The EU is closing its borders, letting through only certain nationalities!

News from Anti-Racist Front Without Borders, gathered by the activists from the borderzones:

Idomeni, Greece (Greek-Macedonian border):

Today, as yesterday, only Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are allowed to pass, everyone else is halted.

Despair has started to spread among the people gathered there. Some have been in Eidomeni for four days. The food is not enough and the weather is getting really cold… This morning at least 6 people were transferred for medical care (on stretchers).

Currently there are around 1,500 people who are not allowed to pass. They remain in the camp, hanging around the borders area and in the village of ‪#‎Eidomeni‬ (local residents already started getting nervous). A large number of the people not allowed to pass remain near the borderline, mainly Iranians and Moroccans, shouting slogans and holding placards.

Rep. of ‪#‎Macedonia‬ intensified border surveillance, with more army and water cannons. At some point this morning there was some tension and immediately 2 more trucks with soldiers arrived – the once already there wore their bullet proof vest to intimidate the migrants. In any case, they seem ready to handle any tension, which in fact sooner or later will come.

About the future:

After todays visit of the Greek minister for migration, the following information was leaked:

– E.U. will harden its’ attitude further. The borders are closed definitively for all nationalities besides the 3 mentioned above (Iraqis, Afghans and Syrians).

– Those without passes will be transferred to ‪#‎Athens‬, as Thessaloniki and other northern Greece cities are not suitable (they are too close to the border and this would leave migrants with a hope that they will finally pass).

– Three camps are prepared in Athens: a football stadium in the neighborhood of Galatsi, the Olympic Games Tae Kwon Do stadium and warehouses at the former airport of Hellinikon. Those wishing to return to Athens will be transported by bus.

– Most important, at some (unspecified) time the borders will close completely for 7 days to stop immigrants flows altogether. At some point, the borders will close permanently for Afghan nationals too – it is not clear if it will happen before or after the 7-day temporary closing of the border.

– The border will remain open for the two nationalities (Syrians and Iraqis) for some time after the seven-day temporary shutdown, but in the end the border will close for them too.

The construction of the European Union’s immigration system

Unser Europa hat keine Grenzen

These days it is getting obvious that the European Union, a supranational entity supposedly built on the values of freedom and peace, is putting a stamp on it’s mostly non-existant immigration and asylum system. That the European leaders selectively apply such values only for the economic and political elites is nothing new. New and surprising aren’t even the new changes for the immigration and asylum laws that are being developed under the privileged position by the technocratic elites in Berlin and Brussels. We must never forget how many people continue to die while trying to cross Mediterranean every year, because of the already existing legal framework.

Hungary closes its borders

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On October 15 2015 Hungary finally decided to close its border passage Botovo with Croatia, where the “more formal  coridor” for the flow of people, temporary established by inter-governmental agreements, took place, changing the direction of the so called balkan route. Instead of going through Croatia to Hungary the route is redirected to Slovenia, where people are registered, before taken to Austrian border (slov. Šentilj/ ger. Spielfeld).

Info: use map for traveling through Slovenia.

Activist which are at the Slovenian borders and registration camps are reporting, that the authorities are taking fingerprints from the incoming people at the Gruškovje registration camp, but not at Petišovci. This information is not entirely clear, but it is worth to take into account that your fingerprints can be sent to EURODAC. Because of this, predominantly non-Syrians, can be effected by the Dublin convention – this means: if you claim asylum in other EU country, they can return you to Slovenia.

Who can be affected:

• your fingerprints were taken in another country (and stored on a common European database called EURODAC)
• you admit that you have been to, or travelled through, another country, even if you didn’t give your fingerprints
• it can be shown by some other source of evidence that you have been to, or travelled through another country
• it can be shown that you were previously issued a visa for an EU country
• you tell the authorities that you wish to join your spouse, who is an asylum seeker or a refugee in another country

In case this happens to you and if you are non-Syrian citizen, you will need legal aid.

Situation in Slovenia (18.10.2015), reports from activists:

Our group on the field successfully set up an Info point in Petišovci. It is located next to the big registration tent. The situation regarding the access to the registration centres is varying. While there were no bigger problems in Petišovci, nobody external was allowed to enter the registration centre in Središče ob Dravi.

The other type of centres are accommodation centres. One is located in Šentilj (Spielfeld), the other in Gornja Radgona. These ones are being used at the moment, there are roughly about 20 more all over Slovenia which can be used if needed. These are being managed by the Civil Protection (Civilna zaščita), while the registration centres are being managed by the police. In addition to the registration centres in Petišovci and Središče ob Dravi there are more registration centres in Obrežje, Gruškovje and Dolga vas.

It seems the access to both types of centres might become an issue. Volunteers would be able to enter the accommodation centres via the Slovene Philanthropy and NGO Adre. This does not apply for the registration centres, where the access is even more restricted.

Based on the conversations with the refugees they mostly need information and the possibility to communicate. They fear what fingerprinting them means, whether it serves as a ground for deportation, they don’t know where they are and would like to inform their families regarding their situation. There’s no wifi network, chargers, multiple socket outlets, etc. in none of the centres. The medical staff in Petišovci complains that they aren’t allowed to hand out warm milk to the kids. One Austrian group offered to cook tea, with hesitation the head of the Red Cross agreed. This group already leaves today.

In short, the government agencies are declining external independent help. As a result of their limited capacities regarding the reception of refugees the flow has been slowed down, so they get stuck on the Balkan route, subjected to the cold and abuse and being blocked to to leave hazardous zones.

Dramaturgy of safe corridor through the Balkans

The category of Border monitoring will be used to give reports about the flow of people throught the borders of the so called “Balkan route”. The route watch will mostly include borders and registration centers between Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria.

All information will be first-hand and forwarded from the groups of activists and volunteers (from sites such as Anti-Racist Front Without Borders from Slovenia, Open Borders Caravan that are located on the borders. The aim of the Border monitoring is not only to report on happening on mentioned borders and to give coordinates for the humanitarian aid, but also to make the recent flow of people (what the EU, its member states and mainstream media calls ‘refugee crisis’) a politically relevant question which adresses the discriminatory and xenophobic imigration and asylum policies within the EU, as well as its connection with the neoliberal developments. Open borders for all!

First post will outline the thoughts by some activists from the Anti-Racist Front Without Borders (Slovenia), who were in the past month present at the Slovenian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Hungarian borders.