Short article about the demonstration against the re-opening of the Büren deportation-prison on May 30.
In May the red / green NRW state government has re-opened the largest german deportation-jail in Büren again. It had to be closed for a while, after Germany was judged to change its practice of detention of refugees by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the summer of 2014. Among other things, it was no longer allowed to imprison refugees and so called “normal” prisoners togehter. NRW reacts on this by using the «JVA Büren» only for the detention of refugees in the future.
Other “improvements” and changes in the detention practices remain cosmetically, although the very engaged Büren-Initiative, which campaigns for years for imprisoned refugees, reported some “relief” in their speech at the rally infront oft the prison: In future, all detainees are housed singly, they can move «freely» within the prison buildings during daytime and internal “disciplinary measures” are supposed to be abolished – but the prison director has yet disagreed. So its not clear, how long the abolition of “disciplinary measures” will take and whether it takes place at all. Also, whether the terrible gratings at the windows are broken down, is not yet clear.
Above all, the “reforms” in Büren seem to be an act of linguistic corrections that shall conceal the imprisonment of refugees in an Orwellian sense. But all linguistic repairs – cells are no longer called “cells” and “custody pending deportation” now is called “accommodation for people who have to leave the country», can’t cover the monstrosity of the prison buildings. The «High Security» bunker built of beton, which suddenly emerges in the forest of Büren when visitors and new detainees arrive, does what it was designed for: it scares and intimidates.
Whether “JVA” or “Unterbringungsgewahrsam»: Prisons are monstrous and must be abolished, especially for people who fled their countries – best before their opening or re-commissioning. This truth hasn’t changed since the successful bomb attack of the “Weiterstadt-prison”- building site in 1993.
Unfortunately, only 150 people participated in the demonstration in Büren and the rally in front of the prison. The dedicated people in Herford, Paderborn or Büren and of course the detainees in Büren should have deserved more support. Given the considerably more people who are currently willing to protest against the EU-shield policy and Frontex, the disappointing number of protesters was a little surprising. Because the people who are in charge of the detention of refugees in Büren are not “far away”, in Brussels, Strasbourg or Warsaw, but they are working nearby in Düsseldorf.
So the demonstration in the Paderborn-region was a meeting of various anti-racist initiatives and refugee-activists, who mostly could share their often impressive portrayals of German and European conditions of living for refugees only with the escorting and sometimes unpleasant acting police, because there were no real audience. Among the participants were many refugees, which was very nice. Their solidarity with other fled people is a major motivation to intensify our own support for the demands of the refugees.
The spontaneous speech of a w2wtal-activist in front of the prison should be understood this way. Especially aimed at the present activists, it was a demand to leave the appelative level and to build own concrete resistance groups everywhere. In the face of the persistence of Fortress Europe and the inhumane German refugee policy we have to really help those under threat. If more people than before are threatened with imprisonment and/or deportation by the re-tightened Asylum law in future, structures will be needed which could hide people, bring them safely from A to B, or supply medical aid to people without papers. It is time that those “with papers” think about their own willingness to take risks – something that many stakeholders of the growing refugee-resistance did for a long time.
In this sense, although the prison in Büren indeed might be opened again, we hope, we will be strong enough to make it a notorious insufficiently occupied jail in future.
