Kompass-newsletter No. 135 - 06/2025

Transnational chain of action – calendar and more +++ 12 June in Bremen: Demonstration by Youth Without Borders at the Conference of Interior Ministers +++ 13–14 June in Berlin: Migration summit organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation +++ 20 June in Rome: Campaign launch by Refugees in Libya against the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Libya +++ 4 to 6 July in Berlin: Scirocco - The Festival without Borders +++ Rejections at German borders are illegal +++ Self-organised protests by refugees in Tunisia +++ Alarm Phone: Detentions of people on the move in the western Mediterranean and on the Atlantic route +++ Missing at Borders website with new section on Mali +++ Review: Gaza: Statement in solidarity with the Freedom Flotilla +++ Outlook: 5 to 10 August 2025 - Transborder Summer Camp III; 20 to 27 September: We'll Come United caravan from Thuringia to Berlin; 21 October: Trial begins in Ragusa/Sicily against six members of Mediterranea...

Dear friends,

It comes as no surprise that Merz (new German Chancellor) and Dobrindt (new German minister of the Interior) are now following the authoritarian, racist governments in Hungary and Italy also in practical politics: regardless of court rulings prohibiting the rejection of asylum seekers at the border, they are continuing to systematically break the law. As important as this ongoing legal dispute remains, the decisive question will be how those affected deal with the harsher conditions in their daily struggle for their right to freedom of movement and whether broader solidarity and resistance against the new repressive measures can be developed.

With this in mind, this introduction is dedicated to the transnational chain of actions that is being prepared for September and October 2025, in offensive reference to the March of Hope and the summer of migration in 2015. In February of this year, we shared an initial call under the title ‘Open Borders, End Deaths.’ There is now a provisional calendar with a whole series of events and action campaigns for late summer and autumn 2025, see https://trans-border.net/index.php/provisional-calendar-for-the-transnational-chain-of-actions/ 

The Transborder Summer Camp (TSC), which will take place in France at the beginning of August, is too close to start additional mobilisations. However, it is a suitable time and a perfect place for exchange and for making agreements on the chain of actions. Around 700 participants are expected to attend TSC III, who are equally active on the external borders of Europe and in North and West Africa, as well as in inner cities fighting against deportations and racist police violence.

A transnational online press conference is planned for 4 September, the day of the historic breakthrough of the ‘March of Hope’ in Budapest in 2025. The conference will connect the various locations and initiatives to present the actions taking place in the following weeks within a common framework. So far, these include:

— a Solidarity and Resistance Camp in Biesenthal near Berlin from 4 to 7 September;

— a two-day protest in front of the UNHCR and IOM headquarters in Geneva, with a demonstration against camps and internment on 12 and 13 September;

— a protest regatta called F.Lotta around Lampedusa in mid-September;

— the Caravan for Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights from Thuringia to Berlin from 20 to 27 September, with a final parade;

— a transnational event in Rabat to mark the 20th anniversary of migrant self-organisations in Morocco from 3 to 5 October;

— action days in Rome to conclude the campaign against the extension of the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Libya in mid- to late October.

Before, during and after these events, we hope there will be many more, including smaller events and publications, that commemorate the summer of migration in 2015, scandalise the subsequent backlash and brutalisation of the border regime, including the current escalations, and, last but not least, establish a connection to the current struggles for freedom of movement and the right to stay. In the summer edition of Kompass in mid-July, the transnational chain of action will remain a focus. 

With solidarity greetings from the Kompass Crew