[Dissent-fr-info] Call for a European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine

Sat Apr 17 02:02:40 UTC 2010

[Please DISTRIBUTE widely. Thanks.]

Dear friends and comrades,

Stop Deportation, along with other groups in Europe, are proposing a
European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine, with a focus on
joint European mass deportation flights and Frontex. The proposed date is
the first week of June 2010, 1st-6th.

Put simply, the idea is that groups and campaigns throughout Europe
organise their own direct actions, demos and marches against forcible
deportations from European countries, which are increasingly carried out
through joint coordinated 'operations' involving private contractors and
shadowy agencies like Frontex and the IOM. Protests will inevitably take a
variety of shapes but a series of coordinated, decentralised actions and
protests would make the message clearer and louder. A week, rather than a
day, of action would allow groups more flexibility to do what they want to
do.

By trying to widen the scope and diversity of the groups involved, we also
want to draw attention to the fact that anti-deportation is not a 'single
issue campaign'. People choose or are forced to migrate for a variety or
reasons, from wars and armed conflicts fuelled by the arms trade and
western interests, through poverty, exploitation, discrimination, gender
oppression, domestic and state violence, to climate change.

If your group/campaign would like to get involved, whether through helping
coordinate or publicise the week of action or by organising your own
action or protest in your local area, please get in touch (needless to
say, if you're planning an unaccountable/arrestable action, you probably
wouldn't want to get in touch!). The machine is growing and getting
stronger, and so must the resistance against it!

Below is a draft callout. Please comment and tell us what you think by the
end of April. Also, if you have any suggestions or ideas for what people
can or should do, we would be more than happy to hear them. We are
compiling a list of potential targets across Europe, along with background
information and resources, so any information would be appreciated.

Stop Deportation
stopdeportation[at-]riseup.net <http://riseup.net>

(Stop Deportation is a loose network of groups and individuals in the UK,
who campaign and take action against deportation, with a particular focus
on mass deportation flights. For more information, see
http://stopdeportation.net.)

----

Call for a European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine
1st - 6th June 2010

Deportation has become an integral part of the European immigration
regime. Hundreds of refugees and migrants are forcibly deported everyday
for doing what humans have done for thousands of years: moving in search
of a better life, escaping poverty, abuse, discrimination, persecution,
war and so on. The right of everyone to travel and live where they want is
denied for those with the 'wrong' skin colour, passport or bank account.
They are treated like 'criminals' and incarcerated in special prisons
disguised under various euphemisms (removal centres, guest houses and so
on). Racist and sexual abuse and physical violence at the hands of
immigration officers and private security guards are institutionalised by
legitimising the use of force in deportation operations. Even the more
vulnerable among migrants facing detention and deportation, such as
children and torture survivors, are treated with humiliation instead of
being offered help and support.

Behind deportations lies a mixture of racism, nationalism and imperialism
in a global capitalist context: whilst capital and the nationals of the EU
and other 'first world' countries are free to travel wherever they want,
those on the wrong side of artificially erected borders, whose countries
are often torn apart by these very privileged Europeans and their
capitalist and imperial conquests, are illegalised, criminalised and
prevented from exercising their fundamental rights. They simply cease to
be people; they become 'illegal immigrants', 'over-stayers' and 'failed
asylum seekers' who can be dispensed with when their exploited labour is
no longer needed or when they stand up for their rights. As a consequence,
common struggles and communities are divided and a culture of suspicion
and surveillance prevails.

When it comes to deportation orders, the causes of migration are also
conveniently forgotten about. Western-manufactured weapons and armed
conflicts, wars of aggression in pursuit of oil and other natural
resources, repressive regimes backed by our democracy-loving governments,
climate change and land grabs... they can all be traced back here, to our
capitalist economies, consumerist lifestyles and imperial interests.
Anti-deportation is not a 'single issue campaign' and people choose or are
forced to migrate for a variety or reasons.

To operate a deportation flight, European governments contract a range of
private and semi-private bodies to do the dirty work for them. Airlines
are a key link in the deportation machine. Not only are they one of the
major contributors to the progressive killing of the planet, many airline
companies are also happy, in their pursuit of profit, to fly people to
their possible death, both individually and en masse. Other profiteers
include companies providing transport and escort services during forcible
deportations and multinational security companies, such as Serco and G4S,
that manage immigration prisons and carry out deportations on behalf of
immigration authorities.

Then there are those shadowy, unaccountable, inter-governmental agencies,
such as the EU external border agency (Frontex) and the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM), whose role has become more and more
prominent in recent years as European governments seek to carry out
deportations through joint coordinated 'operations'. This not only saves
them money but also, by putting deportations in the hands of a regional or
international body, pushes accountability to another level away from
national governments and immigration authorities. Indeed, Frontex has
recently assumed extra powers to charter mass deportation flights on
behalf of European governments, buy equipment and explore satellite
technology to monitor the 'EU borders'. After all, a racist, imperial
super-state like Fortress Europe needs a mercenary army like Frontex to
protect its artificial borders.

Deportees, including families and children, are often handcuffed and
accompanied by security guards as if they were 'dangerous criminals' (the
label 'criminal', as used by those in power, is problematic anyway). There
have been numerous reports of physical assaults and racial and sexual
abuse suffered by deportees at the hands of immigration officers and
private 'escorts' during individual and mass deportations. Proposals to
have 'human rights monitors' on deportation flights, as recently
recommended by a senior EU commissioner, may prevent some of these
practices but will also legitimise the brutality of deportation itself.

We realise that resistance against deportation is continuous and not
confined to days or weeks of action: people trying to cross the border in
the most dangerous conditions everyday; hunger strikes and riots in
immigration prisons; deportees and sympathetic passengers refusing to sit
down quietly on board inconspicuous planes; communities coming together to
defend their members; regular protests and actions against various parts
of the deportation machine... Yet, more needs to be done as thousands of
people continue to be forcibly deported everyday.

We are calling upon all concerned individuals and groups throughout Europe
to join us in a decentralised, coordinated week of action against the
deportation machine in the first week of June 2010. We are calling upon
migrants and refugees and their supporters inside and outside Europe to
organise their own actions and protests during this week in a united cry:
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
NO TO FORTRESS EUROPE!
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL!

[There are translations of the callout into many other languages at
http://stopdeportation.net/node/41].

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