”At the border Croatia-Slovenia (Dobova) refugees are separated by country of origin and sent back!”

”Before even arriving in Slovenia, people are given documents to sign. The documents are not translated so people do not know what they are signing. When they arrive to Slovenia, people are then segregated according to these documents. Some are allowed to pass, while others are sent back to Croatia by train. Currently, people from Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq are being sent back.

In Dobova, there are international, self-organized volunteers who set up a tent behind the train station. People who want to help can come there. Help will be very much needed from Saturday (21.11.2015) onwards, because the international team is leaving on that day.”

IMPORTANT: However it is to say that it is not ment that all people from Africa, Afganistan and Iraq are being sent back! According to the Slovenian national media (source: http://www.rtvslo.si/svet/drzave-na-balkanski-poti-ustavile-prehod-ekonomskih-migrantov/379011) the Balkan countries, for now starting with Serbia (comming through Macedonia) are not letting anymore through people from Morocco, Bangladesh, Sri lanka, Algeria, Liberia, Congo, Sudan and Pakistan, as they are starting to be considered as economic migrants.

According to the media people from Syria, Iraq and Afganistan are let through!

However this is not clear, as for now Slovenian general secretary Boštjan Šefic is denying this, but people should prepare that this will most probably become the reality.

Moving to the northern border in Slovenia (bordercrossing Spielfeld/Šentilj (Slovenia-Austria). Information and video (15.11.2015):

“After the official statements that all is under control and volunteers are not needed, self-organized volunteers went to no man’s land. People are still waiting days and hours, no food, no water, no medical help, police uses violence and people are sleeping on cold wet floors waiting to be accepted into Austria.”

[wpvideo bNr9eObK]

Additional older information (12.11.2015) from Preševo (border Macedonia-Serbia):

“The situation is a catastrophe: fences build big cage-like areas in which the “crowd” that “needs to be controlled” stands squeezed for hours, pregnant women and kids within them, without being able to move or to go to the toilet, with no water or food. People who faint in the cages are somehow transported next to the fences by the crowd and hauled out by supporters. Again: no doctors present, it’s supporters providing first aid. The people in the first line are pressed against the fences. To have less pressure lots of them throw their bags over the fence. When the police then opens the fences, people who have been waiting for hours sprint forward. Lots of them fall over the luggage and are run over by the people from the back, pressing to get forward. Families are separated in a brutal way, which increases the panic as nobody tells them they can reunite after the registration. Sometimes the fences give in and the people burst out. Police then hits whoever is in front with truncheons. We observed how the Police tried to control the situation by forcing people (beating and threatening with tasers) to sit down. They could than only “go” out of the cage one by one, moving forward on their knees. Everybody who tried to stand up was beaten, even persons with children on their back.”

And more recent for the volunteers (18.11.2015) from the same bordercrossing:

“I would follow up however that the camp has just been reorganized, and in this new schema most international volunteers will not be really able to assist beyond moderate food/tea distribution. Any potential volunteers, PLEASE before packing up in your car consult the local volunteer coordinator as there is VERY limited hotel space and police do not trust most international volunteers who are not under the protection of the local entity.”

However we should not forget that even though the humanitarian aid is really important to contribute to peoples well being at the borders, especially as self-organized activists are reporting that official NGO’s are not doing their job well enough and sometimes at all, but in order to fight the discriminatory developing EU’s immigration and asylum system, neo-colonialism, whether economic or racist, and capitalism we have to develop political forms at the borders, internal and external, that provide accessibilities and wellbeing for all.

(Cover photo by BoBo.)

In the last week(s) there has been an establishment of the ‘official corridor’ through the so called Balkan route. This intergovernmental agreement’s aim is to control the flow of people who are fleeing for a better life in Europe. Even though it may sound as an improvement, for the better fluctuation of people, it is one of the steps of the development of the common European Union’s immigration system. The institutionalization of the corridor, which was before established by the constructive forces of incomming people and self-organized activists through the mutual struggle, means new forms of exclusive inclusion to the territory of the EU.

The aim of the so called official corridor is, as mentioned in the previous article, to let a certain number of people to the next country, where usually full EU member states (as Austria and Slovenia) hold a privileged position. This of course doesn’t always work as the number of people and their struggle to reach the desired destination is not manageble by such system. The reason for its establishment is always the discourse of security and liberal humanitarism of the EU and seperate member states. Political functionaries as well as repressive organs are saying, that if we don’t manage the flows well, it could come to the chaos and collapse of the EU. The only chaos in this case is the creative chaos of the incoming people who produce fear for the privileged economical and political castes that are responsible for the suffering of the wide majority of the worlds population.

Austria has put barbed wire around Šentilj/Spielfeld border (source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/austrian-police-barbed-wire-border-chancellor) for what it states ”in the name of the security of its population and incoming people (migrants, refugees etc. if you wish)”. Yesterday came also an unofficial report by the Slovenian national television that Slovenia already bought 125 km of fence (which costed 1,5 million Eurs altogether) (source: http://www.rtvslo.si/begunska-kriza/prvi-kilometri-ograje-naj-bi-ze-bili-v-drzavi/377908), but its government hasitates to give more information. Its army is already at the borders with full armed gear, helping logistically with the police, but until now changes for the Slovenias Defense law – that would enable the army to use the authorities of the police – are still not enacted (for more read: https://www.oplatz.net/2015/10/28/reestablishing-state-of-exception-in-the-eu-and-a-call-for-international-meeting-manifestation-and-solidarity-action-in-slovenia/).

Such countries fear that if the next country of destination would close it’s borders, it would develop ‘pockets’ in their countries. This means that incoming people would be stranded in their countries. This of course doesn’t stop in Slovenia or Austria, but goes all way back to Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia etc. A. Merkel and other EU’s technocrats on the privileged positions are hoping for a deal with Turkey to surpress and ‘filter’ the flow of people – as mentioned, to let selectively through a certain amount of people, whether to humanitarian background or economical interest, where we presume that the letter play the most important role. Merkel is also warning for the ‘potential wars‘ that could erupt at the Balkans if the upcoming countries close their borders, but one cannot fail to see the hypocrisy here. If we translate her words and recent EU policies in concrete material grounds this actually means that: ”we want a stable workforce, since the demographic downfall in the recent years in the Western European countries is producing financial deficits, and we don’t want wars in our proximity, whether on the EU’s territory or within potential member states in the Balkans. This is the hypocrisy of the humanitarian and ‘open handed’ approach by such politicians.

In the end of the post it is important to move to the happening at some borders.

At Preševo and Opatovac, according to activist from the Open Borders Caravan few days ago (2.11.2015):

‘#BERKASOVO / #BAPSKA / #OPATOVAC / #TOVARNIK – Exhausted volunteers are seeking help as temperatures are dropping below zero, and thousands of new refugees are arriving every day. They also need food, clothes, blankets, basically everything. If you have a way of bringing help across the border, please go to #Berkasovo, where lots of people are arriving on foot, without good clothes fot this cold weather. If not, bring it to #Bapska or #Opatovac.’

This is old information, so everyone planing to go there please contact self-organized groups who are on the field, to find out what is needed. The idea of this outdated quote is to inform people, that help is still needed.

What is needed here is a few words about the relation between self-organized volunteers/activists and ‘official’ volunteers (working under the umbrella of the NGO – such as Red Cross etc.). There were tensions at the Slovenian borders, since both groups started to blame eachother about what should be done and what the other is doing wrong. With the establishment of the ‘official’ corridor, self-organized volunteers/activists, who see the whole ‘refugee crisis’ as a issue of European discriminative politics – whether border, migration, neocolonial, capitalist to name the few, are prevented (or it least it is really difficult) to destribute different kinds of aid. We should not forget that in the past weeks it was them on the ‘Balkan route’ struggling along and supporting the incoming people to demand better treatment of the latter, not the official NGO’s who were waiting for the permission of their supperiors to allow them to do something, while people were freezing outside.

This is most visible at the ‘no-mans land‘ at Spielfeld/Šentilj Slovenian-Austrian border, where the legal framework is the most uncertain. Because of this people are trapped between borders, where they are denied of any aid, whether clothing, blankets, food or tea. Mostly only the self-organized volunteers/activist are handing such aid through the fence to people, where different stories are comming from them about the NGO’s. The latter are preventing them to do this, even though, what is proved by the activists at the borders, the NGO’s have alot of humanitarian aid at their warehouses which is not being destributed. NGO representatives are saying that it has to be equally distributed, otherwise it is a danger people will fight each other for food and blankets. The aim here is not to discredit the NGO’s, as they helped and are helping with the humanitarian aid, but to produce a call for them, that there are alot of holes everywhere that they don’t see or deliberately ignore. The other important thing is not to view the incoming people as somekind of barbarians that would fight for bits of food if it is unequally distributed. Precisely such discourse shows the latent xenophobia within the liberal humanitarian discourse.

The incoming people are far from that, as they have, along with the volunteers and activist, showed huge mutual solidarites and power to change and destroy the borders. Yes, there are individual or groups conflicts, but there will be more if people will be put in the concentration camp- or. lager-like conditions. We must not help the states and its repressive organs to manage the so called official corridors which are dehumanizing people to non-beings, but demand open borders for everyone so we can start to build a common Europe and world for everyone.

Useful thing for the incomming people:

http://www.refugeecompass.com/making-the-journey.html

Carterro (http://www.carterro.com/) is an app to assist with making the long journey.  It uses map based data and experiences of other refugees travels along the route.  Please note that detail in Carterro is for the Middle East only.

Updates on the Balkan route: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zJggLarUzmHE.kdSUXTxZDCm4

All information will be first-hand and forwarded from the groups of activists and volunteers (from sites such as Anti-Racist Front Without Borders from Slovenia, Open Borders Caravan that are located on the borders. The aim of the Border monitoring is not only to report on happening on mentioned borders and to give coordinates for the humanitarian aid, but also to make the recent flow of people (what the EU, its member states and mainstream media calls ‘refugee crisis’) a politically relevant question which adresses the discriminatory and xenophobic imigration and asylum policies within the EU, as well as its connection with the neoliberal developments. Open borders for all!

First post will outline the thoughts by some activists from the Anti-Racist Front Without Borders (Slovenia), who were in the past month present at the Slovenian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Hungarian borders.

Dramaturgy of safe corridor through the Balkans

At the moment borders and other points on the refugee route through the Balkans offer a quite different sight than the one from not a long time ago. Blocked borders, self-organized refugee camps at the train stations and around border crossings and occasional police violence gave way to the non-declared corridor of safe passage and for some time now reports about police violence remain practically absent. True, Hungarian governement due to the perceived needs of its domestic audience is still staging a show “heavily armed guardian od the Schengen border” and yet it is itself fully cooperating with the police forces of neighbouring countries in organising the transfer of thousands of people through the country. After initial disagreements between various Balkans’ states, non-coordinated responses and a certain degree of improvization – the latter was characteristic for Slovenia – European Union has by now managed to establish a unified and controled regime of management of people at practically the whole territory of the Balkans.

 From afar, but also from up close, it seems at the moment that the agenda of refugees in fact overlaps with the agenda of the states that they are travelling through and of their police forces: people want to go to Europe which the respective states now do not only accept – they actively organize their journey through the Balkans. And yet this conclusion makes sense only if we focus exclusively on the fact that people indeed do move in an organized manner from point A to point B. But when the experience of refugees’ journey is taken into account in all its modalities it aquires a distinctly sinister character.

 An ever present theme in the reports of activists that are present on the ground on the borders and in centres in Macedonia, through Serbia, Croatia and Hungary is a very sophisticated dramaturgy and scenography of the refugee journey through the Balkans: always there is a need to hurry; often the travelling is by night; there are never enough beds, never enough toilets; uncertainty reigns as there are never clear guarantees or information about whether the buses will be there or not; there is no opportunity to rest, think, share, talk; police lights pierce the sky and forests; all the rain and mud; mouldy bread; ban on warm food; power generators and warm beds for the police, damp covers for the rest; riot police uniforms reflections in the night; hurried night marches across the bridges and through the forests; barbed wire. All these images and body moves and affects fuel the continuous sensation of an assembly line. People do move to their desired destination and yet the possibility to really influence the dynamics of their journey is taken away from them. This dehumanization is complemented by the perverse command of thankfulness which the refugees are obliged to feel in relation to the bureaucrats that are masterminding a regime of their hierarchical inclusion in our communities.

 Enough has been said about the deeply problematic role of humanitarian organizations on the ground that in many locations have hardly been doing much more besides just being there. Throughout the Balkans the important humanitarian efforts are being organized by self-organized volunteers from all corners of Europe. But what more could be the role of the activists, that is to say of those that find themselves in this situation not as refugees but as all those other people that are striken by processes of capitalist devastaton in a very personal way and are dedicated to practically organise solidarity wih our new neighours and colleagues?

 How can we prevent that the journey of refugees to Europe would end in their separation from the society and in imposed weakness that comes with it? How can a journey of refugees to Europe end up increasing thepower of the refugees themselves and of all of us that are their supporters and not in further boosting of the power of border agencies and population management bureaucracy? This is a challenge that many people from open borders caravans , volunteers at the borders and elsewhere are faced with today.

 As we reflect on the already relatively consolidated situation across the Balkans we can already recognize the contours of a new regime that will be unveiled in its fullness at the moment when now open borders will be shut down. Then we wil be left with increasingly militarized outside border of European union and a consolidation of some form of buffer-zone in the territories of Serbia, Macedonia and maybe Croatia, Hungary and – why not – Slovenia. And with tens of thousands of “stranded foreigners” within this zone. Thus a new phase of crisis of Europe will be inaugurated that will further fertilize already fertile ground for the spread of ideas of hate and agression.

 This is why it is a task of an utmost importance to construct naratives that will enable us, the precarious, unemployed, poor, youth without future, potential emigrants, us that are on so many different levels ourselves already targets of terror of capitalist devastation, to build together with the refugees the political, discursive and physical spaces of resistance against the same terror. Together. Brake down the borders, build the power.

(source: http://komunal.org/teksti/271-zlovesca-dramaturgija-balkanske-poti)

Preševo (Macedonian-Serbian border) this Saturday (10.10.2015) updated (18.10.2015)

Article about happening at Preševo – http://gauge-mag.com/reports/presevo-this-shouldnt-be-our-job/#jp-carousel-675

Useful Links:

Refugee Help Map (Border monitoring, where the help is most needed. Useful information: activists are the most needed during weekdays) – https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zddfRUtGScOc.kQBgTQcoV5FM&hl=en_US