The Criminalization of Refugees & the Pro Refugee Movement

STRENGTHENING FORTRESS EUROPE The Criminalization of Refugees and the Pro Refugee Movement

Presentations from lawyers and activists involved in recent controversial legal cases regarding the prosecution of refugees and human rights defenders in the context of the „Refugee Crisis“: Moria 35/Lesvos, Ahmed H./Röszke, Stansted 15/London & others*

Film Screening of „Moria 35″ (by Fridoon Joinda, 2018)

Speakers: ANNINA MULLIS *(Swiss lawyer, Democratic Jurists Switzerland, legal observer of the Ahmed H. case), *CARLOS ORJUELA (UK Lawyer, Legal Center Lesvos) and Vienna-based activists from FLUCHTHILFE & DU (Plattform against the criminalization of migration) and PROZESS.REPORT (Association for trial observation)

No registration needed, free entry.

Unfortunately the W23 is not free of barriers: You can get to the location only through steep stairs, also the toilets are not wheelchair accessible.

Description

Since the beginning of the „refugee crisis“ there has been a great surge of solidarity amongst European civil society towards those who have entered the continent fleeing persecution and violence. From Lesvos to Calais, various volunteer solidarity groups have been created to provide vital life-saving support to those seeking international protection. This nascent „pro-refugee“ movement, which has been successful in mobilising hundreds of thousands of people across the continent in defence of the rights of those seeking international protection and against the idea of „Fortress Europe“, is now facing attack. The source of these attacks are not primarily from fascist groups, but from European States who seek to criminalise members of the pro-refugee movement. At the same time, the severe human rights breaches which those seeking international protection chronically suffer in Europe, again primarily at the hands of European states, has steadily led to increasingly organised political resistance amongst the very people subjected to such treatment. The response to such legitimate resistance has been the draconian criminalisation and imprisonment of the movement’s leaders, who due to their precarious situation as applicants of international protection, are often deported once their terms of imprisonment finish.

It is this criminalization, both of solidarity activists and refugee communities across Europe, that we feel it necessary to address through events across Europe.

Organised by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in Collaboration with the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights, Fluchthilfe & Du, prozess.report and W23.

Die Präsentationen und die Filmvorführung werden auf Englisch gehalten. Wenn du Übersetzung ins Deutsche benötigst, lass es uns vorher wissen, wir werden eine Lösung finden.