During this time, numerous convoys from Germany start to show practical solidarity on the so-called Balkan route. In catastrophic conditions, they assist people on the move, through the supply of a warm meals. The developing dynamics lead to discussions, whether this is humanitarian aid, political activism or something else. State structures benefit from the work of these people. They are now busy in reestablishing the lost control. For this, trains and buses are chartered to bring people to where they want to go. In 2017, only detention prisons and border fencing remain.

Röszke has disappeared from the media long time ago. It has become quiet in this small border village. A deceptive idyll, which only exists because Hungary has completely closed off its borders. 19 months after the refugee protests, a demonstration passes through Röszke. The participants shout: “Nem kell a kerités, szabadság!” (“We don’t need fences, freedom!”) and “Vesszen a fasizmus!” (“Down with fascism!”). They are directed at the Hungarian fascist system, which has closed all open camps, and is holding asylum seekers in a container prisons near the border. Even though much less people manage to pass through, the closing of the borders can never stop the movement of people. According to Médecins Sans Frontièrs, many people are severely wounded, many have their bones broken, in the attempts to cross. Refugees in Serbia report brutal pushbacks by the Hungarian police, which are legal at up to 8km distance from the border.

Pictures in Belgrade in April 2017 are reminiscent of pictures from the year 2015. Many people on the Balkan route are stuck there, because the surrounding states isolate themselves with powerful means. About one thousand people live in former warehouses near the railway station in Belgrade. Under a parking deck, minors sleep in tents. Several activist and humanitarian organizations are also on the ground. English courses and a sports facility are self-organized. Demonstrations and information events are being held. The most common languages spoken are Pashtu, Urdu, Farsi, English, German and Spanish. In the barracks, as the warehouses are rightly called, there is a charging station for smart-phones and improvised sanitary facilities. On the walls, signs in different colors are written: “The problem is borders” and “I am a person too”. In addition to these statements you can also read: “We need shoes”. Neither the ruins of old warehouses nor the personal equipment available are sufficient to protect people from cold and wet weather. Not only do people drown in the Mediterranean daily, but also people in the metropolis of Belgrade are dying as a consequence of the EU border regime. Even the two hot meals a day are organized by non-governmental kitchens.

At the beginning of May, the No Name Kitchen alerted via Facebook: “WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT SERBIA.” The Commissioner for Migration and Refugees Serbia has announced the evacuation of the barracks. The people are to be accommodated in the official camps and forced to apply for asylum in Serbia. “The camp system in Serbia is an extended way of doing business in a fast way, is copy-pasted from other EU countries,” says the No Border Serbia collective. According to the state, camps should provide shelter and supply for refugees. In fact, they represent a further restriction of freedom for those who live in it. On the 11th of May, the evacuation starts in the early morning hours. Employees of the Commissariat for Migration and Refugees already sprayed insecticides in the halls the day before. Resistance is rising among the people living there, some of them starting a hunger strike.

Despite the protests, most of them are finally forced to get on buses. If people do not enter voluntarily, they are threatened with being deported to the closed camp in Preševo. Protest is also rising by supporting groups. The rooms of the No Name Kitchen were the first to be demolished. In the evening they write their struggle goes on, because they did not just come for cooking.

Behind the evacuation stands the large project Belgrade Waterfront of the Eagle Hills Company. New luxury buildings are planned, they would cover two million square miter of this urban area. What is described as an innovative “facelift” for the city on their website is a source of indignation. More than 200 tenants have already been deprived of their living space. Protests after the election of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić as the President of the Republic raised the topic of difficult living conditions in Serbia. Many people live extremely precariously, the average income is 350 euros a month, the youth unemployment at 44% and the social welfare system works only rudimentarily.

“Many people are fleeing from here because they have no other chance,” reports an activist. This makes it clear how difficult political activism is if one’s own existence is not adequately secured. The German government ignores this situation and in recent years has massively deported people back to the Balkan states, including some who left decades ago, or have never even lived there. This symbolizes the political pre-eminence of the German government. It has the freedom to decide on exacerbating asylum laws in the interior and relocating the devastating effects to the external borders.

The article is written by a feminist collective whose individuals are active in different anti-racist contexts. The question of how effective political activism is to be organized remains open. The decision to participate in the demonstration in Röszke and the visit to Belgrade came through existing contacts on one hand. On the other hand, it was still important to visualize the current situation on the Balkan route, as a continuation of the solidarity actions of 2015. We want to continue the discussion about (joint) political work with local activists. For this purpose, is scheduled to invite them to Germany to in September 2017.

Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg – Aula
Bernkasteler Str. 78, 13088 Berlin-Pankow

*********English & العربية انظر للاسفل below**********************************

Die Fachtagung Transforming Willkommenskultur: Refugees‘ Standpoints on Solidarity, Activims and Representation
möchte die Perspektive von Migrant*innen und Geflüchteten in den Fokus nehmen. Im Gegensatz zu gegenwärtigen öffentlichen Debatten, in denen hauptsächlich für und über Refugees gesprochen wird, werden hier Geflüchtete mit allen daran interessierten Personen ins Gespräch kommen. Aus diesem Grund haben wir diese Tagung gemeinsam mit geflüchteten Aktivist*innen entwickelt und konzipiert. Mit der Tagung zielen wir hauptsächlich darauf, den Austausch und die Vernetzung zwischen verschiedenen Gruppen von Migrant*innen, Geflüchteten und lokalen Willkommensinitiativen zu fördern und zu stärken. Wir möchten gemeinsam Strategien zur Verbesserung unserer Lebensqualität, sowie zur Kritik an der aktuellen europäischen Migrationspolitik konzipieren. In einer Podiumsdiskussion und in Arbeitsgruppen zu verschiedenen Themenbereichen wie Selbstorganisation, Kunst und Kultur als politisches Mittel, Frauen*spezifische Forderungen, sowie EU-Asylpolitik und Menschenrechte werden wir gemeinsam politische Forderungen und Handlungsmöglichkeiten entwickeln. Die leitenden Fragen der Konferenz sind:

– Welche Handlungsperspektiven und politischen Strategien können wir entwickeln, um den Standpunkt von Geflüchteten /Migranten in der Politik zu stärken?
– Welche sind unsere minimalen politischen Forderungen?
– In welcher Beziehung stehen Solidarität, Vernetzung und soziale wie politische Partizipation zueinander?
– Wie gelingt Solidarität und Vernetzung innerhalb verschiedener Teile der – lokalen wie globalen –Bevölkerung im Rahmen von transnationalen Migrations-und Fluchtbewegungen?
Sprachen (Podiumsdiskussion): deutsch, englisch
Sprachen (Arbeitsgruppe): Deutsch, Englisch, Farsi, Arabisch, Französisch

Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, bitte meldet euch per E-Mail an: trixiewiz@gmail.de

Das komplette Programm werden wir demnächst hochladen.

Transforming Willkommenskultur
Refugees’ Standpoints on Solidarity, Activisms and Representation

On December, 02 2016 from 10.00a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg – Aula
Bernkasteler Str. 78, 13088 Berlin-Pankow

The conference Transforming Willkommenskultur –Refugees’ Standpoints on Solidarity , Activism and Representation wants to focus on the perspectives of migrants and refugees. In opposition to contemporary debates, in which refugees are mostly talked about and spoken for, we want to let Refugees shape the debate and talk with persons attending the conference. For this reason, we developed and conceptualized this conference together with activist refugees. The aim of this conference is to strengthen the dialogue and the networks between different groups of migrants, refugees and local support-initiatives. Together we want to develop strategies to improve our quality of life as well as concrete political demands and critiques of the current European migration policy. We are going to discuss different topics like self-organization, art and culture as political spaces, EU-migration-politics and human rights as well as female* perspectives on migration in Workshops and a panel discussion and derive specific political demands.
The leading questions of this conference are:

– Which political strategies are viable in order to strengthen the representation of refugees and migrants in politics?
– Which concrete demands can we agree on?
– What is the relationship between solidarity, political networks and social as well as political participation?
– How can we strengthen solidarity and cooperation between different groups – in the context of transnational movements of migration?
Languages (Panel-discussion): German, English
Languages (Workshops): German, English, Farsi, Arabic, French

The conference is for free, please register for participation: trixiewiz@gmail.de

We will update the complete program soon.

تحويل ثقافة الترحيب
وجهات نظر اللاجئين عن التضامن،والنشاط السياسي ومن يمثلهم
في 02.12.2016 من الساعة 10 الي 3:30

Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg – Aula
Bernkasteler Str. 78, 13088 Berlin-Pankow

الندوة تحويل ثقافة الترحيب ستركز علي وجهاات نظر المهاجرين و على عكس
المناقشات العامة الحالية، التي تتحدث في المقام الاول عن اللاجئين من دونهم ، وهنا
.سيكون ايضا الحوار مع جميع المعنيين والمهتمين
لهذا السبب سيقام هذا الجتماع الذي تم التحضير له بالعمل جنبا إلى جنب مع نشطاء
اللاجئين، ونحن تهدف أساسا إلى تعزيز التبادل والتواصل بين مجموعات مختلفة من
المهاجرين والمبادرات الترحيبية المحلية نحن نريد ان نضع معا استراتيجيات لتحسين
نوعية حياتنا، وعلى انتقاد سياسة الهجرة الاوروبية الحالية. في حلقة نقاش ومجموعات
عمل حول مواضيع مختلفة مثل التنظيم الذاتي والفن والثقافة كأداة سياسية وحقوق
النساء *، وسياسة اللجوء في الاتحاد الاوروبي وحقوق الانسان، سنضع معا مطالب
محددة
الاسئلة المركزية للمؤتمر هي :
ما مسارات العمل والسياسات التي بإمكاننا تطويرها لتعزيز موقف المهاجرين في
السياسة
ماهو الحد الادني لمطالبنا السياسية
ما هي العلقة بين كل انواع التضامن، والتواصل والمشاركة الاجتماعية والسياسية؟
مدى نجاح التضامن والتواصل بين أجزاء مختلفة من – المحلية والعالمية _الوطنية -في
سياق حركات الهجرة واللاجئين عبر الحدود؟
لغات (حلقة نقاش): اللالمانية، النجليزية
لغات ( ورش العمل): ألماني، إنجليزي، الفارسية، العربية، الفرنسية
المشاركة مجانية، يرجى التسجيل عن طريق البريد اللكتروني
: trixiewiz@gmail.de
.البرنامج الكامل سوف يتم نشره قريبا

The Refugee Club Impulse is happy to announce our new project – the Carnival Al-Ladji’in!

On the 20th of march, we will bring our political demands on the streets, to fight for our rights! We want to show our culture and we want to show the people who we really are- trough an artistic and carnevalesque way!

To prepare this carnival, the club ladji’in will meet once a month in the JTB- Wiclefstraße 32. You’re all welcome and invited to share your ideas, suggestions and skills with us!

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