Kompass-newsletter No. 120 - 12/2023+01/2024
14.12. in several cities: Day of action against immigration authorities +++ Niger: Anti-migration law repealed +++ El Hiblu 3: Scandalous bill of indictment, comments and protests +++ New newspaper from Afrique-Europe-Interact +++ Echoes No.9 +++ Maldusa: Reports, brochure and fundraising campaign +++ Investigative report: Frontex, Malta and push-backs to Libya +++ Investigative report: Deaths in Bulgaria +++ Rwanda judgement in the UK +++ Reviews: Stop GEAS demonstration in Berlin +++ Outlook: 6. February 2024: 10th anniversary of the Tarajal massacre - CommemorActions; 17 and 19 February in Hanau: demonstration and commemorative actions on the fourth anniversary of the attack; End of April in Frankfurt: WCU conference being planned...
Dear friends.
Deportation charters to Iraq, the justification of physical violence at the external borders, support for Meloni's "Albania camp" or considerations for the outsourcing of asylum procedures to Rwanda: the racist outbidding contest in a continuous loop. A disgusting chorus of agitation from almost all parties. This is immediately noticeable in countless "individual cases", when the worst racists in the immigration authorities feel encouraged and use their "discretionary powers" to the disadvantage of those affected.
While asylum and human rights are being attacked at various levels and from all political directions, the refugee and migration movements themselves are having a lasting assertiveness. The arrival figures in Italy and Germany, for example, are among the highest in recent decades. Almost 160,000 people will have made it to Italy from Tunisia and Libya by the end of 2023. This is - despite and against Meloni's post-fascist government - over 50% more than in the previous year and, after 2016, the highest number of arrivals ever in Italy. In October 2023 alone, there were over 30,000 new asylum applications in Germany, and in November there were even over 35,000. The total number will be well over 300,000 by the end of the year, also one of the record years.
"Acknowledging the strength of refugee movements, we must continue to build and expand infrastructures for freedom of movement as a central element." - "We need a new APO, an extra-parliamentary opposition that must be migrant and trans-Mediterranean." - "We should work on a two-year plan, at least until the next federal elections." - "We need to think beyond refugee and human rights and connect more strongly with struggles around other social issues." - "We must take a clear stance against the prevailing discourse and yet somehow remain open to the centre." - "With We'll Come United, we are looking for new forms of mobilisation that make our everyday struggles more visible again.“
These voices from germanwide Anti-Ra strategy debates in recent weeks are examples of some of the challenges and approaches that will be discussed further in various meetings and spaces in the coming months, not least at a conference that We'll Come United is planning for the end of April in Frankfurt. We want to take up these discussions and mobilisations as best we can in our Kompass, to accompany them and to contribute to the AntiRa movement returning to more offensive moments in the new year.
Finally, the link to the recording of a moving event by "Transforming Solidarities" at Berlin's HAU theatre - "an evening in defence of the migration society": https://youtu.be/RwR__zSbmhA . Interesting to see and worthy of multiplying in more cities!
In this spirit for a moving 2024,
the Kompass crew