All Refugees are Welcome: Public meeting, rally, October 15, Wuppertal, 5 p.m., von der Heydt-Square, Elberfeld
Stop tightening of the asylum law!
Looking for solutions with us – not against us!
On Thursday, October 15, another tightening of the German asylum law is to be adopted by the Bundestag, only one day later it shall pass the Federal Council and since November 1, the new law should be already applied. The law, which is adopted in great haste and which was presented by the Minister of the Interior in the middle of the short „summer of welcome“, represents the worst dismantling of the right of asylum in Germany since 1993. With this judgment we are not alone. While hardliners as de Maizière or Seehofer are proud of their coup, human rights organizations like Pro Asyl, the Refugee Councils as well as bourgeois commentators as Heribert Prantl in the «Süddeutsche Zeitung» or the «taz» critize the so-called «Asylum Acceleration Act» very sharp.
It is called a misanthropic law, which is in many parts not only against the people who ask for asylum, it is also considered at many points as impractical and counterproductive for the given targets. In example, the lenghtening of stay in the camps is not only against human standards, it also will lead to an increase in the problems which rise with the duration of the residence in camps. Also, the proposed deletion of the puny «pocket money» (currently 143 Euros / month) which shall be replaced by benefits in kind, will lead to further strains within the already congested structures in reception centers.
Particularly we criticize the dividing of refugees in «good and useful» refugees and «bad» ones who are allegedly entered Germany «without real reasons for flight», which will be part of the law now. The definition of more countries as «safe countries of origin» – i.e. Kosovo – where supposedly no reasons for flight exist, is a double scandal: They are not only creating an increasingly area of purely arbitrary «safe» regions, once again they aim at one of the worst discriminated European populations – the Roma people. Instead of taking the historical responsibility finally, which is a result of a systematically persecution of a minority in Nazi Germany, the federal government reflects on its methods.
Selection, Internment and Deportation become a law again and the intended internation-camps for so-called «asylum seekers without a perspective to stay», in which people must stay until their deportation, are becoming the new «welcome places»: without any legal perspective, without any possibility to work and even without schooling for children. The stakeholders themselves reject this «two-class society» for refugees. That was precisely made clear in a statement on the tightening of the asylum law, which was published some days ago by some refugees who live in Wuppertal. The thought that support should only be possible at the expense of others appears unbearable to many.
Genuine «welcome-culture» is:
Undermining the new law!
The Green-Party, which co-rules some states including NRW, could stop the new law at the «Bundesrat» (the Federal Council) once again on Friday if they would reflect on their founding ideals. But – as always – that won’t happen. The large number of solidary people, who only gave the phrase of a «welcome-culture» a mostly self-organized substance during the last weeks, will not find partners inside politics. Currently everything suggests that the policy of isolation, deterrence and repression brings more and more new atrocities; probably the currently discussed «transit-zones» at the external borders, which will be mass-camps for thousands, are only a beginning.
All attempts to reduce the number of people migrating out of necessity and mortal danger by harassment, fences or gunboats have proven as unfit not only in the past, they also will be hopeless tries in the future. But parts of the policy are not willing to accept their defeat against the so-called «autonomy of the migration movement». Their reaction to methodical failures is not rethinking the situation, instead they stack new mistakes on old ones – even if they have to give up all of their own moral claims. Eventually they will discuss about shooting commands at the borders soon.
Therefore that part of the society which represents a different way of reaction on migrating people, now has to support and secure the self-empowerment of the migration-movement, which takes place in the same moment. For that structures and ways of dealing must be found to undermine the inhuman laws effectively – i.e. by buying vouchers for «benefits in kind» en masse, so that an existence in dignity can be made at least rudimentary; for example by being able to buy bus-tickets or new telephone-cards with the money.
One day before Federal Council’s decision, we want to reach out to the people with our public meeting, because we need their help, when refugees and the so-called «civil society» shouldn’t face a rude awakening from the «welcoming culture» in short time.
Come to v.d.Heydt-Square on Thursday by 5 p.m.! Inform yourself, share your contacts and think about what to do now.
