The last Wednesday-demonstration „Lampedusa in Hamburg – We are here to stay!“ will take place on the 27.11.2013. Instead, the group „Lampedusa in Hamburg“ calls for demonstrations through the city center on all four Advent-Saturdays!
Advent-demonstrations
30.11 | 07.12. | 14.12. | 21.12.
always at 12 PM at the Protest-Tent (Steindamm 2, Hamburg main station)
The recent news coverage of the group „Lampedusa in Hamburg“ has been dominated by the events at the St. Pauli church. We want to make clear that the church is only ONE of the sleeping places for members of the group and that the PR work by the church does not represent the opinion of the group.
It is correct, that some members of the group sleeping in the church have applied for a right to stay on humanitarian reasons – most were forced to do this unwillingly by the racist controls executed in October. But the clear majority of the group places absolutely no trust in the offer made by the senate of Hamburg. The „solution“ with the Duldung is unacceptable for us.
We can imagine, what the senate likes about the new position of us refugees: From subjects that self-confidently demand their vested rights we have been transformed into harmless applicants that blindly hope for the good will of the sovereign. Not another word on the fact that exactly this senate kicked us out onto the street in the cold April, that the senate ignored our suffering and the danger to our lives for months and then put even more pressure on us with the racist controls.
As a reminder: The senate’s offer consisted of:
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being able to make individual applications for a residence permit on humanitarian grounds
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being granted a „Duldung“ for the time of the procedure
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being cared for by the state
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in case the applications are rejected, to rely on not being deported until the objection has gone through all courts („guarantee for the procedure“)
We and our lawyers reply to this:
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the senate emphasised several times that the most of the applications will be rejected sooner or later. Senator Neumann publicly declared this on his homepage recently
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a „Duldung“ is not a perspective for our life, no guarantee for anything. We know that people with a „Duldung“ are forced to live in German Lagers for years and that the constant fear of being deported any moment slowly makes them go crazy. We finally want to arrive somewhere and have security for our lives!
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We want to work and not rely on help from the state!
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Even if we are allowed to stay until all legal procedures concerning our applications come to an end – what happens after that?
The offer made by the senate does not consider in any way that we are recognized as refugees of war in Europe already, who were forced to flee by a NATO-war in which Germany also participated. The inhuman living conditions we and many other refugees were confronted with in Italy are the consequence of the failure of the European system of protection for refugees. The situation in Italy is not considered by the senate. But especially against this backround, Hamburg can and must assume responsibility by using the given legal possibilities to grant a residence permit. The §23 is such a political possibility for the senate of Hamburg and we reconfirm our demand for a collective group-solution on the basis of this paragraph.
It is attemted to sweep the lasting inhuman situation of the group „Lampedusa in Hamburg“ under the carpet and the senate presents a trap as a solution for a humanitarian catastophy. Under such circumstances, the transition back to the daily routine has to be disturbed. This is why we call upon everyone to persistantly show the senate over and over again, that the only acceptable solution is the collective residence permit for our group!
Join our demonstrations and show your solidarity! Together we can fight for a change of the inhuman and life-threatening isolationist policies in Hamburg and Europe.