AUT: cross the border - The hunting of refugees... (fwd)

[Thomas Atzert <atzert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The hunting of refugees does not stop at the border!

National and regional offices work towards the establishment of a
border regime - a policy which makes it impossible for refugees
to come and live here. The refugees in the home for asylum
seekers in Zittau live in a climate of constant racial
discrimination from officials and attacks by the border police
(BGS), the regional police force, and Nazis. This is only
possible in an atmosphere where denouncing illegal entries and
institutionalized racism is the norm: Through flyers and an
info-telephone number, the border police (BGS) appeal to local
citizens to take part in the search and hunt for refugees.

The government offices of Zittau support Nazi groups by making
meeting-places available to them and by silently tolerating
racist attacks. Because of the constant threats from racists, it
is impossible for refugees in Zittau to move freely in the city.
The mayor shows no interest in helping the refugees in any way.

At the centre of the racist border regime is the refugee home of
Zittau, which should rather be described as a punishment and
deportation camp.

The regional administrative authority is directly resposible for
the inhuman conditions in the Zittau refugee home:
- There are too few washing machines and cooking appliances for
the around 130 people who live in the camp.
- Not enough hot water, only communal showers, making private
hygiene impossible
- Clogged toilets.
- No possibility for people to buy their own food, instead, they
receive food packets corresponding to a special point system
(e.g. a given number of food-points per week), cash is only
available in form of 80 DM pocket money per month.
- 2 rolls of toilet paper per person per month; whoever needs
more must give up some of his or her points.
- Tainted drinking water.
- Inadequate garbage disposal system
- The antiquated coal-heating system works only irregularly
during the winter.
- The answer to a request for the home to be painted was that the
refugees should help paint for the salary of 2 DM per hour, if
they refused, their pocket money would be cut. In the jargon of
the social security law of asylum seekers this is called
"communal work".
- If someone needs a doctor, he or she must wait between 2 weeks
to a month for an appointment.
- No recreational activities, no common room, no television, no
library, no playground for the children.
- Zittau is not a transitional camp, but a camp where refugees
wait for the day they will be deported, or for the outcome of the
long-winding bureaucratic process of the asylum application. Some
of the inmates in Zittau have already waited for many years in
these conditions.

The camp is situated far from residential areas in Zittau;
because of this, the danger of racial attacks is more pervasive.
Meanwhile, the city of Zittau owns several unused apartment
buildings, which it could use to house the refugees if it wished
to do so. If there is a racial attack on the camp, the caretaker
(Hausmeister) has been known to refuse to call the police. If the
refugees themselves call, it takes 1 to 2 hours for the police to
show up. On the other hand, the refugees are often criminalized
by the police. The above mentioned points are all an expression
of the systematic isolation, exclusion, and discrimination of
refugees in Zittau. Above all, this institutionalized racism
supports the racist concensus among the population, and makes
Nazi attacks possible.

The fear that refugees have of attacks and repression, when they
openly describe and criticize their situation, creates a climate
of silencing and tension. The responsible officials obviously do
not complain  this fear and its toleration by the authorities as
well as the general public, is the basis for the all-encompassing
dehumanization of the refugees. The actual goal of these
unbearable living conditions is the disappearance of those who
have sought refuge here.
Most of the refugees in the camp in Zittau have an "exceptional
leave to remain" (Duldung) which means, they have been refused
asylum and can be deported at any time. Many therefore decide to
leave Germany of their own volition and search for a more human
life elsewhere. The situation in Zittau, as well as in other
asylum-seekers homes, are part of the strategy of the German
state to refuse refugees a place in society, to deprive them of
their human rights and to force them into illegality.

In the face of these unbearable living conditions we demand:
- Decentralized housing for the refugees, according to their
needs, in the residential areas of the inner city which implies
the closure of the refugee home in Zittau! End to the isolation!
- Free choice of living conditions. Refugees must, like other
people, be able to decide for themselves where and with whom they
live.
- Availability of adequate sanitary and cooking facilities,
heating, and hygenic water.
- Appropriate and unbureaucratic medical care.
- Adequate legal advice
- Availability of translators for bureaucratic processes and
state funded German lessons
- Freedom to participate in political activity without fear of
repression.
- An end to the support and toleration of Nazi activities by the
state.
- Closure of the BGS (border police) telephone line which
encourages citizens denouncing illegals. Stop the racist
propoganda!
- Complete social and civil rights for refugees, payment in cash
of the mainstream minimum existence benefit. End to the
exclusionary treatment!

We appeal to everyone who does not want to succomb to the racist
climate to support the refugees and to take active action against
racist attacks.

Stop the racist politics!
Break through the isolation!
Nobody is illegal!
Asylum is a human right!

INFO:

The Voice e.V. Africa Forum, Schillergd_chen 5, 07745 Jena
Tel: 03641 665214 or 449304 Fax: 03641 423795 or 420270

Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V.
Tel: 0421 5577093
Fax: 0421 5577094
mailto:Mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.humanrights.de/

kein Mensch ist illegal
c/o Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration
Gneisenaustra_e 2a
10961 Berlin
Tel: 0172/8910825


Please write to the minister of the interior of the Saxony, Mr.
Hardradt, and engage yourself for the closure of the refugee home
in Zittau ad the decentralized housing for the refugees,
according to their needs, in the residential areas of the inner
city.
Tel.: 0351 5643 000, Fax.: 0351 5643 199


http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/camp/journal.html



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