-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Germany Calling
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 09:03:18 +0100
From: John O <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
Break Germany's 'pass laws' against asylum seekers !
Demonstration Sunday 3rd October 2000 Residenzpflicht law in Germany
is a criminally racist law ! 1.00pm in front of the Central railway
station in Hannover
On the 3rd of October at the Expo 2000, in Hanover Germany is
celebrating its unification and selling a new modern image - that it is
a defender of human rights and friendly to foreigners.
The much vaunted attempts to restrict the activities of neo-nazi
parties and groups is part of this image that Germany wants to show the
world.
But this propaganda circus about fighting neo-Nazi's has nothing to
do with the lives of the refugees - the real victims of the racist
terror. In fact the German government has been laying the basis for
the attacks on foreigners for decades, by systematically isolating us.
We have been put away in camps in the middle of forests and we have been
hemmed into these accommodation with various laws and measures that we
are now effectively isolated from German society. The
'Residenzpflicht' which restricts the right to free movement of asylum
seekers since 1982 is the sharpest example of this. The Residenzpflicht
forbids us the right to leave the police district that we are allocated
('landkreis'). This law, which imprisons us in a sometimes very small
police district, does not exist in any other European country. This
law criminalises all asylum seekers, and foreigners in general. Any one
of us can be checked by the police, whether or not we are outside our
district (landkries). For anyone witnessing this controll it appears
that the foreigner has done something criminal. Every time a
foreigner is checked by the police because of the Residenzpflicht law,
the main political slogan of the of the Neo-Nazis, 'criminal foreigner'
is given substance. Further, as Germans cannot break the residence
law, this makes the criminal statistics biased sharply against
foreigners, again giving substance to the Neo-Nazi propaganda. It is
practically impossible for an asylum seeker to avoid an offence against
the residence law. As soon as we come to Germany, we are automatically
criminalised. The residence law inevitably enforces social
isolation. The Residenzpflicht forces every asylum seeker to stay
inside his or her district. If you get checked by the police while you
are outside the district you are charged, for the first offence 100 DM
cash, which you cannot pay because as a refugee you receive only 80 DM a
month. (From this 80 DM, at least 50 DM goes in lawyers' fees in the
constant struggle against deportation). The caretaker of the
refugee camp keep attendance records every day, to see if the refugees
are there or not: If a refugee is not at home for a few days, the
punishment that he or she gets may be to lose the right to
accommodation. The Social Department in turn punishes you by cutting
even the meagre financial assistance of 80 DM, by cutting food coupons
or by paying the person weekly, in order to force the person not to go
out of the landkreis. The refugee thus has not enough money to eat, let
alone to pay police fines of over 100 DM. This means that he or she will
be arrested and put in prison. In prison, you undergo racially based
harassment and humiliation. The dignity of many refugees are routinely
broken during such imprisonment, and they are thus prepared for
so-called "voluntary" deportation. So for us the current
declarations of the German politicians are a pure mockery. How can they
speak against Neo-Nazi terror against us when they have for nearly two
decades prepared the basis for it. They have nearly completely
isolated us from German society, they have humiliated us and terrorised
us. The most explicit legal basis for this isolation is the German
pass law - the Residenzpflicht. The refugees in the 'Caravan for the
Rights of the Refugees and Migrants' have decided to launch a civil
disobedience campaign against the Residenzpflicht. We will not be
sitting ducks so that the Neo-Nazi's can terrorise us! We will fight
against the legal basis that prevents us from organising ourselves. We
ask you join our struggle.
Please send a protest faxes to The German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
to take a position to repeal this specially racist Residenzpflicht law,
to show his seriouseness to protect the refugees against Neo-Fascists.
Please send a copy to us at IMRV Bremen.
Fax Number for Gerhard Schröder with international code for Germany is:
+ 49/ 30/ 4000 2357
The refugees have no money. So for us to travel to Hannover from our
camps to take part in this civil dissobedance campaign we are in urgent
need of financial support. Please send donations to the account number
below.
Die Karawane für die Rechte der Flüchtlinge und Migrantinnen
Bremer Koordinierungsbüro:
Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V
Wachmannstr. 81
28209 Bremen
Tel.: (0421) 5577093
Fax: (0421) 5577094
[log in to unmask]
http://www.humanrights.de/
Spendenkonto: Postbank Hamburg, Kontonr. 99 29 207, Bankleitzahl 200 100
20
Spenden sind dringend nötig und steuerlich absetzbar.
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