Webjournal zum Flüchtlingskongress vom 21. April bis 1. Mai in Jena	zurück | back

Residenzpflicht - results of the working group, 28.04.00

TOP 1: Presentation of the results of the working groups of supporters and refugees

a) working group refugees:
The "Declaration of the Committee for the Civil Disobedience of the Residence Obligation Law, Jena, 26th April 2000" is read in English & translated into French

b) working group supporters:
The results are presented in English.

The results of both working groups exist also in written form.

TOP 2: Action Plan, Discussion of several items
items:

• a) committee
• b) leaflets
• c) regional action day
• d) letter to the parliament
• e) support for people who face punishment because they broke the Residence Obligation Law

a) committee

• members: Omwenyeke Sunny, Cornelius Yufanyi, Cho Lucas Ayaba, Afoda Nasuru, Kamara Lansana
• supporter groups: all supporter groups want to discuss this topic first within their groups and then appoint a representative; the supporter groups involved are from Darmstadt/Hanau, Freiburg, Nürnberg, Hamburg & Brandenburg
• next meeting of the committee: saturday, 29.04.00, 17.00 hrs (guests welcome)

b) leaflets

• 2 different leaflets should be produced: one leaflet addressed to the German public to inform them about the situation and sensitise them, one leaflet addressed to the refugees to mobilise them and encourage them to participate in the actions
• on both leaflets the addresses of THE VOICE should be given as well as the address of the local/regional contact groups
• the leaflet for the refugees will be translated in the following languages within the Karawane: German, English, French & Spanish; translations into the following languages will be done by the mentioned groups: Arabic by Hanau, Turkish by Freiburg, Tamil by Bremen, Persisch/Farsi by Darmstadt, Serbia-Croatic by Nürnberg
• the text of the leaflets will be published on the internet

c) regional action day

• there will be a nationwide co-ordinated "regional action day": 08. July 2000
• on this day actions against the Residence Obligation Law should be held in as many regions all over Germany as possible, by as many refugees as possible
• the type of the actions is not fixed, every local group has to decide themselves what actions are appropriate in their regions (e.g. crossing the Landkreis border and then report yourself to the police; mark the Landkreis border)
• it might be more effective if the actions of the various local groups or individuals are centralised in the headquarter of the region, but there can also be de-centralised actions
• a proposal was made to combine the actions against the Residence Obligation Law with activities against the racist police controls especially at railway stations
• the regional action day should be reported in the local/regional newspapers, but there should also be a nationwide press release

d) letter to the German parliament

• a draft of the letter addressed to the German parliament was presented
• several contributions / amendments were made: the issue that relationships, families and social life are destroyed should be mentioned; furthermore it should be pointed out that the right of free expression (politically and culturally) is violated; other examples for the isolation by the location of the refugee camps should be given (e.g. in industrial areas, on top of the mountains, on ships like in Hamburg); it should also be added that the political persecution the refugees suffered in their home countries is continued in Germany in a subtle way, as refugees are hindered by this law to attend political meetings like the Congress in Jena and others
• the point that these controls are a waste of time & money should probably be stated on the leaflet addressed to the German public
• the letter should be sent to the German parliament and to international press and NGO\'s at the same time; if there is no appropriate reaction from the German parliament it should be delivered to international institutions, for example the European parliament
• the title of the letter should not be "letter of appeal", because we the refugees don\'t have to appeal for a basic human right, and so we demand the freedom of movement as a matter of right; proposals: "open letter", "reclaimation letter" etc.
• even though we are aware that the "Residenzpflicht" is linked to other problems, for example the "Gutschein", we decided to concentrate on the single topic of "Residenzpflicht" as the major focus although other campaigns may be going on simultaneously
• there is also the hope that if the Residence Obligation Law will be abolished other related problems will be solved

e) support for people who face punishment because they broke the Residence Obligation Law

• - one proposal was to set up rapid action groups in every region that can notify other members of the Karawane and general supporters to organise immediate actions including demonstrations, protest letters, fax campaigns, press releases, radio announcements etc.
• - a second proposal was to get the support of trustworthy lawyers to help the individual refugees litigate their cases in the court
• - it is important that refugees bring their individual cases to the courts as a means of exposing the inhumanity of this Residence Obligation Law
• - another point is that only after exhausting the national remedies (all existing levels of courts in Germany) it is possible to appeal with the European Commisson / Court for Human Rights at Strasbourg
• - it has to be worked out how the single cases can be published and brought into a bigger context

TOP 3: Supplements

• the contact to international media is considered as an important point, yet so far it is not clear how to get these contacts
• the link between the German groups and initiatives in other countries should be intensified to put pressure on the German government through the German embassies
• as for the presentation of the campaign via the internet and communication through the internet: the organisation NADIR offered a department of their web-site, but we need technicians to set up our site; the Hamburg group promised to provide someone within their group to run the web-site

Protocol taken by Maggie, Freiburg