From June 1st to June 6th 2023 groups of activists from Berlin & Brandenburg and more were camping together for workshops, panel talks and networking on how it is possible to resist the system of deportation. On June 5th a protest was held from the protest camp to the City Hall Schönefeld and then to the planned site of the Deportation Center, where the new Deportation Center is set to include a new deportation prison for pre-deportation detention of up to 120 people, as well as centralize BAMF (Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees), Ausländerbehörde (immigration authority), court and police in one fenced-off area. Therefore, facilities are planned to coordinate multiple mass-deportation charter flights per day.
Heading towards the Ausreisegewahrsam (the deportation custody), the current deportation prison is set to be replaced by the new center in 2026, but is already detaining people. Passing through the departure-point for mass-deportation charter flights: every week at least one mass-deportation flight leaves from BER airport Terminal 5. Finally settling in “Rückführungsgebäude” (the repatriation building), a building where police coordinates mass-deportation flights and where people are taken for boarding procedures of such flights, often with visiting FRONTEX agents.
During these days some Tesserae members participated in the activities of a community reflecting on the conception of tangible and intangible borders, of the false perception of the so-called “fortress Europe” as a place of recognized human rights, of the power of activism by and with people with precarious residency status. An anti-racist solidarity and the awareness of the illusion of white superiority within the struggle for the right to stay is the necessary premise of a change in the EU border regime. Indeed there is still a need in our society to increase social cohesion by educating on the direct and indirect consequences that people who seek asylum are facing because of European colonial legacy.
Stop feeling powerless starts by putting into practice in our daily actions a personal and political resistance by organizing, supporting, listening and learning from others.
As the German media is still under-covering the BER deportation center, please reach out to the press team or the links below to raise awareness on this issue. Everyone should participate in the better future we want to shape.
Here also you can find some links about the groups that took part in the protest and continue to fight and learn from others.
Abolish Frontex European Campaign
CAT – Climate Antirepression Team
Hum Hain Pakistan e.V.
i-PÄD intersektionale Pädagogik Berlin
Verein Flüchtlinge für Flüchtlinge (Refugees4Refugees)
Refugee Community Bitterfeld-Wolfen
The Refugee Council of Brandenburg
We’ll Come United – Polylux e.V.
Xenion – Psychosoziale Hilfen für politisch Verfolgte
