Kompass-newsletter No. 103 - 04/2022

 

9.4.22 online: Permanent Assembly against the War +++ More information and texts against the war in Ukraine: Mediterranea, Pro Asyl, Medico, Connection, Express... +++ 13.4. everywhere: "Time to listen" - Social Media Campaign for Refugees in Libya +++ 21.5. in Trapani/sicily: Start of the Iuventa "Hearing" procedure +++ Malta: Free El Hiblu 3 brochure, conference and the Pope +++ Central Med: Transshipment from cargo ship to Sea Eye +++ Western Med: New Alarm Phone Report +++ ECHR stops Push-Backs at the Greek-Turkish border +++ Book recommendation: Focus on West Africa. The Causes of Flight and What Europe Should Do +++ Outlook: IMK in Würzburg in early June; NSU Tribunal in Nuremberg in early June; AntiRa Conference in Göttingen in mid-June; Transborder Summer Camp II near Nantes in July 2022...

Dear friends,

100,000 free flights (with the Hungarian airline Wizz Air) from the neighboring countries of Ukraine for refugees from the war - the new measure of things?! Very much is possible if the appropriate political decisions are made - we had already experienced this in 2015 in the Balkans, when for a few months the right to freedom of movement between northern Greece to Scandinavia had been fought for. We are now seeing again, against the backdrop of a terrible war, that it is purely political decisions that determine how people in need can move. Free train rides - or even flights - with free choice of residence, immediate access to social benefits, to language courses and to the labor market. In the welcome to Ukrainian refugees, it shows what is possible when it is wanted. And that is a good thing.

Let us insist all the more resolutely that this applies and works for all refugees. Let us confront politics and authorities with their double standards, racist hierarchies and obvious untruths about what is not feasible. Let's hold a mirror up to them in view of the stalling, defensive or even deterrent measures against refugees from Afghanistan or Libya.

Moreover, the "Dublin" deportation system to most countries in Eastern Europe is currently not feasible. This is also a good thing. "However, the realization that it can bring many advantages if people seeking protection can choose their own place of protection must now be adapted in European asylum policy as a whole," comments Pro Asyl. Exactly. It remains the same and no one can claim that this is not possible: the inhumane madness of the "New Pact of Asylum and Migration" must be scrapped, the deadly border regime with Frontex and push backs abolished.

At the end of last year in Lesvos, the Pope described the migration policy in the Mediterranean as a "shipwreck of civilization". He repeated it last weekend in Malta and did not let the government there prevent him from meeting with refugees and migrants - among them the El Hiblu 3 - to signal his support.

Finally, back to Ukraine and the current invitation of the Transnational Social Strike to a second online gathering for a transnational politics of peace:„The aim of the Permanent Assembly Against the War is not that of substituting the variety of existing initiatives, but that of establishing a political infrastructure where collective discussion and collective power against this war can grow. On the 9th of April, we will continue to develop a common framework of struggle in which our fragmented initiatives can get stronger in the direction of a transnational politics of peace that must be built collectively.“

With solidarity greetings, the Kompass team