21.03.2017.

Not Safe at all

The Safe Countries of Origin Legislation and the Consequences for Roma Migrants

The discussions against Safe Countries of Origin concept and the repressive migration policies introduced into German legislation, continued throughout events in seven cities in Northern and Eastern Germany (Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Erfurt, Potsdam and Berlin) within the speakers tour »Not Safe at All« between 14^th and 23^rd of February. Tamara Baković Jadžić, co-editor of the RLS SEE publication »Not Safe at All – The Safe Countries of Origin legislation and the Consequences for Roma Migrants«, activist of the Roma Forum Serbia and the broad coalition of progressive organizations Left Summit of Serbia, spoke at the events along with the activists from Council for Refugees and representatives from self-organized Roma groups who are directly engaged in struggles against the continuous discrimination, and deportations of Roma people.

The changes introduced into German legislation on asylum and the declaration of the Balkan states as safe had serious consequences for Roma migrants coming from this region. Not only did these actions of German government make it almost impossible for asylum seekers to obtain the asylum. These measures also threaten Roma who have been living in Germany for years under »Duldung« to be put in deportation camps and deported overnight to their so-called countries of origin – countries many of them have never been to and where they will be left to live in fear and precarity.

Tamara Baković Jadžić spoke about the reasons why so many Roma are forced to leave their countries, and how paradoxically, the accession process and the changes in social and economic policies imposed parallel in this process is what drives more and more people out of the peripheral European countries. Poverty, unemployment, deindustrialization, dismantling of social public services and austerity measures are what is most affecting already marginalized groups like Roma communities. She underlined the continuity of persecution, discrimination and social exclusion of Roma in Europe where now the racist label »false asylum seeker« is only adding fuel to the rising far right sentiments in both Western and Eastern Europe. Even more, this label that suggests that someone is groundlessly seeking the asylum contrary to the idea of »real refugees«. This adds to the division of marginalized groups and diminishes the potential of self-organized and solidary struggles. Both activists from the Refugee Council, and active Roma organizations agreed that this is the matter to be discussed in alliances with other refugee groups, civil society groups and various progressive political actors if we want to build solidary alternatives to the current migration regime.

Kenan Emini from Roma-Center Gottingen, and activist of the self-organized Roma group »Alle bleiben!« spoke along with Tamara Baković Jadžić on several occasions about the living conditions of Roma in Germany and the difficulties they face now due to the new, restrictive asylum legislation. They are not allowed to work, and live in constant fear of the possibility of deportation. Emini insisted on the urgency of alliances in stopping the deportations of Roma to the Balkan countries, but also in creating broader solidarities for struggling against far-right political actors like AfD (»Alternative für Deutschland«).

Preparing for the federal elections in Germany in September, the government plans to set up federal deportation centres near airports to facilitate collective deportations, where not only Roma and people from the Balkans will be placed on flights back to their countries of origin, but also all rejected asylum applicants from countries like Afghanistan, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc.

This was the second speakers tour with Tamara Baković-Jadžić to present the publication and connect with Roma organizations, allies and the interested public in Germany. The first tour took place in Munich, Nuremberg, Tübingen, Mannheim, Cologne and Bochum in November 2016. The events took place, for example, with the participation of the Bavarian refugee council, the refugee council of Baden-Württemberg, the association of Sinti and Roma in Baden-Württemberg. Hence, the consequences of the current changes of asylum laws for Roma living in Germany were be intensively discussed, as well as measures of action and support, for example in the framework of the campaign »Alle bleiben!«, and in broader struggles for the right to mobility and against a Fortress Europe.

Tags: Migracija, Romi

News

20.03.2017.
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Pula, Croatia
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Center for Cultural and Historical Research on Socialism
COMMUNISTS AND COMMUNIST PARTIES: POLICIES, ACTIONS, DEBATES
3rd International Conference »Socialism on the Bench«
While the themes of the last conference reflected the anniversaries of 1945 and 1990, with the beginning and end of state socialism, the third Socialism on the Bench conference will again be echoing historical events. With the theme Communists and Communist Parties: Policies, Actions, Debates, we want to encourage research into communist activity in a broader geographical area than the one covered by socialist Yugoslavia, and during a period lasting longer than the existence of that country.
Tags: Istorija, Revizionizam, Socijalizam

08.11.2016.
|
Beograd, Srbija
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Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
WORKING CONDITIONS IN TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES
Possibilities of International Labor Organizing in Southeast Europe
In 2014 Serbia advertised itself on CNN as a land of highly skilled and cheap labor. Similar to that, in Skopje, Macedonia advertised itself on billboards across the town as a country with the cheapest labor force in Europe.
Tags: Alternative, Economy, Rad, Radnička prava

01.08.2016.
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Institute for Critique and Social Emancipation
For the workers, for society!
Report on workers rights in Albania
During the last 25 years, the term »worker« - along with all the great importance, difficulties and the problematics inherited in it – has been disappearing from public discourse and political attention of interchanging governments.

12.07.2016.
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Ohrid, Macedonia
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Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities
Building Blocks for the Left
Regional Political Forum on Marxist Theory and Practice in the Southeast Europe
The period after the disappointment from SYRIZA's government and the (re)enacting of the debates on the level of intervention, European or national, that new socialist strategies should concentrate, was ruptured by the ›Brexit‹ with a deeper debate on the very position of the Left towards the European Union.
Tags: Alternative, Feminizam, Politika, Socijalizam

07.06.2016.
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Belgrade
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Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
SAFE FOR WHOM?
The Safe Country of Origin Concept and the Case of Roma Migrants
In September 2014 and October 2015, the German Bundesrat designated first Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, then Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro as safe countries of origin. In September 2015, the European Commission proposed to establish a common EU list of safe countries of origin (SCO) mainly including countries in the Western Balkan region.
Tags: Migracija, Romi

21.01.2016.
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Sarajevo
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Centre for the Promotion of Interactive Education and Social Action
Open University: Who’s Afraid of Future?
Questions and dilemmas for the Left
In 2015 we organized Open University in Banja Luka on 26-27 September (dedicated to ‘Future’), and in Sarajevo on 26-29 November (under the title ‘Who’s Afraid of…’). This report will not enumerate the topics of 20 round tables, lectures and open discussions, including a literary reading and a theatre show, followed at each event by an audience ranging between 100 to 180 people, nor the names of more than 40 speakers and participants. All these information, together with audio and video recordings, are available on the pages of our web magazine Otvoreni magazine / Open Magazine (http://otvoreni-magazin.net/). Here we want to concentrate on, in our view, the four major problems (out of many) that were, regardless of concrete discussion topics that ranged from Greek crisis, the Balkans, political economy, Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, engaged literature, sexuality, plenums to refugees, constantly addressed by our speakers as well as by the audience. What follows is a presentation (not a summary) of the questions that were asked, the dilemmas that were discussed, and some answers that were offered in relation to these particular four problems.
Tags: Politika