On May 18 the deportation jail in Büren opens again. From this day on refugees again will be locked in the «JVA Büren».
In July 2014 the «JVA Büren» had to close its doors for people being held on remand pending deportation. The European Court and the Federal Court reviewed the conditions for detainees in Büren and judged them as unacceptable – partly because refugees in Büren were imprisoned in a special security prison under the same conditions as «normal» prisoners. That’s against the law. Some of the refugees then were transferred from Büren to Berlin, others were set free.
Instead of abolishing the detention of all refugees, the Interior Ministry in NRW and its interior-minister Jäger (SPD) took every effort to reinstall the imprisonment again. In April 2015, the NRW-Landtag decided a new detention enforcement law with no significant changes to the old one. The new law is largely similar to the previous regulations and it explicitly refers to the »Strafvollzugsgesetz», which rules circumstances of detention für criminals. In other words: Nothing really changed and refugees will still be treated as prisoners.
For financial reasons, even necessary reconstructions of the «JVA Büren» weren’t made, such as removing the small grille of windows. As in the past, telephone conversations can only be made at inflated fees to card phones and as before there will be only a much censored and monitored internet access.
With the reopening of «JVA Büren» politicians of SPD and the Greens‘ fulfill the wishes of the «Ausländerbehörde» to imprison more and more refugees. Since the closing of «JVA Büren» in July 2014, which was enforced by the ECJ ruling, formerly imprisoned people had to be transferred to the Berlin detention centers. This led to long journeys and rising costs. Therefore the authorities resorted to less stringent conditions such as reporting requirements. This «milder» conditions now will end with the re-opening of Germanys biggest jail for refugees. The number of imprisoned refugees is expected to rise by 400 to 500 percent.
So, the forthcoming protests are not just against an inadequate law and against „inhuman conditions of detention». There will be protests against helding anyone on remand pending deportation at all! Refugees should not be locked up! Imprisonment of refugees must be abolished immediately!
A huge demonstration against the re-opening of the jail in Büren will take place on on saturday, may 30 in Büren, which starts at midday. If people are interested in participating side by side with us in the protest, we will try to organize a joint travel from Wuppertal to Büren.
More information: buerendemo.blogsport.de