Happy Ending for Berlin Refugee Strike?

Image via Der Tagespiegel

The hunger strike of asylum seekers/ refugees at Berlin's famous Brandenberg Gate has come to an end after 8 days, following a long discussion yesterday evening between strikers and politicians. This is a highpoint but hopefully not the conclusion, of over a year of hardcore activism on refugee issues in Germany.

The protest, which followed last month's march throughout Germany, aimed in general to call attention to the plight of refugees in Germany but it also had several key specific demands (a full list can be found here.) Namely, to stop deportations, close refugee "camps" (holding facilities for asylum seekers, often in the middle of nowhere), recieve working permits and permission to learn German, and above all, to abolish the Residenzpflicht. 

Residenzpflicht is a long standing policy applying to asylum seekers that limits their freedom of movement while their asylum applications are being processed. They may not leave the administrative zone where they have first registered in Germany without a permit until their asylum status has been sorted out- which in extreme cases can take up to 10 years. Naturally, this policy keeps refugees in a sort of limbo, preventing them from fully integrating into society, traveling to visit relatives, studying at university, or finding work. This nasty law also means the state controls whether you can attend meetings or protests- limiting freedom of speech and the right to assemble.

With the recent refugee march from Wurzburg to Berlin, the refugees and their allies practiced non-violent resistence to these and similar policies, and sought to make the invisible visible.

Did it work? Der Tagespiegel reports today that the Berlin Senator for Integration Dilek Kolat and Refugee Commissioner Maria Böhmer visited the strikers and had a 4 hour discussion with them about their demands. Although the resulting quotes are basically platitudes, the politicians expressed their support of the protest and stated that they supported the desires of the protestors to learn German and start working. Böhmer apparently questioned whether the Residenzpflicht is still "up-to-date," and hinted that they would write a letter discouraging the arrest of the protestors for violating their residence restrictions by travelling to Berlin.

We'll have to keep an eye on the situation to see whether any changes are made to refugee housing, work permits, or the draconian Residenzpflicht. In the meantime, I think the protestors can cautiously celebrate a success.

Read More:
Refugees End Their Hungerstrike (Der Tagespiegel, in German)
Refugee Tent Action (The website of the Hunger Strikers)
AsylstrikeBerlin (Website with information about the refugee march and protest)
Karawane (Organization for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants)
Pro-Asyl (NGO supporting Refugees in Germany)

And finally, here's a clip from an awesome recent documentary by Denise Garcia Bergt about Germany's refugees and migrants, called "Residenzpflict."

Trailer Residenzpflicht from denisebergt on Vimeo.

Non-Citizen News Roundup

Photo via AP

Israel: On Sunday, hundreds of immigrants and allies protested at the Israeli Immigrant Absorption Ministry after a recent government recommendation to reduce the number of Ethiopian Jews accepted monthly as part of aliyah. The idea comes at a time when the government claims it is having trouble keeping up with the pace of immigration and assimilation needs. Opponents of the plan claim that there are already close to 4,000 recognized Ethiopian Jews waiting to immigrate and that the Government is looking for excuses to avoid its obligations. (There's probably a little truth to both positions.)
Ethiopians Protest Govt's Proposal to Reduce Aliyah (via Jerusalem Post)

UK: The United Kingdom is getting some increased (and probably unwanted) attention in the wake of a new report by UNHCR describing the legal limbo that stateless persons there live in. Many have been denied asylum or any right to remain, but are also un-deportable because no country will accept them. Therefore, they live on the street or hang out in detention centers- not a good situation.
Mapping Statelessness in the UK (via UNHCR)
What its like to be Stateless in Britain- Nischal's Story (via Alertnet)

Australia: Shockingly, Australia has more asylum trouble this week, as 3 Kurdish aslyum-seekers have sewn their lips together in the wake of having their asylum applications denied. Due to the fact that the young men are stateless, they cannot be repatriated anywhere and instead have remained in detention for between 18 and 22 months each. Much like the UK problems described above- it sounds like governments are going to need to reevaluate how they handle non-deportable stateless persons- endless detention and legal limbo are not the answer!
3 Kurdish Men Sew lips together in Protest (via Courier Mail)
Asylum Seekers sew lips together in Australia Protest (via AsiaOne)

Sweden: Refoulement of Kurds to Iran?

According to Change.org, 20 Kurdish refugees have sewed their mouths shut in Sergels torg while facing imminent deportation to Iran.

With their lives on the line, the asylum seekers -- all of whom are documented refugees with the United Nations -- have taken the extraordinary step of going on a hunger strike to protest their deportation. Several of them have been hospitalized after collapsing from hunger. Those remaining have sewn their mouths shut.

This isn't the first time that Sweden has been in the limelight for  deportation of Kurds. Last January UNHCR spoke out against the deportation of Iraqi Kurds back to some of the most dangerous regions in Iraq, and stated that they most likely should have been covered by the Refugee Convention or the Qualifications Directive.

Now there is a petition to the Swedish Migration Board to save these Iranian Kurds from being deported, and it already has more than 36,000 signatures. You can add yours here.

Petition Against Deportation of Bita Ghaedy

[Photo via Indymedia]

UK Indymedia is featuring the harrowing story of Bita Ghaedy, an Iranian woman seeking asylum in the UK. Apparently she has been on a 2 week hunger strike to resist deportation. You can read her story here and sign a petition for her non-refoulement here.

However, I haven't seen any updates on her situation, so if anyone has let me know!