noborder news is a frequently updated repository of information on migration related events, developments and actions in europe and beyond http://www.noborder.org/index.php feel free to resuse this content on the morning of the 2nd of december 2009 about 50 noborder activists managed to block the entrance of the EU council building displaying banners with slogans aimed against the introduction of another 5 year programme of death and detention aimed at migrants attempting to establish themselves in europe. After about 5 minutes the activists pushed back the activists from the council building and the protest was continued for another 2 hours on the other side of the street in front of the Berlyamont building (the seat of the EU commission). http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=461 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:00:00 GMT After Tampere and The Hague, the Stockholm program will constitute the next 5-year-framework for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) within the EU and its member states. The new program claims to build up the 'area of freedom, justice and security', but in fact it will continue to implement an even tighter regime of surveillance and control and will promote a securitisation of social life, undermining all civil rights and privacy despite contrary claims. On monday the 30th of november and tuesday the 1st of december a number of actions and other events will be held in Brussels to protest against this new 5 year programme of death and detention. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=460 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT Refugee Protection and Migrants Rights instead of a brutal EU-Border-regime! No to the repressive Stockholm program! After Tampere and The Hague, the Stockholm program will constitute the next 5-year-framework for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) within the EU and its memberstates. The new program claims to build up the 'area of freedom, justice and security'. But in fact it will continue to implement an even tighter regime of surveillance and control and will promote a securitisation of social life, undermining all civil rights and privacy despite contrary claims. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=459 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:00:00 GMT On the 29th of August 2009 activists from the Noborder camp on the island of Lesvos/Greece protested in the port of Mytilini, sieging and blocking the border guard post. Every night the Frontex boat leaves the harbour together with the Greek coastal guards for night patrols in the sea between Lesvos and Turkey. Lesvos is - concerning the 'irregular' entries to Europe - one of the hotspots like Lampedusa and Malta. The migrants who arrive daily on the island are mainly refugees from Somalia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Pakistan and Irak looking for a better future. The Frontex patrols put the lives of the migrants in danger by forcing them to cross at night and in bad weather with small dinghies and by scaring them with their powerful boats. More than one thousand migrants are known to have died in the Aegean sea over the last twenty years. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=458 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT "From Lesvos to an unknown land": this was the response given by Mr X. at the NoBorder Camp in Mytilini, when asked where he planned to go after his arrival in Athens. Mr X. was acting as a spokesperson for a Somalian group, who, along with migrants from Afghanistan and Eritrea, were released from the "Pagani Welcome Centre" shortly before the official start of the NoBorder Camp. Pagani, the "reception centre" of Lesvos; the detention centre with a capacity of 250 people was filled with around 1,000 occupants – men, women and children – in August, when the Camp took place. Needless to say, Pagani was totally over-booked. A video made with a camera smuggled into the centre by one of the transit migrants clearly documents the unbearable conditions in which they were being detained. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=457 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT "What crisis?" was the reaction of an activist from Mali, as he was recently asked to comment the economical crash, "we live in a permanent crisis!". And of course he is right, looking at the situation in many countries of the global south. Nevertheless, the last 9 months affected in a particular way the living conditions of millions of migrants, not only in the European space. Migration and labour in times of crisis is like a thread that we follow to describe the material effects of the recession in different sectors, but also experiences of resistance or refusal. The socio-political organization of migrant labour remains the crucial question from our point of view. Subsequently we - as Frassanito-network - intend to organize a series of connected discussions and events in various European cities in late autumn '09. Our aim is to create more exchange and transnational communication about practices of self-organization and union campaigns in the field of migrant labour. download issue number 7 of the transnational newsletter here http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=455 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:00:00 GMT It has now been more than 4 years since UNHCR opened a new office in Rabat, acting swiftly and promptly in response to requests from European states trying to keep asylum seekers, especially from Sub-Saharan Africa, away from their borders. Only after several years of waiting UNHCR's presence in Morocco was officially recognised, and even after that the cooperation of the Moroccan government - a precondition for making the refugee status granted by UNHCR work in daily life - could not be guaranteed. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=452 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:00:00 GMT In the last few years the island of Lesvos has represented one of the main entrance gate for thousands of refugees and migrants seeking to reach Europe. Packed in tiny plastic boats they try to cross the sea border between Turkey and Greece but some of them can't make it. More than 1.100 migrants and refugees have lost their lives that way in Aegean sea in the last 20 years. The Hellenic Coast Guard, following the european and greek policies of 'prevention of entrance' violates the rights of the refugees and put their lives in danger. At the same time, though, its activities are supported by Frontex, whose first boat started operating on the island in July 2008. Recently Frontex's officials started interviewing/investigating refugees and migrants in Pagani (Lesvos). http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=453 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:00:00 GMT This morning on Lampedusa, the southern-most island of Europe, a revolt started in the "Centre for identification and expulsion", following the hunger strike of 300 detainees from Tunisia. The detention center hosts more than 800 migrants, mostly from Tunisia. The fire destroyed most of the building and the police used teargas to fight the revolting migrants revolt The mayor of the city Bernardino De Rubeis has released a declaration against the Italian government, quoting his own words: "Guilty is the Government which transformed this center in a Lager, the migrants are desperate." The revolt seems to have exploded when 107 Tunisian migrants were to be deported back to Tunesia. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=450 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT With 300 organisations under the call and 1000 participants the euro-african summit Des Ponts pas des Murs (Bridges No Walls) in Paris on the 17th of october 2008 was the counter summit for the Euro-African Inter-ministerial conference on migrations and development in Paris held on the 25th of november. Des Ponts pas des Murs was the second counter summit after the summit in Rabat on the 30st of june and the 1st of july 2006 which lead to the Rabat Manifesto on Migrations, Fundamental Rights and Freedom of Movement. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=449 Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT This Saturday more than 1000 migrant 'guests' in the 'Centre of first Reception' (CPA) of Lampedusa have escaped from the detention centre, forcing the entrance gates and getting past police controls. They joined a demonstration by residents who were protesting plans to open another detention center on the island. The immigrants who escaped from the detention camp, participated in this demonstration towards the square in front of the Town Hall shouting slogans including 'Freedom' and 'Help us'. On Sunday most migrants had gone back to the detention centre but they are now free to come and go as they please. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=448 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT Thefollowing document is the outcome of a workshop about transnationalisation during the last European Social Forum in Malmoe in September 2008. Groups and individuals met in order to discuss about the process of migrationrelated networking and to make a first evaluation of the transnational chain of actions:"Transnationalization is not a slogan. Transnationalization is a process, and it is a project. Inside and outside Europe, migrants move from one country to another one, looking for a better future, refusing subordination and exploitation. Crossing the borders, migrants are transnationalizing the world. This process is already taking place, that is why the transnationalization of migrants' struggles, against the border regime, must become a project too..." http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=447 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT In February the chain of actions started as an attempt to create a new form of transnational cooperation and communication within the migration-related network. Since February there have been actions in 10 different European and African cities. The transnational Chain of actions will come to an end in October in Ceuta and see a first evaluation is currently taking place during the ESF that is being held in Malmö Swenden. This article gives a first overview of the different activities. More detailed reports and photos can also be found at noborder.org/chain08. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=445 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT We take the opportunities presented by two events, the European Social Forum in Malmö in September as well as the Euro-African Meeting on Migration in Paris in October, to publish another issue of the transnational newsletter Crossing Borders. Crossing borders#6 includes 8 pages: The first part summarizes the transnational chain of migration-related actions, providing brief reports from the stations that have taken place so far. The second part discusses some key aspects of current migration in 4 key countries: 2 texts focus on the situation in Germany and Italy, a thrid text takes a closer look at the situation in Mali and in the last article we take another look at the USA following up on the 'sleepy giant', that woke up in the immigrant protests of 2006. An english language pdf of Crossing Borders #6 is available at noborder.org/crossing_borders and a french language version will be available shortly. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=446 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT On June 5-6, activists from many different countries came to Warsaw to protest against the deadly policies of Frontex, the EU agency which conducts migrant hunting operations, trains border guards and special units to hunt down people crossing so-called "national borders" and which helps to coordinate and implement EU immigration policy. Frontex has its headquarters in Warsaw. On June 5, the second of two transnational conferences took place (A more complete account of the conference should appear later). On June 6, a demonstration was held in front of Frontex headquarters. People from many countries were present, people from various social movements, some refugees living in Poland as well. The protestors demand that Frontex be shut down and that freedom of movement should be given to all, that there be an end to descrimination of all sorts against immigrants. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=444 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT On the 18th of June 2008, a proposal for a directive concerning the detention and deportation of immigrants will be submitted to the European Parliament. Since 1990, the policies of European governments with respect to immigration and asylum have resulted in a continuous reduction of the guarantees and fundamental protections of the people they affect. Europe is becoming a locked-down fortress and uses disproportionate means to prevent access to its territory and to deport unauthorised migrants. The project before the European Parliament, if it were to be adopted, would represent yet another regression. In foreseeing detention that could be extended up to 18 months for people whose only offence is to want to live in Europe, it holds to an inhuman logic: http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=443 Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT On 6 June we will show our opposition to the border regime with a demonstration in front of Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. Frontex is an EU agency with coordinates the activity, training and operations of the EU's border control. It also coordinates this activity with police, the military and secret services. The Frontex- run RABITs (rapid border intervention teams) carry out military- like exercises with weaponry in preparation for operations against groups of migrants. There is growing likelihood that somebody will be shot dead for trying to cross the border. We will go to the Frontex office with the slogans "No one is Illegal" and "No Borders, No Nations" to confront the migrant hunters with the consequences of their policies and show what it is that this institution is really protecting: misery, poverty, exploitation, racism, imperalism and global capitalism. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=442 Tue, 27 May 2008 21:00:00 GMT France has made the issue of migration one of the priorities of the French presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2008. On the 13th and 14th of October 2008 the European Union's council of ministers will be meeting in Paris in order to adopt a 'European pact on immigration and asylum'. On the 20th and 21st of October the second Euro-African inter-ministerial conference will be held in Paris on the question of migrations and development ('Rabat II'). On this occassion we call for participation in a very large-scale European mobilisation during the week of 13th to 19th October in Paris, to promote a different understanding of immigration and a different relationship between the European Union, Africa and the rest of the world. We will organise at that time a counter-summit on the questions of migration and development, a big European demonstration for a different European politics, and a giant concert. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=438 Mon, 19 May 2008 21:00:00 GMT Last week after some newspapers reported on slave albour conditions migrants working as strawberry pickers in greece, the migrants in the rural area of Manolada went on strike. The workers from South Asia and the Balkans demand that their daily wage be increased from €23 to €30 (based on 12 hour work day and having rent for living in makeshift tents deducted by their employers). It is the first time that migrants in rural Greece are going on strike. Their employers have denied to give in to these demands (they are claiming that this would ruin them). Subseqeuntly 400 of the striking migrants were attacked by attacked by farmers and hired thugs. 3 trade unionists have been hurt and received treatment in hospitals. So far the poice have arreted 1 framer and 60 of the striking migrants. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=436 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT The non-existence of any legal entry to Europe for Asylum-seekers produces a market of illegal transport facilities, a prospering business at the EU-borders. The closed borders have produced this market and the criminalising the market's actors at the same time. Draconian penalties against - as the border regime calls it - “people trafficking” increases the prices for transportation on one hand, and makes the market more attractive on the other hand, as well as making a secure arrival at the aimed destination impossible. Migration from areas which have become impoverished, plundered and unliveable through war and/or through electronic/textile/raw material production and disposals are one way to defy the world order. Our protest's aim is to support the interests of the people who have decided to take this hard and dangerous path. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=434 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT While the number of migrants and refugees is rising everywhere, the European Union is implementing a more and more restrictive border regime to limit, control and "manage" migration according to its own interests. The result is violent exclusion of migrants and refugees, leading to thousands of people dying every year outside the walls of Fortress Europe, in the desert, in the Mediterranean sea or in the Atlantic ocean, leading to enforced mass deportations, leading to millions of "undocumented migrants" and asylum seekers who are deprived of fundamental Human Rights and Labour Rights. FRONTEX, the "European Border Agency", plays a crucial core role for this racist european border regime and has achieved rapidly growing importance and budget since its foundation in 2005. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=431 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT On the 15th and 16th of march 2008 about 200 people attended a meeting on migration and deportation in the Malian capital Bamako organised by the AME, a grassroots organisation of deportees. This 'Association Malienne des Expulsés' wanted to pass on the experiences of the deportees from European and African countries to the 'candidats au départ' and discuss the repression of the sans-papiers in Europe and the almost complete sealing off of Africa by to the extended European border control. The AME meeting tied the struggle against deportation and for freedom of movement in Africa to this struggle in Europe. Bamako is one of the ten stations of the Transnational Chain of Migrationrelated Actions. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=430 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT MayDay! MayDay! From Milano to Helsinki, from Malaga to Berlin, MayDay Parades have spread throughout Europe and beyond. They express the common will to fight precarization and the criminalization of migrants, to make the daily struggles of the precarious visible, to work together to subvert and disrupt the flows of money and power in Fortress Europe. Nowadays, precarity is structural and generalized. It's the paradigmatic condition of work. Structural, because it is the modern form of capitalistic dominance on labur, the outcome of individual bargaining at the expense of collective bargaining. Further, labor precarity is transformed into precarity for life. When the separation between working time and living time blurs, in a context where worktime can be expanded with no limits, precarized labor conditions become precarious conditions of existence. Migrant workers are the most precarious among the precarious. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=428 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT On February 13th, 2008, Franco Frattini, the Justice, Security and Freedom Commissioner and Vice-President of the European Commission, presented the European Commission's so-called Border Package, entitled 'A comprehensive vision for an integrated European border management system for the 21st century'. The package is comprised of three parts. The first is an evaluation of and outlook for Frontex, the European border security agency. The second part addresses the establishment of the European border surveillance system (EUROSUR). We present this text (which was written for the german language) frontex-watch website in the context of the ongoing transnational action chain that includes an action day against frontex on the 6th of june 2008 in Warsaw. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=425 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT [updated 20.feb.08: the protests in the camps are still going on. a day to day overview of the events can be found on migreurop.org] In France, in 2 "centres de rétention" (one of the types of detention centers for migrants, where they are  before deportation) in Paris region, a strong protest movement has been going since Dec 20, 2007. Migrants went on hunnger strike to try to alert the opinion on detention, which they characterize as "shameful and arbitrary". Some of them  have written a "cahier de doléances" (after the jump; the term refer to lists of claims and complaints before the French Revolution) where they point lack of hygiene, their feeling to be "ttreated like cattle", "humiliating searches" etc... this document has been sent to, among others, the consulates of their home countries. http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=399 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:00:00 GMT