eurem Rechtsstaat, dass ihr Abkommen mit diesen Diktatoren erreicht und sie dafür bezahlt, dass sie im Gegenzug Milizen anstellen, um Männer, Frauen und Kinder zu brutalisieren und zu verstümmeln, die Zuflucht suchen von der gefährlichen Situation, die ihr durch eure ökonomischen Interessen gefördert habt. Wenn die Situation in diesen Lagern das ist, was ihr als Gastfreundschaft definiert, dann laden wir euch herzlich ein, in eines dieser Lager einzuchecken – ja, es gibt noch genug Platz für euch und eure Familien – und euren Aufenthalt zu genießen. Falls ihr zu feige seid, dieses Angebot anzunehmen, fordern wir euch in klaren Worten auf: Nehmt eure Gastfreundschaft und steckt sie euch sonstwo hin!

Die von der Polizei erhobenen Anschuldigungen von Aggression, Angriff und Gewalt, von denen in den Medien so ausführlich berichtet wurde, sind bislang nicht mehr als eine falsche Behauptung, da es bis zu dem Moment, in dem dieser Text verfasst wurde, keinen Beleg gibt, der diese Behauptungen mit Substanz füllen würde. Während es der Polizei gelungen ist, falsch zu informieren, und die Presse davongelaufen ist mit der Falschmeldung, dass die Flüchtlinge eine große Menge von Polizeibeamten verletzt hätte, konnte die Polizei offensichtlich offiziell lediglich bestätigen, dass nur ein Beamter leicht verletzt wurde
(see TAZ, 3.5.18 “Was geschah in Ellwangen?” www.taz.de/!5500584/). Schlimmer noch ist die Anschuldigung, dass die Flüchtlinge angeblich Waffen besessen hätten, die sich ebenfalls als rundweg falsch herausstellte.

Unfähig zu beweisen, dass die Flüchtlinge, wie behauptet, Gewalt anwandten, verlegte man sich darauf, den Begriff umzudefinieren und Nötigung mit Gewalt gleichzusetzen. Vielleicht muss die Polizei daran erinnert werden, was Gewalt ist: Es war Gewalt, als ihr Oury Jalloh in einer Polizeistation in Dessau an eine Matratze angebunden habt und ihn lebendig verbranntet. Es war Gewalt, als ihr Brechmittel in Laye Conde hineingepumpt habt und ihn dadurch in einer Polizeiwache in Bremen getötet habt, genauso wie Achidi John in Hamburg. Es war Gewalt, als ihr Dominique Kumadio in der Nähe seiner Wohnung in Dortmund erschossen habt, so wie ihr auch Christie Schwundeck auf dem Jobcenter in Frankfurt durch eure Schüsse getötet habt und Mariamme Sarr in Aschaffenburg. Es war Gewalt, als Polizisten Frauen, die abgeschoben werden sollten, vergewaltigten und dabei filmten, geschehen in einer Polizeistation in Bremen. Verstanden? Die Liste geht weiter!

Unserer Meinung nach sind insbesondere zwei Dinge hier nötig erwähnt zu werden. Erstens ist es wichtig, dies in die richtige Perspektive zu rücken und zu verstehen, dass es sich hier um ein von den Behörden sorgfältig geplantes und koordiniertes Bestreben handelt, den Widerstand von Flüchtlingen gegenüber Abschiebungen und ihre Solidarität miteinander zu brechen. Darüber hinaus dient es dazu, den politischen Deckmantel, die Legitimierung und Rechtfertigung für die ungerechtfertigte Gewalt und Brutalität zu liefern, die die Polizei höchstwahrscheinlich bei jedem zukünftigen Abschiebeversuch ausüben wird. Sie haben dies häufig öffentlich zugegeben und ihre Aktion am Donnerstag bestätigt dies. Aber man muss sehen, ob die Öffentlichkeit aufstehen wird, um den menschlichen Anstand und den Respekt gegenüber den Resten der Rechte von Flüchtlingen in diesem Land zu unterstützen oder ob sie sich der Manipulation unterwirft und durch diese dunklen Machenschaften hereingelegt wird. Für jeden, der in irgendeiner Weise in das einst allgegenwärtige und nun verschwindende “Refugees Welcome” einbezogen war, ist es jetzt Zeit, diese Oberflächlichkeit abzuwerfen und echt zu werden und Solidarität mit diesen verleumdeten Flüchtlingen zu zeigen.

Zweitens liegt nichts Kriminelles in dem Wunsch, ein sicheres und geschütztes Leben zu führen, unabhängig davon wie Deutschland und andere das heute sehen mögen. Millionen von Menschen emigrierten aus Deutschland/Europa, um ein besseres und sicheres Leben in anderen Ländern und Kontinenten zu suchen, also ist dies nichts Neues. Flüchtlinge sind genau aus diesem Grund in diesem Land und: “Wir sind hier, weil ihr unsere Länder zerstört!!!” Daher wird jeder Versuch, uns die Chancen zu verweigern, dies zu verwirklichen, mit Sicherheit auf Widerstand treffen. Aus diesem Grund wird der Widerstand von Flüchtlingen in Deutschland garantiert weitergehen, unabhängig von der Politik der deutschen und europäischen Behörden und unabhängig von der Anzahl der Polizisten und Polizistinnen und ihrer Fahrzeuge. Im Geiste dieses Widerstandes begrüßen wir die mutige Aktion der Flüchtlinge in Ellwangen.

Lang lebe der Widerstand!!!
Ziviler Ungehorsam in EllwangenFür die Freiheit, gegen Abschiebung
http://taz.de/!5503329/

The VOICE Refugee Forum

The BigBrotherAward 2018 in the category “Administration” goes to “Cevisio Software und Systeme GmbH” from Torgau, Bavaria, Germany for their software “Cevisio QMM” (neighbourhood management), which was developed in cooperation with the German Red Cross especially for refugee accommodation. With this software, movements to and on the premises, food expenses, medical checks such as X-ray, blood and stool examinations, kinship, religious and national affiliations and much more are recorded and stored. The data allow total control of the refugees and clearly show on how many levels privacy can be violated.

The software is not only prize-worthy because of the possible data protection violations it may cause, but above all because of the human image behind it. Refugees are people, not things. They do not lie on a shelf for later collection and use, they are not prisoners and do not require close observation. They seek protection with us and have rights – human rights and fundamental rights that are not worth mentioning to Cevisio.

When many refugees came to Germany in 2015, the authorities were in chaos. The collection of data and the organisation of accommodation and care posed great challenges for those involved. The medium-sized company Cevisio developed the solution together with the German Red Cross Regional Association of Saxony. The company advertises its software on its homepage by using it in over 280 recording facilities. In total, “more than 380,000 refugees are already being administered.”

According to this, the Cevisio neighborhood management software collects data about all these people. An identification card with an RFID chip or barcode forms the basis for the recording. With this card, the residents move around in their accommodation and – according to the software makers’ plan – hold them in front of a reader in various places: at the entrance and exit, at the food counter, at the laundry when they receive pocket money, when renting books or video films, during medical examinations or during voluntary work.

These so-called “actions” recorded in the accommodations are managed by the software via interfaces together with the data of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees – the BAMF – and with the files of the immigration authorities. Among other things, information on existing pregnancies, related persons, medical data with “initial and follow-up examinations including findings” is recorded. We also guarantee the recording of “all documents”. The software thus enables not only the “administration” but also the (quote) “accounting of the refugees”. It allows “the recording of all data on the asylum procedure, such as EASY optimisation and BAMF data”.

That’s total control. Daily routines, habits, contacts, relatives, state of health, asylum status – all in one place. Linked and evaluable.

Some things certainly make sense, e.g. information on allergies, or whether special Ramadan food is desired. However, the Cevisio software goes much further: The functional scope brochure refers, for example, to the “recording of all meals served to one person” and “note in the case of multiple serving of a meal to one person”. What do you need it for?

Is it necessary to meticulously record and store every movement into or out of the house? Yes, says the said brochure (quote): “The integrated attendance overview always shows up-to-the-second which refugees and helpers/employees are currently in an accommodation. In addition to a pure control function, this overview is indispensable, especially in the event of a disaster (fire, etc.)”.

“Indispensable!” It seems almost strange that hundreds of thousands of schools, department stores or youth hostels still manage without such an up-to-the-second overview. Are they all irresponsible?

No, this is life. Including a certain life risk. Cevisio’s data collection, on the other hand, is a wet dream for surveillance fanatics. We see here no empathy with people who have also fled to Germany for a life in freedom.

Perhaps it is pragmatism according to the motto “nobody is interested” if the word “data protection” does not appear once in the 15-page system presentation. Technical data security precautions are concealed behind the term “administration”. I could not find any functionalities for the rights of those concerned, e.g. for the provision of information or transparency for the refugees.

There are also shortcomings in practice: In her current annual report1, the data protection officer in Bremen expresses “considerable data protection concerns”. Storage periods were far too long. It was not clear to her why every serving of food had to be checked. The storage of health data had to be massively reduced at their instigation. No options were granted to the persons concerned in the case of information on relatives. Many questions are still open today.

The Bremen data protection control referred only to a few of the institutions. There is no guarantee and no possibility of control that unlawful monitoring possibilities will be eliminated in the other 270 facilities. The legal situation is the same everywhere and could be preset in the software, e.g. with automatic deletion periods. Cevisio could provide the operators with help and information on data protection.

We ask: Does this software structure have to do with the fact that refugees are the people affected here? Safe – Refugee shelters are logistically complex systems and operators like the DRC and others can well use digital support. But how are refugees to integrate with us if they are deprived of the values of our oft-cited guiding culture, i.e. the values of our Basic Law? These values include self-determination, the right to informational self-determination.

The Cevisio software “neighbourhood management” is only one example of a patronizing, non-transparent and surveillance-hungry treatment of refugees in general. There are confidentiality agreements of the Federal Employment Agency that release everyone and everyone from confidentiality, including social welfare offices and migration advice centres. In 2016, a so-called Data Exchange Improvement Act stipulated that practically every office may inform others about refugees if it appears necessary. In order to determine the origin of refugees, the BAMF had access to the smartphones of the refugees approved, on which all communications and a lot of private information is stored.

At the same time, independent refugee consultations report that by referring to data protection, some authorities refuse them information that would be important for advice and assistance. Here data protection is being misused as a false pretext for hindering social work.

We must be particularly careful when dealing with refugee data. Both the National Socialists and the GDR regime controlled and maltreated their population with information and data collection. The governments of the countries from which people flee to us often torture their people through control, arbitrariness and use of what they know about these people. The risk of deepening existing traumas in data management à la Cevisio and the risk of our data collections falling into the wrong hands, for example from the secret services of our home country, is great. Software companies also have a responsibility to avert such dangers. We should be aware: What is practised today for refugees may already be applied to us tomorrow.

Congratulations on the BigBrotherAward 2018 in the category Administration, Cevisio.

On the topic of torture the nation of Turkey could teach some gruesome techniques to ISIS, the terrorist movement executing a savage reign across Syria and beyond (reportedly with Turkish government support).

That reality of brutality in Turkey – another problematic American ally – is a fact known all too well by Turgay Ulu, a Turkish journalist who endured a 15-year imprisonment in Turkey, where he was tortured. During Ulu’s long imprisonment, Turkish authorities justified his conviction on their claim that they had evidence against him –- evidence authorities obtained from two other victims of torture.

“I was tortured with electroshocks,” Ulu said during an interview earlier this year in Berlin, Germany where he is a leading figure in a movement for refugee rights. Ulu’s long imprisonment in Turkey led many, including Amnesty International, to consider him a political prisoner. Ulu was released from a Turkish prison in 2011 and he immediately fled to Europe.”

read the whole article here:

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/12/01/torture-and-other-abuses-makes-turkey-american-as-apple-pie/

A team of RBB journalists was present at the school while the incident took place. They filmed what happened, made interviews with the police and stated the district officials only. When refugees asked them directly to let them have their voice as well, the TV team completely refused this. One journalist of RBB directly said that she wasn’t interested at all to hear the other side of the story. Which is true, as in their  report about the incident ( which is not accessible online anymore), you can not hear even one sentence or statement from the refugee’s side. This report contained a lot of propaganda aimed to criminalize the people living in the school.

The report starts with: “Wie lange eigentlich noch?”, and continues with the statement of district that they will have no more tolerance against violence, and then informing of a violence case from a refugee against police in the school. They claim that this person injured 4 of 6 police officers, which 3 of them are hardly injured. and goes on with more claims against the refugees in the school.

4 people are talking in this report, 2 of them journalists of RBB repeating the speeches of officials and the other two are police representatives. We don’t see any refugee or any statements of affected refugees represented in this report.

Now, lets have a closer look on what has happened:

After a conflict in the morning of the 14.10.2014, over 100 police officers attacked the school where the refugees live. This was illegal, as based on the agreement with the district the police shall not enter the school. They arrested one refugee and beat him up for half an hour. Then they dragged him away in front of the residents eyes. The police claimed that in the conflict this person would have injured 4 out of the 6 police officers which had arrested him, 3 of them even would have been seriously injured.

Just think about this one claim, one person, not really tall or strong, hardly should be capable of injuring 4 trained policemen in a 1 to 6 fight! How could it be possible that one ordinary man fights 6 trained police officers and injures 4 of them. How can we even imagine this? Did the RBB journalist ever see the police officers attacking the refugee movement? How well equipped and imposing they were? We hold everyone innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial. Was there anything like it in this case, or does the media assume the accused person is a criminal because he is a refugee? Even if this person did offend the law, why should he get beaten up by armed police officers? Why do rbb journalist Kerstin Breinig have no interest in these aspects of this case?

It is just some months ago that the district signed agreement with the school’s inhabitants, stating it’s intention to turn the school into an international refugee center. But last week, against the provisions of the agreement, the district prohibited the refugees from having visitors in the school. This means turning the school into some kind of open prison, or Lager. Does rbb also care about this? And do they question how this sort of open prison could be turned into an international refugee center? Well, obviously that is not the point of interest of German media.

Propaganda is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position. Propaganda is information that is not objective and used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented.

What “Kerstin Breinig” from RBB did is propaganda. We sent our answer to the RBB asking to be published, but they didn’t do so.

Here comes the statement of the affected refugee activist about the conflict: