On 18 and 19 October 2022 the Royal Marechaussee, the Dutch military police, will host a Conference on the Entry/Exit System in the Maritime Domain for EU border guard agency Frontex in Rotterdam. The conference will bring Frontex staff, staff of border and port authorities from EU member states and representatives from selected companies and cruise-ship associations together to discuss the implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES), a biometrics based database, at maritime border crossing points. The EES is part of a network of (biometrics) databases, with the aim to create a ‘virtual wall’ to keep or get migrants out of the EU. These virtual walls connect with the whole system of border walls, border militarisation, border externalisation, detention and deportations the EU has deployed in building Fortress Europe. It is also another profit opportunity for the military and security industry.

Read the whole article at the website of Stop Wapenhandel

10 October 2022 – International action day organized by Abolish Frontex, Diritto di migrare-diritto di restare and Solidarity with Refugees in Libya.

Barcelona, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, London, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Rome, Zurich and many other cities will take to the streets and demand that the Italian government puts an end to this illegal and shameful Memorandum. Outside of Italy, the protests will be held in front of Italian Embassies and Consulates. You can find a list of all the actions below. Continue reading “15 October: International Action Day ‘Stop Italy – Libya Memorandum’”

6 October 2022 – On the 29th and 30th of October we, Abolish Frontex, invite you to the Anti-Frontex-Days in Berlin, at Siegfried Hirschmann Park 1 by Ostkreuz. These days will offer a space for workshops, networking and strategy meetings, discussing the different aspects of the EU border regime for activists, various groups and people interested in anti-racist and no-border activism in Berlin and beyond. We want to offer a place for exchange and mutual support. One struggle, one fight!

Different workshops on topics such as deportations, resistance, racism, self-organization, different aspects of the EU border regime, and the violent role of Frontex, will be held. A detailed program will be announced soon. To close off the weekend, we want to invite you to an activist picknick on Sunday afternoon to spend nice relaxed moments together.

Snacks and dinner by Kiezkantine on Saturday evening will be provided. We can provide translations during the workshops – please reach out to us by email and specify which language(s) would be needed. Please also feel free to reach out to info[at]abolishfrontex.org if you need any further information.

We are looking forward to a powerful weekend!

 

[Press release from front-LEX] 5 October 2022 – Today, the legal hub front-LEX has filed a case against Frontex’s new Executive Director Aija Kalnaja at the Court of Justice of the European Union. The legal non-profit argues that the EU Border and Coast Guard agency must terminate or suspend its joint operations with the Hellenic Coast Guard in the Aegean Sea Region due to countless horrific human rights abuses related to these operations.

The case, to be financed by a crowdfunding campaign, was filed on behalf of J.K., a Congolese refugee. He is one of 43,000 children, women and men who entered Greece to seek asylum but instead were violently abducted, forcibly transferred to ‘death rafts’, collectively expulsed and abandoned in distress at sea. J.K. was a victim of multiple such attempted murders, lastly on 14 July 2022. During one of them he had to watch his friend drown to death, with European officers watching, laughing, doing nothing to save him, and not even recovering his body.

Read the whole press release: in English – in German

[Press release ‘Rights! No Deaths‘] 16 September 2022 – More than 130 organisations – european and country of origin of migrants – are joining together to organise a March to Brussels under the call Rights! No Deaths! They are demanding the enforcement of international human rights law at the borders and administrative regularisation of people living and working in Europe.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives since 1993. European borders are causing death as a result of the migration policies pursued by the European Union and European governments. The absence of legal and safe channels, the externalisation of border agreements and the progressive militarisation of borders are causing casualties. The recent death of a young sub-Saharan woman shot by the Moroccan gendarmerie as she was preparing to travel by boat to the Canary Islands from the beach of Akhfennir in Tarfaya, and the at least 37 people who died crushed and suffocated just two months ago at the Melilla fence due to the violence with which they were repressed, are dramatic examples of this.

Read the complete press release

• week of actions and workshops against repressive border and migration policies

Rotterdam, 8 August 2022 – At 10am this morning the No Border Camp 2022 has started at the grass field at Giessenweg 25 in Rotterdam. Over the coming week, hundreds of international activists will gather for actions, meetings, workshops, discussion and culture in the context of the struggle for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all. The international ‘Abolish Frontex’ campaign is an important spearhead of the camp.

The camp, including its actions and workshops, will call attention to the repressive and militarised Dutch and EU border and migration policies, at a time they reach new heights with walls, racism, violence and pushbacks at and beyond the borders. ‘The No Border Camp will bring people together to build a movement to resist the appalling, racist European border policies and take action against its profiteers, such as arms companies ‘, according to Noah of the organisation of the camp. Continue reading “No Border Camp 2022 in Rotterdam has started”

4 August 2022 – From Monday 8 to Sunday 14 August the No Border Camp 2022 will take place in Rotterdam. Hundreds of international activists will gather for a week of actions, meetings, workshops, discussion and culture in the context of the struggle for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all. The international ‘Abolish Frontex’ campaign is an important spearhead of the camp.

The No Border Camp, including its actions and workshops, will call attention to the repressive and militarized Dutch and EU border and migration policies, at a time they reach new heights with walls, racism, violence and push-backs at and beyond the borders. From the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers in Ter Apel to EU cooperation with non-EU-countries to stop refugees before they can reach the EU external borders, and from the situation of LGTBQIA+-refugees in The Netherlands to the consequences of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Participants to the camp will also discuss issues such as movement building and strategy. Continue reading “8-14 August: International No Border Camp in Rotterdam: ‘Abolish Frontex’”

“The police don’t respect refugees. A family wanted to bring dinner to their family in quarantine, from jail to jail – “ They kept being rude and saying: time is finished, yes or no, are you listening, yes or no, do you understand, yes or no”. (If) The police understands that they want to give food, why do they not allow it.”

The following article was written by volunteers from different collectives on Lesvos in close
collaboration with multiple people on the move after they expressed a strong desire to share
their experiences. For them it is important that you, the reader, knows what is going on inside
Marovouni camp on Lesvos. And not only to know, but to take action.

Marovouni was established in two thousand twenty after Moria famously burned down in a fire. It
took the Authorities six days to claim the former military site as a supposed “temporary” facility
that was quickly built with the international support of UNHCR and some NGO’s.

This camp is not a place that is generally in the media spotlight. It is, however, as bad as the
previous detention facility on Lesvos, the notorious Moria camp. Moria was well known for its de-humanising conditions. Marovouni is terrible in mostly different, more subtle ways. Not a lot is
known nowadays about the situation in the camp. This is partly because of a lack of interest from
the International press, but also because inhabitants are “heavily discouraged” from sharing
information or footage from inside the camp. Of course “heavily discouraged” means active
oppression by security and police inside the camp through fines and intimidation, but also outright
abuse and violence. In addition, most of the “house rules” are unclearly stated and communicated,
which increases the confusion. Much like the new facility on Samos, for the people with an
interests in maintaining and continuing the status quo it is important that the illusion of peace and
security (“dignified”) of these facilities is upheld. With the construction of the new facility in a
seemingly permanent limbo, it is unlikely this facility will be in use in the foreseeable future. As
you will read in the article below, changes in policy are a daily occurrence and constructions are
seemingly being made to make the camp more permanent.

Read the whole article as [pdf]

Continue reading “New director, same tragedy”