The hunting of refugees does not stop at the border!

National and regional offices work towards the establishment of a border regime - a policy which makes it impossible for refugees to come and live here. The refugees in the home for asylum seekers in Zittau live in a climate of constant racial discrimination from officials and attacks by the border police (BGS), the regional police force, and Nazis. This is only possible in an atmosphere where denouncing illegal entries and institutionalized racism is the norm: Through flyers and an info-telephone number, the border police (BGS) appeal to local citizens to take part in the search and hunt for refugees.
The government offices of Zittau support Nazi groups by making meeting-places available to them and by silently tolerating racist attacks. Because of the constant threats from racists, it is impossible for refugees in Zittau to move freely in the city. The mayor shows no interest in helping the refugees in any way.
At the centre of the racist border regime is the refugee home of Zittau, which should rather be described as a punishment and deportation camp.

The regional administrative authority is directly resposible for the inhuman conditions in the Zittau refugee home:

• There are too few washing machines and cooking appliances for the around 130 people who live in the camp.
• Not enough hot water, only communal showers, making private hygiene impossible
• Clogged toilets.
• No possibility for people to buy their own food, instead, they receive food packets corresponding to a special point system (e.g. a given number of food-points per week), cash is only available in form of 80 DM pocket money per month.
• 2 rolls of toilet paper per person per month; whoever needs more must give up some of his or her points.
• Tainted drinking water.
• Inadequate garbage disposal system
• The antiquated coal-heating system works only irregularly during the winter.
• The answer to a request for the home to be painted was that the refugees should help paint for the salary of 2 DM per hour, if they refused, their pocket money would be cut. In the jargon of the social security law of asylum seekers this is called "communal work".
• If someone needs a doctor, he or she must wait between 2 weeks to a month for an appointment.
• No recreational activities, no common room, no television, no library, no playground for the children.
• Zittau is not a transitional camp, but a camp where refugees wait for the day they will be deported, or for the outcome of the long-winding bureaucratic process of the asylum application. Some of the inmates in Zittau have already waited for many years in these conditions.

The camp is situated far from residential areas in Zittau; because of this, the danger of racial attacks is more pervasive. Meanwhile, the city of Zittau owns several unused apartment buildings, which it could use to house the refugees if it wished to do so. If there is a racial attack on the camp, the caretaker (Hausmeister) has been known to refuse to call the police. If the refugees themselves call, it takes 1 to 2 hours for the police to show up. On the other hand, the refugees are often criminalized by the police. The above mentioned points are all an expression of the systematic isolation, exclusion, and discrimination of refugees in Zittau. Above all, this institutionalized racism supports the racist concensus among the population, and makes Nazi attacks possible.

The fear that refugees have of attacks and repression, when they openly describe and criticize their situation, creates a climate of silencing and tension. The responsible officials obviously do not complain – this fear and its toleration by the authorities as well as the general public, is the basis for the all-encompassing dehumanization of the refugees. The actual goal of these unbearable living conditions is the “disappearance” of those who have sought refuge here.
Most of the refugees in the camp in Zittau have an "exceptional leave to remain" (Duldung) which means, they have been refused asylum and can be deported at any time. Many therefore decide to leave Germany of their own volition and search for a more human life elsewhere. The situation in Zittau, as well as in other asylum-seekers’ homes, are part of the strategy of the German state to refuse refugees a place in society, to deprive them of their human rights and to force them into illegality.

In the face of these unbearable living conditions we demand:

• Decentralized housing for the refugees, according to their needs, in the residential areas of the inner city which implies the closure of the refugee home in Zittau! End to the isolation!
• Free choice of living conditions. Refugees must, like other people, be able to decide for themselves where and with whom they live.
• Availability of adequate sanitary and cooking facilities, heating, and hygenic water.
• Appropriate and unbureaucratic medical care.
• Adequate legal advice
• Availability of translators for bureaucratic processes and state funded German lessons
• Freedom to participate in political activity without fear of repression.
• An end to the support and toleration of Nazi activities by the state.
• Closure of the BGS (border police) telephone line which encourages citizens denouncing illegals. Stop the racist propoganda!
• Complete social and civil rights for refugees, payment in cash of the mainstream minimum existence benefit. End to the exclusionary treatment!

We appeal to everyone who does not want to succomb to the racist climate to support the refugees and to take active action against racist attacks.

Stop the racist politics!
Break through the isolation!
Nobody is illegal!
Asylum is a human right!

INFO:

The Voice e.V. Africa Forum, Schillergäßchen 5, 07745 Jena
Tel: 03641 665214 or 449304 Fax: 03641 423795 or 420270

Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V.
Tel: 0421 5577093
Fax: 0421 5577094
eMail: Mail@humanrights.de

World Wide Web: http://www.humanrights.de/

kein Mensch ist illegal
c/o Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration
Gneisenaustraße 2a
10961 Berlin
Tel: 0172/8910825


Please write to the minister of the interior of the Saxony, Mr. Hardradt, and engage yourself for the closure of the refugee home in Zittau ad the decentralized housing for the refugees, according to their needs, in the residential areas of the inner city.
Tel.: 0351 5643 000, Fax.: 0351 5643 199