Vrijspraak voor bezetters Zaanse bajesboten

[persbericht 15.10.08]

persbericht advocaat: 'Politierechter Haarlem: verdachte heeft geen legitimatieplicht´

Vandaag diende bij de rechtbank in Haarlem de aangehouden rechtszaak tegen
23 activisten die op 27 januari 2006 een van de Zaanse bajesboten in
aanbouw bezetten. De bouw van de bajesboten werd daarmee een dag
stilgelegd.

De activisten waren aangeklaagd voor erf/lokaalvredebreuk (artikel 138) en
het niet tonen van ID. De rechbank verklaarde het openbaar ministerie niet
ontvankelijk in de eerste aanklacht op grond van het gelijkheidsbeginsel.
Het was de rechter onduidelijk waarom juist deze activisten aangeklaagd
waren. Met betrekking tot het niet tonen van ID werden de verdachten
vrijgesproken. Het pleidooi van advocaat Jebbink dat verdachten zich mogen
beroepen op hun zwijgrecht, overtuigde de rechter.

De bezetting van de bajesboten door Migranten Welkom deed veel stof
opwaaien in Zaandam. De bouw van de twee boten was tot die tijd
stilgehouden. De actievoerders bezetten de boten uit protest tegen het
detentie- en uitzetbeleid en in solidariteit met alle migranten. De
aktivisten zijn blij met de uitspraak van vandaag en zeggen te blijven
protesteren tegen dit onmenselijk beleid.

Tijdens de rechtszaak las een van de aktievoerders bijgevoegde verklaring
voor.

PS Intussen is bekend geworden dat het Openbaar Ministerie niet in hoger beroep gaat tegen de uitspraak van de rechtbank.

Voor foto's en een verslag van de bezetting zie:
http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2006/01/33816.shtml

________________________________________________

verklaring Migranten Welkom dd 15 oktober 2008

Op 27 januari bezetten 23 mensen een van de twee detentieboten in aanbouw
in de Zaanse haven. Zo'n zestig anderen verzamelden zich bij het
bouwterrein om de aktie te ondersteunen. Aan de boot hing een enorm
spandoek:  'Migreren is geen misdaad, stop het uitzetbeleid, migranten
welkom'.

Tot het moment van de actie was het door Justitie en de gemeente Zaanstad
stil gehouden dat in de Zaanse haven twee boten gebouwd werden voor het
gevangenzetten van migranten zonder papieren. Na de brand in het onveilige
uitzetcentrum op Schiphol onstond veel commotie en het uitzetbeleid krijgt
sinds die tijd veel meer de negatieve aandacht die het verdient. Kennelijk
trekt Justitie zich hier niets van aan: Justitie weigert de uitzetmachine
stop te zetten en koos in Zaandam wéér voor het bouwen van zo goedkoop
mogelijke gevangenissen voor migranten.

De actiegroep bezette de boten in solidariteit met alle migranten. Zij
meent dat migranten en vluchtelingen in Nederland op vernederende en
discriminerende wijze behandeld worden. Het uitsluiten,  opsluiten en
uitzetten van mensen is wreed en onacceptabel en schendt de rechten van
mannen, vrouwen en kinderen. Het ontnemen van de basisrechten van
migranten zonder papieren zorgt voor een steeds groter wordende tweedeling
in de Nederlandse samenleving.

Migratie is een onderdeel van het globaliseringsproces wat niet tot
stilstand gebracht kan of moet worden. Migranten zijn ondernemende mensen
die hun land verlaten op zoek naar een betere toekomst; vluchtelingen
hebben vaak geen keuze dan hun land te verlaten. Iedereen op deze wereld
heeft het recht  zich waar dan ook ter wereld te begeven of te vestigen.
Door het repressieve afschrikbeleid dat Nederland voert, wordt migratie
niet gestopt maar vallen er wel meer slachtoffers.

Migratie is van alle tijden en plaatsen. Door migranten te criminaliseren
worden de beweegredenen van migranten aan de kant geschoven: de ongelijke
verdeling van welvaart in de wereld en de voortdurende aanwezigheid van
oorlog en repressie.

Het politiek klimaat in Nederland op dit moment vraagt om offensieve
acties die direct ingrijpen in de uitvoering van het racistische beleid.
Wij staan dan ook nog steeds achter wat wij gedaan hebben.

[einde persbericht]

internationale actiedag: Zaanse bajesboten komen naar de burger toe

[persbericht, 6 oktober 2006]

Op zaterdag 7 oktober, de Internationale Actiedag voor vrijheid van beweging, zal Zaandam bezoek krijgen van de dienst Opsluiting en Uitsluiting van de actiegroep all included. Burgers van Zaanstad zullen op deze dag geïnformeerd worden over de detentieboten die binnenkort in hun gemeente in gebruik genomen zullen worden.

Het linkse college van Zaanstad heeft in april jl. voor de detentieboten gestemd. De besluitvormingsprocedure die hieraan vooraf ging was warrig en de informatie die gebruikt werd tegenstrijdig. De burgers van Zaanstad zijn nauwelijks op de hoogte gebracht over de nieuwe gevangenissen. Na deze onduidelijkheid zal de dienst Opsluiting en Uitsluiting opheldering verschaffen over de detentieboten en een boekje open doen over vreemdelingenbewaring.

De boten worden gebouwd door Ursem Bouwbedrijf BV, dat ook verantwoordelijk is voor het Uitzetcentrum Zestienhoven. Dit complex dreigt op dit moment gesloten te worden in verband met gebrekkige brandveiligheid. Ook in het licht van het rapport over de Schipholbrand van de commissie van Vollenhoven bestaan er nog veel onduidelijkheden over de veiligheid op de bajesboten te Zaandam, die net als Schiphol-Oost gebouwd worden in opdracht van de Rijksgebouwendienst.

In het winkelcentrum van Zaandam zal de actiegroep een infoplein inrichten waar de boten gepresenteerd worden aan het publiek. Door middel van onder andere maquettes, plattegronden en foto's van de boten zullen de burgers van Zaanstad zich kunnen informeren. Medewerkers van de dienst zullen toelichting geven en voorbijgangers van een informatieflyer voorzien.

In januari werden de detentieboten in aanbouw een dag lang bezet door de aktiegroep 'Migranten welkom'. Nu de boten bijna klaar zijn vindt all included het belangrijk dat burgers weten wat er in haar gemeente speelt. All included: "Binnenkort zullen onschuldige mensen hier opgesloten worden. Vanuit de gemeente wordt tot nu toe steeds gesproken over criminele illegalen. Het is maar zeer de vraag of het om criminelen zal gaan. Veel waarschijnlijker komen hier mensen te zitten zonder verblijfsvergunning, zoals uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers".

All Included

open letter Campaign Stop Police Raids, 29nd of july 2007

OPEN LETTER

Defend the rights of undocumented migrants and refugees!
Stop racist police raids and deportations!


In the early hours of the 16th of June 2007, a concert in Amsterdam Zuid-Oost was raided by 80 police, using horses and dogs. The police arrested and detained 111 migrants, mainly African, 70 of whom are either deported or facing deportation in the near future. A few of them with valid resident permits were released after some days in detention centers. The raid was justified by police and the immigration service on grounds of searching for persons engaging in internet fraud. Even though 22 of those detained were ordered released by an Amsterdam judge who ruled the police action unlawful, State Secretary Nebahat Albayrak, representing the Immigration Service IND, successfully appealed to halt this decision pending her appeal. Although the Raad van State had not yet made its decision, deportations started in the early hours of Thursday morning, July 26th and almost all the women who had been arrested were deported from Uitzetcentrum Zestienhoven. Furthermore, the police have used immigration powers to target the African migrant community for arrest within a criminal investigation, thereby conflating immigration and crime law enforce-ment and policy.

Besides this gross criminalisation of migrants, the conduct of the raid was overtly racist. Police checked the identities of all black people in the venue, and let the white people go without asking for their identity. In this way, the police have violated the non-discrimination principle laid down in several internationally binding human rights instruments (e.g. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as the EU Racial Equality Directive (2004/43/EC). This is also contrary to all the human rights Conventions which the Netherlands has signed. And in the case of Amsterdam, it is contrary to the promises that the Mayor made that this kind of raid would not happen.

In the course of the raid, the African migrants were further humiliated by being made to remove their belts and shoe laces and place these in a plastic bag. Following this, they were required to hold the plastic bag in front of them while being photographed. Those arrested were then dis-persed to different detention centers throughout the Netherlands.

There is deep concern that this raid will set a dangerous precedent where immigration law is used to look for criminals. Although immigration raids have a history in the Netherlands, with stop and search powers extended in 2002 and a series of police raids against Ukrainian and Bulgarian workers in late 2002, they appear to have gained a new legal basis in October 2006, with the introduction of a performance contract (prestatiecontract) signed by Dutch police and government authorities, which set a quota for searching and controlling thousands of undocumented migrants this year alone with the aim of detaining and deporting up to 12,000.

These immigration raids are starting to spread unrest in the migrant and refugee community with fear of arbitrary arrest operations leading to deportation. It is notable that police are targeting the few safe havens that are left for undocumented migrants in the Netherlands, apparently in an attempt to spread fear amongst the community and show them that they can regard no place as safe: earlier this year, police raided a church in Rotterdam and a refugee solidarity café in Utrecht.

This increasing discrimination of migrants be it by way of their detention, the denial of access to basic rights such as housing and health care or the deliberate spread of fear of arrest and deportation, severely violates their fundamental rights guaranteed in international and national law.

Therefore, we, the undersigned,

While re-iterating our support for the protection and defence of the rights of undocumented migrants and refugees, we

# strongly condemn the use of immigration powers to carry out raids on undocumented migrants reject the conflation of immigration and criminal investigations and law enforcement and underline that undocumented migrants are not criminals

# demand the immediate release of all those arrested in the raid in accordance with the Amsterdam first instance court ruling (behandeling June 26 & uitspraak July 3), as their arrest was based on a discriminatory and unlawful police act

# demand State Secretary Albayrak and the Dutch government to revoke the prestatie- contracten, as these constitute a dangerous development fostering racist police behaviour and violating our understanding of democratic principles that should guide law enforcement practice

Amsterdam, July 29 2007

Campaign Stop Police Raids

African Roots Movement
African Community in the Netherlands
All included
Commission for Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW)
Euro-Mediterraan Centrum Migratie & Ontwikkeling (ENCEMO)
Foundation University Ghana
Youth Association Humanity-Germany
Internationale Socialisten
Jesus Christ Foundation (JCF)
Landelijk Migratie Overleg
Nigerian Foundation
Ojala
Philippine Seamen’s Assistance Programme (PSAP)
RESPECT NL
St. De Fabel van de illegaal
Steungroep Vrouwen Zonder Verblijfsvergunning (SVZV)
Stichting LOS
TRUSTED Migrants
Transnational Institute (TNI)
XminY Solidariteitsfonds

Controversy over use of ‘razzia’, 14th of october 2007, News from Amsterdam

The rally was rather small and thus proved many people's expectations right. However, when Amadou M'Bow grabbed the microphone, the protest in front of Frontex' headquarters in Warsaw gained momentum (photo: Amadou M'Bow). A representative of the Mauretanian Human Rights Organization AMDH (Association Mauretanienne de Droits de l'Homme), M'Bow demanded an immediate stop of the agency's ongoing actions within "Operation Hera." In a later conversation, he directly engaged persons in charge at Frontex, emphasizing the deadly consequences of the agency's operation along the West-African coastline.

Activists from Poland, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands participated in this first round of protests at the headquarters of the European External Borders Agency on June 6, 2008. Mobilization to this protest was part of a transnational chain of actions against the European border and deportation regime, taking place consecutively at 10 different sites. In addition to a critique of border enforcement and deportation policies, the actions brought public attention to migrant labor issues.

In the call for action, the two objectives had been discussed within a larger framework: "[A]ll over the world, capitalist exploitation is unimaginable without global differences, constructed through filters and zones, hierarchies and inequality, and through external as well as internal borders. The illegalization and deportation of migrants on one hand, selective inclusion and recruitment of migrant workforce on the other hand are two sides of the same coin: migration management for a global apartheid regime, whose most precarious conditions of exploitation are based on the production of hierarchies of rights and on racist discrimination."

Transnational Chain of Actions
It was no accident that Frontex had been chosen as the main target of several protests within the chain of actions. As early as March 2008, the self-help organization AME (Association Malienne des Expulsés) had organized a conference of 200 people affected by deportation and repulsion. During this conference, the externalization of EU migration control, i.e. the institutionalization of European border and migration policies in sub-Saharan countries, as well as Frontex' role in this process were the focus of much criticism.

Protests at another site of the chain of actions, the anti-Racist action camp organized in Hamburg in August 2008, targeted Frontex in two separate campaigns. First, a "flooding" of Hamburg's airport addressed the "Charters of Shame", charter flights used to deport immigrants from Europe that are coordinated and funded by Frontex. (3) In a second protest, activists gathered in front of the Federal Police Academy in Lübeck, where training courses for Frontex are held regularly. (photo: activists of "Lebenslaute" at the academy).

The 5th Social Forum in Malmö (Sweden) in October 2008 provided a first opportunity to reflect on the chain of actions and to plan further protests against Frontex and their coordination on the European level. At the final meeting of activists engaged in the support of immigrants and refugees, a noborder camp on the Greek island of Lesvos was proposed for the first time. To remind the reader, in the summer of 2008 Frontex deployed a ship to the coastal waters of Lesvos and attempted to block immigrants from going ashore. Organizing an action camp close to this hot spot of the European border regime would offer an opportunity to directly interrupt Frontex' operations, the proposal argued. Currently, in August 2009, mobilization to the camp in Lesvos is in full swing and organizers expect between 400 and 500 participants from all over Europe. One of the action days is explicitly designated to address the practices of the Greek coastguard and of Frontex.

Transnational Manifesto

"The European border regime is a crucial instrument for the production of [...] differences and hierarchies. The militarization of the borders, the patrol of the Mediterranean area and of the eastern Europe, the readmission agreements, the homogeneous system of control which Europe is trying to develop through Frontex, all this facts must be read as instruments of selective inclusion and recruitment of migrant men and women, whose movements everyday threaten the borders themselves. Yet, this is not impeding migrants' struggles. Rather, what is at stake today is the transnational connection of these struggles." These lines originate from a manifesto released by groups who had participated in the meeting in Malmö. The upcoming noborder camp in Lesvos is supposed to be a space where activists can discuss and develop the goals and strategies outlined in the manifesto. The camp will enable a gathering of activists from many member states of the Schengen Agreements. In addition, members of an initiative monitoring the border in the Ukraine, members of European-African networks based in Morocco, Mauritania and Mali (see above), as well as groups from Turkey who had organized a noborder camp in Dikili, on the other side of the Agaean Sea, in 2008, are invited.

The transnational gathering will open up an excellent space to extend and strengthen the campaign against Frontex. Activists need to tackle the question, how, on a local level, it is possible to denounce and question the Border Agency's practices as those of hunters and murderers of boat people. Potential sites of protests to consider are, for instance, the various forms of publicity employed by the agency, as well its trainings and operations ashore, at sea and at airports that we can observe more and more frequently. In this regard, the noborder camp on Lesvos will be the site of first and important practical experiences.

Toward the end of the year, there will be new opportunities to articulate collective protest. Since July 1, 2009, Sweden is holding the EU-presidency. For November or December, the passage of the so-called "Stockholm Program" is scheduled. A successor of the programs adopted in Tampere (1999) and Hague (2004), the Stockholm Program outlines a new Five-Year-Plan on Justice and Home Affairs. It comes as no surprise that an increased appreciation of and further technical upgrades for Frontex' actions are essential parts of the new plans. In that sense, Stockholm might as well be a useful stage for well-coordinated and concerted campaigns.

This report was first published in German in the 2009 Frontex Brochure.