Press release:
Authorities try to block protest camp against deportations at BER airport with pretextual reasons
** zur deutschen Version der Pressemitteilung **
Berlin/Schönefeld. The assembly authorities in Cottbus are trying to prevent the planned protest camp of the initiative Abschiebezentrum BER verhindern near the airport BER in Schönefeld (Brandenburg) by all means. After the approval process for the registered assembly was delayed for over six weeks, the second area requested for the camp has now also been rejected with reference to nature conservation concerns. The organisers accuse the authorities of giving reasons, as the area is used by quads and for a festival, among others. The protest camp of the initiative Abschiebezentrum BER verhindern (Preventing the BER Deportation Centre) is to take place in Schönefeld from 1 to 6 June to draw attention both to the planned construction of a deportation centre there and to current deportation practices.
Alexis Martel, spokesperson for the initiative, is furious: “The reasons for refusing the space are clearly politically motivated. The supposedly generous alternative offer by the authorities to provide the initiative with a one-hectare area, of which only half is usable, can only be a bad joke in view of over 500 expected participants. It is a scandal that the authorities de facto deny us the basic right to freedom of assembly!”
The first possible area for the protest camp was already registered on 5 April. Only a few days ago it was rejected because of alleged ammunition contamination. The alternative registered area was now also rejected a week before the camp because of alleged nature conservation concerns. The assembly authorities apparently have no objections to a festival to be held on the same site a few months later. Even quads that regularly tour there do not seem to disturb nature. Without a suitable area, no camp – the initiative’s lawyer will now enforce the right of assembly with a lawsuit.
The protest camp is supposed to be a meeting place for people protesting against the racist deportation practice in Germany. A comprehensive educational programme on the topics of flight, migration, structural racism, deportations and political self-organisation is planned.
“The current discourse with its calls for more deportations, migration defence and disenfranchisement is inhuman, its consequences partly deadly. The planned BER deportation centre is to become the European showcase project of a racist migration policy. It stands in a continuity of the European policy of deterrence and isolation. Germany and the EU want to expand the racist border regime – but we will not allow another instrument of neo-colonial and racist policy to emerge at the gates of Berlin. Profits and capitalist interests must not take precedence over human lives. We demand freedom of movement and an unconditional right to stay for all!”
Schönefeld is already home to a deportation prison, but according to the plans it is to be massively expanded into a deportation centre.
Press contact:
Contact: Alexis Martel, Tel: +49 152 15671313
Press Email: Communication-stopdeportation@riseup.net
Homepage: https://abschiebezentrumverhindern.noblogs.org/