Close the Isolation Camp in Breitenworbis

Break Isolation

Break the the Racist Isolation, Stop the Suffering - Close the Isolation Camp in Breitenworbis

The Refugee Community Fights for Normal Housing in Thüringen

Refugees in Thüringen are fighting every day against the institutional racism, isolation and violation of their dignity through instruments of exclusion imposed on them. Refugees want NO Gutschein, NO Lager, NO Isolation. Refugees want cash money, want to live in normal appartements under human conditions. Refugees in Thüringen want freedom of movement!


Located between the federal road, fields and open tanks full of smelly dung, the rotten building of the isolation camp in Breitenworbis is an example of Germany's determination to isolate the refugees and break their minds. "They treat us like animals" is how inhabitants of the Lager


comment their current situation. They are out of urban areas, cut off from anything one needs on a daily level: Contact to people, doctors, lawyers, education or just shopping facilities. Furthermore the isolation serves to deny basic rights and creates a climate of intimidation and fear. Many refugees who stay in Breitenworbis for longer (some 3 years, some 13), report of mental illness and permanent fear of deportation. Still, some of them won't complain publicly anymore. After negative media reports on the isolated camp, they have been threatened by the foreigners' office that such public critics lead to shortening of social benefits or even to a faster deportation. So some of them refuse to talk to any unknown person visiting the Lager - mission "Total Isolation": Accomplished.

One year ago, the Refugee Council demanded an urgent change to be executed in Breitenworbis. Since after the Festival The VOICE Refugee Forum embarked on online press reports from the delegation meetings of the refugees for further investigations and information exchange on their demands in Breitenworbis which have been documented by us. The refugee community delegations to the camp have been intensified in the recent months and the video documentation recorded in June 2010 before the recent campaign to close Gerstungen, Zella-Mehlis, Gangloffsömmern and Breitenworbis will be published online at The VOICE homepage during the campaign.

Already then, reports were made of completely broken people and their fear to speak out. The responsible Landrat, Werner Henning, described the place to be adequate and announced another consultation in the ministry of internal affairs. The fact alone, that he considered the situation at that time as "adequate" reveals the will to destroy refugees' lives.

The obvious fact is that as long as the discrict authorities are ignorant of the abuses and the pains inflicted on the refugees in Breitenworbis, their racist persecution with such policies of inhumane treatments and discrimination breaches the democratic norms as it violates the human rights and dignity of the refugee. We are left to no solution than uniting to close down the isolation lagers and to reach the basic demands of the refugees.

There is only one perspective for the Isolation Camp: Soonest closure!

The North Thueringen refugee community met on the 03.08.2011 in Nordhausen and more  refugees from Felchta, Rockensußra and Nordhausen are joining further solidarity to the call to close the isolation lager in Breitenworbis.

The authorities will try to break down the discussion on to structural matters, that can be solved by renovation or other punctual reactions. But this discussion is not about walls and showers! It's about the racist attitude of the German authorities, that built a Lager system of isolation from society and basic rights. The authorities will also try to intimidate the refugees by punishing activists with shortening of voucher, with refusing permits for doctor or with threats of deportation - we know these measures too well.

Refugees deserve a fair life because they are human, and our duty as a human is to stand for it and close this terrible lager.

Refugees and those interested to show their solidarity with the refugee struggle are invited to come together, to send a strong signal against the institutional racism and to break the isolation.

Close the Lager Breitenworbis - apartments for all refugees !

Stop the repression against refugee political activism !

Support the resistance of the refugee network Thüringen !

Rally and demonstration on the 15th September in Heiligenstadt:

Infostand:         from 11am at Heiligenstadt Bahnhof

Rally:             12.30 h (train station))

Demonstration:     14.00 h (starting from train station)

There will be speeches of participants from the refugee community and delegates from Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Cameroon and Algeria and from The VOICE Refugee Forum and Break Isolation Network.

There will be reports and solidarity initiatives from Waltershausen, Felchta, Rockensußra, Apolda, Jena, Greiz and Breitenworbis,
 
Students ativists are also expected from revolta antikapitalistische linke and other groups in the university of jena.

Miloud L Chérif
Cordination Network of the Thueringen Refugee Commuinty
http://www.thevoiceforum.org/