Nomads was invited, for research propose for our internationalist work and solidarity to the refugees, from the non-profit organization KIB: KUB in Brandenburg that makes consultancy to migrant and refugees people, to visit the lager of Eisenhüttenstadt and the day after to boycott the manifestacion of the neo-Nazi party NPD (national party germany) against immigrants and first reception centers.

The refugee center Eisenhüttenstadt remembers us a prison. To come in and out as a visitor you need to deposit your passport and be invited by a refugee who needs to come to pick you up from the gatekeeper’s house and deposit also her /his special identitycard from the lager. The high barbed wire all around reinforces this impression. Also does the long grey corridors inside the buildings where the people live with all the same grey doors with different numbers on it. It looks bleak and disconsolate. Moreover the lagers mostly are isolated, in rural and xenophobic areas. When they have a look outside their windows on the one hand they see the office buildings where they need to present theirselve for the interview after it will be decided if they can stay for the first instant and will be send to another lager where they live while the whole asylum procedor continues or if they will be closed in into the official prison which they can see if they look out of the window on the other hand on the same terrain. The cases which are more easy to deport for example because it’s a case of dublinII, which means the refugee were forced before on their travel to germany to give her/his fingerprints to the police in any other european country, are normaly edited and refused fast. In cases where it’s unclear if the person maybe has the right after german refugee law to get asylum in germany can last for years. We were told about a chinese man waiting since 18years the answer to his asylum apply. Force people to wait, to live in this circumstances, to grow their children there, if days or years, that’s inhuman and traumatizing!

Currently, the immigration law in Germany specifies that the applicant for political asylum must have both political and personal motivations. That means it is not enough anymore that your ethnic group or nation is under threat of death, but he/she has to prove specifically to have suffered to the own person direct intimidation and persecution.

Obtain German citizenship in general is very difficult, for example, it took 5 years to get the German documents for a girl whose father is German, but the mother is Mexican.

The first reception center (Erstaufnahmelager) divides people according to their nationality in different regions of Germany, for example in Brandenburg there is the Kenyan community, although in reality the first necessity with which to cope is the availability of sleeping places.

One of the entry accesses to Europe together with Lampedusa, Greece and Spain is Cyprus.

Another point of access that has been tried is Israel as a European Economic island in the Middle East, but it is a farce in which they were just stapled money to hundreds of desperate, there is no law about migrants in Israel, there is therefore no possibility of legalization, many people have found themselves directly expelled or imprisoned after traveling the journey of hope.

To enter Germany migration run frequently from Poland. Migrants in Germany can come directly to apply for asylum but if they were find in Poland before they will be put in deportation prison and directly repatriated.

The detention in first reception centers is about 3 months, but is extended like in the case of the Syrians whose deportation to their countries of origin is at the moment not allowed.

Families can stay together.

Most of the buildings have shared bathrooms and kitchens.

As support in the majority of cases they receive tickets instead of money, prepaid vouchers with which they can choose between certain kinds of daily necessities in certain stores (which are more expensive than others), which are then individually cooked in those shared kitchens. There is still going on the “Antira-Einkauf” (antiracist shopping) which means that activists meet refugees at the shoppingcenter to buy their food but instead of paying with their money they change it against this prepaid vouchers.

link: http://www.kub-berlin.org/index.php/en/appointments/45-antiracist-shopping-in-hennigsdorf

In theory, every human being has the right to 6 square meters of space. In general, the condition of facilities is good, but still there are no adequate health care.

Asylum seekers may not have a contract of employment. Even once granted asylum increased from 1 to 3 years to receive the qualification to work, and when you finally can apply for the job application will only be considered if a percentage of Germans previously contacted gave a negative reply.

From the first reception centers you can freely leave but to leave the boundaries of the municipality for the center to which they are assigned, they must make a written request for permission to holiday,  also legally it’s free they mostly are asked to pay between 10 and 20 Euros. A lot of times the requests are refused without any explanations. Also if the request was to leave to berlin center for example to meet the lawyer or to go to the doctor.

It is not clear considering they cannot work how they should get the money they need to pay for the permits.

It is not encouraged the exchange of information between inside and outside the centers, for example you can not resume or photograph the buildings, there is a form of state information on the situation of reception centers and deportation, and even more serious in the centers reception, asylum seekers are not informed about their rights, but only on their duties.

Within the reception centers there is not any form of education and entertainment investment of time on the part of immigrants. There aren’t any classes for the chlidren also there exist the obligation in germany for every child to attend class and the right of access to education is written down in the constitution. To overcome these deficiencies are non-profit associations and church, only they realize: German courses, offer legal advice, psychological and social integration. Often associations are limited and thwarted by law and in some cases they need to work undercover to transport material inside the center.

Juma an African immigrant, coming from Chad, should have be deported back to Italy because of DublinII on August 28. He was registrated by his fingerprints in Italy before, that why after DublinII Italy needs to decide about his apply of asylum and he was not allowed to ask asylum in any other european country. To avoid his deportation back to Italy he committed suicide on May 28.

On 19 July 2013 there was a demonstration in memory of Juma and in support of the dismantling of detention and deportation laws.

He was sadly not the first case of suicide because of her/his desperate situation as a person asking asylum in europe to whom we mourn. http://www.anti-rar.de/doku/PE_english_20.pdf

The majority of deportations travel from Frankfurt am Main, the pilot can choose not to fly the plane with a deportee above! Frequently, the deportations are not announced to the crew, but it is up to the pilot’s decision whether to continue the journey to a deported or not. A good rule is therefore that the foreigner in the airport and when boarding the plane makes ​​present to all his situation, if necessary by screaming.

In particular the Lufthansa airline frequently used to deport, after pressure from consumers and implemented by the pilots, it has refused to host future deportations.

Oranien platz in Berlin, Kreuzberg from October 2012 exists and resists the refugees camp, an initiative that brought together the strength of immigrants from different german lagers, in a symbolic march from Wurzburg to the capital, a trip down a month to walk through 600 km of Germany and arrive in the capital to demand the right to asylum.

The march had a big impact on the media so to force the government to receive a committee, unfortunately the requests were not accepted, the only small victory has been the abolition of Residenzpflicht in some regions of the country, literally Residenzpflicht “the requirement of residence” is the requirement for asylum seekers and those who got it, to reside only in the area assigned to them.

In January 2013, refugees have also occupied an abandoned school that is still active today, many initiatives have been organized, hunger strikes, occupation of embassies, forays into public offices.

The protest is not over yet.

http://www.refugeetentaction.net

http://asylstrikeberlin.wordpress.com/