Kompass-newsletter No. 115 - 06/2023
From 15-18 June in Berlin: Youth without Borders to the Conference of Interior Ministers... +++ Bring them back! - Campaign to bring back a family from Lagos to Kempten +++ Against the "GEAS reform" of the Interior Ministers in the EU Council +++ 24 June in Melilla: First anniversary of the racist massacre +++ 28-30 June in Brussels: We kindly request you to stop killing - A non-stop performance by Alarmphone +++ 29. June to 2 July in Brussels: Conference and Demonstration by and with Refugees in Libya +++ Refugees in Libya at the Parliament in Rome +++ Iniciativa Legislativa Popular (ILP) - Legalisation Campaign - in Spain +++ New investigation from Borderforensics: the Deadly Effects of Border Control In Niger +++ Echoes No.6 Highly Contested Space in the Central Med +++ Reviews: Africa Day with CommemorAction in Tenerife; Stop Deportation! Protest Camp in Berlin Schönefeld +++ Outlook: 21 - 27 August in the Netherlands: Noborder Camp - Abolish Frontex; 1-3 September in Leipzig: Meeting of Welcome United +++ 14-19 September in Calais/Dunkerques: Noborder Camp against new deportation prison; 27-29 October in Bologna: next meeting of the Transnational Social Strike Platform
Dear friends!
Friday, 2 June 2023, in the big tent of the No-Deportation Camp at Berlin Schönefeld Airport: Rex Osa from Refugees for Refugees Stuttgart introduces a young woman who is online on a big screen. From Lagos! Two weeks before, she and her family had been deported from their hometown Kempten to Lagos in a Frontex charter. The 17-year-old student reports how she, her mother and her three siblings were torn from their lives. Immediately afterwards, a working group was formed in the camp to launch a return campaign: https://bringthemback.noblogs.org/.
With up to 1000 (day) participants and a final action with 700 demonstrators, the No Deportation Camp was better attended than the organisers could have expected. The camp site had to be fought for in court (until two days before the start!), but the infrastructure was well equipped. Many young and newly interested people took part in dozens of workshops, most of which were very well attended, and the media interest was remarkable, at least regionally: https://abschiebezentrumverhindern.noblogs.org/presse/.
Two other events with public attention should be briefly presented in this intro:
On the one hand, Lamin Sarr, a migration activist from Barcelona and co-founder of Topmanta, presented the legalisation campaign "la Iniciativa Legislativa Popular (ILP)" to the Spanish Congress in Madrid on 10 May 2023. The background to this is that a broad alliance called "Essentiale" managed to collect 700,000 (!!) signatures within a year, thus forcing the parliament or a working committee to deal with the initiative. https://www.immigrationspain.es/en/mass-regularization-2023/
Secondly, David Yambio, spokesperson for Refugees in Libya, had the opportunity to tell the Italian Parliament about his experiences in Libya on 7 June 2023 in Rome. The background here is that the parliament is discussing the annual decree on the financing of all foreign missions of the Italian armed forces. It includes two missions of cooperation with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard and Navy under the 2017 agreement between Italy and Libya. For the first time, a voice of affected people on the run were directly heard on this.
https://twitter.com/RescueMed/status/1666455260007727106?cxt=HHwWhIC87dmOuKAuAAAA
Appropriate to this: whoever wants to support Refugees in Libya and strengthen their demands "From Tripoli to Brussels" - on 1 July 2023 there will be the best opportunity to do so in the "capital of the EU institutions": https://www.refugeesinlibya.org/call-to-bruxelles
With solidarity greetings,
the Kompass Crew
P.S.: For internal organisational reasons, this newsletter is published in the middle of this month. The next issue for the summer (July and August 2023) will follow in mid-July.