News → No Nation Truck

NNT goes Eisenhüttenstadt

9. December 2023

Barefoot and in flip-flops, a few men stood in front of our truck last week at freezing temperatures and in light snow when we drove to Eisenhüttenstadt for the first time. News quickly spread in the camp, where more than 1000 people are currently waiting for an asylum decision, and more and more people came out into the cold. At times, there were more than 50 people who mainly wanted to get into conversation.

There is little chance of entertainment here, they say, and no contact with the neighborhood or residents at all. We took the No Nation Truck to “Hütte” to find out what kind of support is needed, as we kept receiving reports of problems there. In conversation over warm tea, people told us about various problems in the camp:

No money: many are still waiting weeks, sometimes months, after entering the country for their first money, which they are actually entitled to from their first day in the camp. This restricts their already poor mobility even more, as people cannot even buy a bus ticket to get out of the camp.

Not enough clothes: The clothing storage room in the camp seems to exist, but is not accessible. Opening hours are unclear and poorly accessible, the room is poorly stocked. Many people have had no winter clothes for weeks and go outside in slippers or T-shirts even in the snow.

Isolated: The camp is located on the outskirts of Eisenhüttenstadt. There are no neighborhood centers or contact points that can be reached on foot. Many refugees search in vain for German courses and friendly contacts in the area.

Poor information situation: Independent legal advice in the camp is offered by an association that does a great job, but is very understaffed. Many people lack basic knowledge about the German asylum system, Dublin EU procedures and their rights. There are no workshops or notices in the camp to counteract this situation.

In general, communication in the camp between social workers and residents seems to be reduced to the bare minimum. Whether the food is halal, how to get clothes, where to find psychological help or what steps to take after arrival – there does not seem to be any information material in the residents’ languages and the staff apparently only speak the bare minimum with the refugees.

We have the impression that a lot is missing in Eisenhüttenstadt and that some things need to change. We do not intend to take over the tasks of the state here. Together with allied collectives such as the No Border Assembly, Women in Exile, the frach collective and Küfa groups, we want to create a space in the coming weeks where people can network effectively and support each other so that pressure can be put on the institution.

Living and arriving in Eisenhüttenstadt is inhumane and must become better!

Right to come, right to go, right to stay.

Next: German-Polish Border

28. November 2023

The No Nation Truck’s next destination is the German-Polish border, as the situation is getting worse here too. While Germany has so far paid other countries to do the “dirty work” of migration control in order to wash its own hands in innocence, at least from the outside, the open violence against illegalized immigrants is also increasing on our own doorstep.

We are currently monitoring developments on the German-Polish border with a watchful eye.

The corridor of the Balkan route has changed and now ends for many in Germany. This has led to increased border security on the German side of the border. Additionally, driven by concerns about the high election results of the AfD next year, the democratic parties are hunting for voters on the far right. This leads to a mix of blind actionism and false illusory solutions: more police controls, more police checkpoints, a noticeably increased presence in cities near the border, further tightening of the law. This growing pressure to present results leads to illegal pushbacks and risky highway chases with tragic accidents. Most recently, the press reported on police raids, sometimes involving a large contingent of 200 police officers to arrest a single person.

These developments raise a number of questions: How many people are in fact coming right now? And where are they coming from and why? Who benefits if we close our eyes and borders?

It is important to move away from the narrative that migration is a threat.

Migration is increasingly framed as a security problem by the countries of the so-called Global North and, as a result, racist images of migrants are reinforced. This is done, for example, by claiming that migrants bring more patriarchal attitudes to Germany and thus become a danger to “the German woman” (see the racist reporting on New Year’s Eve in Cologne). Currently, migrants are once again being turned into importers of anti-Semitism. But Simin Jawabreh already wrote very accurately about this in “Analyse & Kritik” (translated from German):

“It is astonishing that political representatives of this country, in which an industrial mass murder of six million Jews was carried out, dare to claim that anti-Semitism is something that comes from outside. There is no question that anti-Semitism is deadly and therefore threatening. However, if politicians were actually concerned with combating anti-Semitism, the last few years in this country would have looked different: When corona deniers marched through German cities with Reich flags and chanted “Juden-Presse”, when one right-wing extremist chat group after another was uncovered in the police force or when a politician like Hubert Aiwanger was rewarded with considerable gains in votes for having distributed anti-Semitic leaflets in his youth. Not to mention the fact that Nazis were elevated to offices for the protection of the constitution and that the wealth of a number of large German companies is based on Jewish forced labor.”

And it is not enough that migrants are labeled as a threat. At the same time, the experiences of people on the move are ignored and it is forgotten that we are talking about the lives of individuals, not numbers. This point has been repeated over and over again by civil society actors for years, but it cannot be said often enough: behind every number is a human life and for every person who drowns in the Mediterranean, there is a family mourning their loss. With the flood of information that comes at us daily via the media, we tend to forget this and become numb.

There has always been migration and there always will be.

There are currently around 110 million people on the move worldwide. The militarization of borders in the EU does not stop anyone from seeking a better life, but only worsens the situation of people on the move and makes safe travel more difficult. But as long as there are people, there will be migration and we need to move away from seeing it as a threat.

We see the propaganda against migrants in Germany, we see the shift to the far right and we see the democratic parties fishing on the right edge for voters. We are therefore networking more and more with the people living along the German-Polish border inside and outside the camps, we read the police tickers and local newspapers, we visit the border crossings and places more often and we know that others are already doing or planning to do the same. We want to know what is going on and we are looking to join forces to campaign for legal migration channels, empathetic media reporting and against right-wing hate speech – not just in Doberlug-Kirchain, not just in Eisenhüttenstadt, but everywhere.

More actions will follow! Together for the protection of people, not borders!

Support in Eisenhüttenstadt needed

24. November 2023

📣 Support in Eisenhüttenstadt needed, 1.12., 14.00 📣

More than 1,000 people live in ‘Erstaufnahmelager’ on the outskirts of Eisenhüttenstadt. Living conditions there are difficult; we know of months-long waiting for legal advice, winter clothes and financial support. The result; People can hardly leave the cramped accommodation, are isolated and have little contact with people outside the camp. We want to change that. Every two weeks, the No Nation Truck is on site with various collectives to create a space for exchange, advice and simply a relaxed get-together. The first appointment;

Friday, December 1st, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m

We are still looking for: Basic legal advice, translation for Arabic, Farsi. People who want to simply be present on site, listen and support people with making tea etc.

Do you want to join? Do you have any great information material about the German asylum system? A Küfa collective? Etc? Then write to us at: nonationtruck@riseup.net

Baltic Scouting Report

30. September 2023

After parts of the nonationtruck collective already visited support structures in the Basque Country at the Spanish-French border to scout possible locations for the truck, another group headed to the Lithuanian-Belarusian border to meet with refugee support structures on the ground. We want to share here some info about this border area and introduce a group that is active there to give a short overview.

Context:
In the late summer of 2021, another refugee route developed through Belarus to Western Europe. At that time and in the months that followed, many people used this escape route, most of which passed through the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
In 2021, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko for the first time deliberately relaxed general travel restrictions for some countries in South; and East Asia and some African countries.
He suspended border controls with the EU. Several thousands of people took the chance to enter the country and went to the uncontrolled borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. With the relaxations, Lukashenko tried to put pressure on the EU due to the sanctions imposed by the EU on Belarus.
However, people on the move, were pushed back into Belarus at the Polish border and not allowed back into the country by Belarus. Thus, they were trapped between the country borders. People were systematically and violently prevented from continuing their journey as they passed the border. Poland blocked parts of its border with Belarus with a fence five and a half meters high. Many people remained in the border woods for months without any support.
This instrumentalization of refugees as a means of exerting pressure for state interests is absolutely unacceptable.

Group:
In response to the inhumane pushback policy of the Schengen border crisis, the Sienos Grupė (Instagram @sienosgrupe) was founded. The group supports people on the run by providing direct humanitarian aid as well as legal advice in Lithuania. For this purpose, they are on call 24 h by means of an “alarmphone”.

During our meeting we talked among other things about the current shift of the route from Lithuania to Latvia. As well as about the stronger repressions at the Latvian border for members of the Sienos Grupė. We were told about the recent event when the supporters were threatened with a weapon by the border police.
Nevertheless, the group does not want to be hindered in its work and is expanding its support on the Latvian border.

After our meeting we decided not to go to this border with the truck. We see the networking with the people on the ground as essential, e.g. to compare state tactics but also to develop defense strategies. We see a well-connected noborder network as necessary to keep up to date with developments at the borders.

No Nation Truck at Anti Deportation Camp!

28. June 2023

No Nation Truck at Anti Deportation Camp!

From the 1st to the 6th of June the “Stop Deportation! Protest-Camp” https://abschiebezentrumverhindern.noblogs.org/camp-2023/ took place at Schönefeld, close to the BER airport, where a new detention and deportation Centre is supposed to be build.

The Camp was organized by “Initiative Abschiebezentrum BER verhindern” and was supported by many groups and Individuals! (for instance: Abolish Frontex, Afg Activist Collective, Afrique-Europe-Interact, Alarmphone Sahara, Anti-CRA Paris & Nantes, Asmara’s World, Barnim für alle, Bleiberecht statt Chancenfalle, Bridges over Borders, Bündnis gegen Abschiebehaft, Bürger*innenasyl Barnim, Climate Antirepression Team, Copwatch Frankfurt, Getting the Voice Out, Hum Hain Pakistan, Ihr seid keine Sicherheit!, International Women* Space, Jugendliche ohne Grenzen, KOP Berlin, KuB, Migrantifa Berlin, No Border Assembly, No Lager Osnabrück, No Name Kitchen, O-Platz, PiA Darmstadt, Refugees 4 Refugees, Refugee Community Bitterfeld, Refugees Emancipation, Refugee Law Clinic, Schlafplatzorga, Skills for Action, Soli-Asyl Potsdam, Theater X, Tubman Network, UK Action Group, Welcome United, Women in Exile, Xenion, Zusammenleben Willkommen)

Instead of the expected 500 people, more than 2000 people were showing up to organize, inform themselves, join the many panels, discussions, workshops and the rest of the program and to form and strengthen alliances to fight the inhumane conditions within Europe, its Borders and beyond!

Our collective/ Our Truck also participated and we were present with the Truck to contribute to the Infrastructure of the Camp with the Wifi that we usually use at the borders with the help from https://www.janga.la/ , an extra kitchen, some sleeping spaces, a charging station for electronic devices, some space to use for the media group and we spontaneously were hosting the amazing “Wearebornfree Empowerment Radio”(https://wer.oplatz.net/) who were sending life from the truck to everyone that could not make it to the Camp: http://reboot.fm/2016/01/10/we-are-born-free-empowerment-radio/

On Monday a strong and powerful Demo with around 600 people was rallying the streets of Schönefeld and clearly showed the refusal of accepting this disgusting and corrupt plans! The Speakers were all BiPoC and personally affected by border regimes. They were sharing their experiences through very moving and powerful speeches! One of the many valuable messages was: “The Deportation centre will be stopped!”

In our eyes the camp was stunningly good organized and it was very impressive to see how so much infrastructure, logistics and program was realized by all the participating activists! It feels like this camp has strengthened the movement and gave more perspective and motivation to many people we have talked to.

We are very happy to have been there and look forward for upcoming cooperation’s and actions!

Shortly after a independent group of activists squatted a building at the future construction site of the Deportation Centre! Check it out here: https://twitter.com/schoenbesetzen

At this point we would like to promote the Campaign to #DumpHarder and be as annoying to this Investor that is making maaany Millions with the suffering and imprisonment of people! Here is a little Action guide https://dumpharder.neocities.org/

Here is some visual impressions from the camp from the Leftvision collective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zp_2jH8E-o

Get Active and organised!

We are here, and we will fight! Freedom of movement is everybody’s right!

(Part 2) A travel report from the Basque Country: Kaixa! Saludos de Euskera Herria!

14. June 2023

A travel report from the Basque Country: Kaixa! Saludos de Euskera Herria! (part 2)

A few people from our group were in the Basque Country last week to connect with solidarity structures in the border region. Through the exchange we can learn from each other on the one hand and on the other hand see how we can connect the different struggles. Because everywhere in Europe people are prevented from moving freely. The strategies are often similar.

Who can imagine something like that in Germany?! – What people in the city of Bilbao achieve by working together

Also in Bilbao there are solidarity groups, like the already mentioned “Ongi etorri errefuxiatuak” (“welcome refugees” in Basque). One focus of them is networking in Spain and beyond throughout Europe. Once a year, the group plans a “Caravane” – each year to a different border region of Europe (“Caravana abriendo fronteras”, in English: Caravane which opens borders). In addition, the group wants to link the refugee movements of the past in Spain under Franco with today’s migration processes, in order to appeal to the solidarity of the population and at the same time to promote a confrontation with the past. This year, the Caravane will travel to Melilla – for the anniversary of the Melilla massacre on June 24, 2022.

The group is also organizing direct support in Bilbao. The group acts on the guideline that their networking only works if they also work locally. Their work has changed repeatedly in this aspect over the last few years. They started by distributing food at the port, from where people try to get on the ferries to the UK.

Now they no longer do this, but run a small office in their neighborhood, which is open four hours a day. They assist with all kinds of concerns and have acquired a lot of knowledge over the years. Whether it is about legal issues, doctors, childcare, etc. They seem to be extremely well connected in their neighborhood. There is a network that organizes sleeping places and manages a few rented apartments that are financed by the neighborhood. Who can imagine something like that in Germany?!

The group also deals with the relatives of missing persons. It collects the stories and brings people together again, since there is no state office for relatives of missing persons. There was also a congress on the subject in Madrid in May 2023.

More information about the group “Ongi etorri errefuxiatuak” in Bilbao at https://ongietorrierrefuxiatuak.info and https://instagram.com/oeebizkaia?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

For more information about “Caravana abriendo fronteras” click https://instagram.com/caravanaabriendofronteras?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

If you want to read more about the southern Spanish border, you can check out these two websites:

* https://www.apdha.org

* https://caminandofronteras.org

We have learned a lot about the region here, knowing that this is only a small piece of the whole picture. Although the criminalization of and repression against people without EU passports is omnipresent in the Basque Country as well, there is also hope to find comrades everywhere in the fight against the status quo. La Lucha sigue! The struggle continues!

(Part 1) A travel report from the Basque Country: Kaixa! Saludos de Euskera Herria!

13. June 2023

A travel report from the Basque Country: Kaixa! Saludos de Euskera Herria! (part 1)

A few people from our group were in the Basque Country last week to connect with solidarity structures in the border region. Through the exchange we can learn from each other on the one hand and on the other hand see how we can connect the different struggles. Because everywhere in Europe people are prevented from moving freely. The strategies are often similar.

Lessons to be learned from the people of the Basque Country: Border Region of Irun

In the border town of Irun we met the group “Irungo Harrera Sarea”. It is active since the increased use of border controls in the summer of 2018, creating public awareness of the situation of illegalized people and is there to help them as a person of contact.

The number of people who pass varies and depends on different factors. On the one hand, the Moroccan state repeatedly uses people on the move as a tool of political pressure against Spain and the EU; on the other hand, new routes are constantly opening and closing within Europe as well.

People arriving in Irun can sleep for up to three nights in a Red Cross shelter, as long as they meet certain criteria (they must be so-called “refugees in transit”). A river runs between Spain and France here in the region, and the only way to cross it in Irun is via a bridge. There was much criticism from French civilians who perceived the border controls on the bridge as racial profiling and rejected them. Thanks to the strong protests, the controls had to be stopped in their original way. But instead, cameras have been installed on buses to Bayonne and elsewhere in the border region. In this way, the border can still be controlled.

In the days before the civil society protests, when the bridge was de facto not open for illegalized people to cross, 10 people died over a two-year period trying to reach France by swimming through the river or were killed by the train on the railroad tracks. In memory of the victims of this state violence, a memorial stone has now been placed by the river by local groups, especially “Ongi etorri errefuxiatuak” from Bilbao (see photo).

Police repression can be expected on both sides of the border river. For example, a few days ago the chief of police on the Spanish side offered a type of bonus for every police officer – for every arrested person without valid documents, the officer would receive more vacation days. The police chief announced this in the newspaper, which caused the public and the press to be highly angry. Again, the protests showed their effect and the regulation was cancelled again.

Let us learn from the people of the Basque Country! We are strong when we fight together!

Basically, however, the Spanish police are much less involved with illegalized people, since they are in the process of leaving the country. On the French side, police checks are much more frequent. However, there are support structures on the French side as well, and our general impression was that the Basque civilian population often shows solidarity with illegalized people, making it possible for them to continue their journey.

More information about the group “Irungo Harrera Sarea” in Irun at https://instagram.com/irungo.harrera.sarea?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA

Click here for part 2 of the travel report: https://nonationtruck.org/en/part-2-a-travel-report-from-the-basque-country-kaixa-saludos-de-euskera-herria/

January update from the french-italian Border

18. March 2023

This report is a snapshot of two weeks in January at the Italian-French border to get an impression of the situation in Oulx and Cesana as well as the neighboring locations in France during winter. Developments there are highly dynamic and depend on many factors, such as weather, political pressure, exact location and local support capacities. By the time this report is published, many things will have already changed.

Despite the sometimes extreme weather conditions with temperatures in double digits below zero, snowfall and avalanche danger, about 20-30 people a day crossed the border between Italy and France also in January. This dangerous and potentially deadly crossing of the border is further complicated by the fact that since the end of 2022 there have been no buses at all between the border towns of Claviere and Montgènevre. The bus service was stopped by the municipality and/or the local bus company in order to control the movement of people on this route. De facto, this leads to people having to take even more dangerous and significantly longer routes on foot across the mountains. There are also increasing reports from activists and People on the Move about the use of drones by French border guards to track escape routes and push-back people on the move. During the two weeks of our stay, we also received reports of push-backs.

Workshop: First aid in border regions

12. December 2022

A still little known fact: We offer workshops for medical first aiders, customized to the needs of people on the move. No previous experience necessary.

From our experience we know how urgently medical care is needed: A flight to Europe can take months or even years. On the way, many people resist the most difficult conditions: heat, cold, malnutrition, poor hygienic conditions, diseases, violence, physical exertion or psychological stress. At the same time, medical care is sometimes systematically denied to make people even more afraid to cross European borders.

Therefore, our truck can be converted into a safe treatment room if necessary. We are equipped with the essential equipment for first aid and have medically trained staff on board whenever possible.

Together, we want to ensure that more people are able to provide free medical care to those who need it. Therefore, together with medical professionals from the field, we have developed a workshop that passes on this knowledge in an easy-to-understand way and with practical exercises.

The workshop includes, for example, learning how to properly handle various wounds, such as burns.

You can find the whole reader under: https://nonationtruck.org/en/information-material/

#strongertogether #leavenoonebehind

We are part of the #StrongerTogether campaign!

5. December 2022

The No Nation Truck is part of the #StrongerTogether campaign!

Whether in Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan or at the European external borders: In many places, far too many people are suffering. Despite the challenging times in Germany, we want to make sure that other people in need are not forgotten and show what cohesion looks like.

To do this, #Leavenoonebehind brings together 40 aid organizations. They evacuate, supply, advise and protect. They save lives or enforce human rights, they pick up where crises are most strongly felt. And now they need you.

Because not only do these organizations have in common that they do incredibly good work, unfortunately they share another similarity: they lack funds to continue their work, which saves lives every day. Now it’s up to us to make solidarity a reality! For each project, a fundraising campaign has been launched as part of the campaign. The goal is to raise the money for each organization by Christmas. We are getting support for this from celebrity supporters. But to succeed, we need you!

Our supporter is the awesome Josephine Becker!