5 years after Ceuta & Melilla - mobilization in Mobilisation Oujda/Maroc

25.Sep.10 - These days mark the 5th anniversary of what has been later coined by the mainstream media as a "storm on Fortress Europe". In deed, several hundred migrants had crossed the outer border of the European Union around the spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in a self-authorized and self-organized fashion.

On the occasion of this anniversary the Beni Znassen association for Culture, Development and Solidarity (ABCDS) in collaboration with activists of the NoBorder network and Euro-African Manifesto network are organizing two days of mobilization in homage to the victims of this “war to the migrants” at the edge of the EU. The planned events will also shed light on the 5 years of the existence of the Frontex mechanism, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, of which the competencies and are ceaselessly strengthened for the militarization of the EU borders and the outsourcing of the treatment of the question of migration.

The commemoration will be centered on two main activities:

1. Organization of an International Conference on Human rights on the borders on October 5th, 2010 on the theme: " 5 years of Ceuta and Melilla, 5 years of Frontex ", to which will participate a number of organizations, networks and activists coming from Europe and Africa and who act for the rights of migrants, and more widely, for human rights in the world. Parliamentarians and political personalities are particularly expected. This event will put together participants from Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Senegal, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Italie, Ukraine, Portugal etc. and possibly from Arab countries. This event, through interventions and testimonies, intends to make visible the violations made at the borders of the countries of the EU and to facilitate contacts and debates with actors who share a common vision based on the respect of the migrants’ rights by promoting the freedom of movement. The objective of the conference is to make visible the violations of human rights at the borders of the countries of the EU and shed light on the existence of Frontex, its competencies and the consequences of its operations in terms of violation of the migrants’ fundamental rights. To go beyond the simple report, various tracks will be tackled from a legal as well as political point of view to set up actions against this mechanism of the most disturbing.

2. Organization of a sit-in of protest in front of barbed wires of Melilla, one of the borders of Europe. This demonstration will be organized on October 6th, in which the demonstrators will wear black ribbons in memory of the borders’ deaths. A set of posters and banners demanding freedom of movement will be distributed by the organizers.

A tablet of commemoration will be planted not far from the wire fence. We call for a large-scale mobilization in Oujda, impose our demands for a more united planet, for the respect of the migrants… for the freedom of movement!

The call and the program for days, and the terms of participation (in Arabic, French and English) can be found here here