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(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!

Click at: https://strongertogether.lnob.net/

#StrongerTogether

Retrospective: The truck is back, the border still exists

29. November 2022

After more than three months, the No Nation truck is back from the Italian-French border. We are leaving right when winter arrives. From our base in Oulx, at just over 1000 meters, we can already see the first white patches of snow in the mountains through which the border crosses here. It feels terrible to leave. We know that people will continue to flee across this border in the hope of a life in safety, despite more difficult weather conditions, despite increased border controls, despite the danger of avalanches.

This border, with its paradoxes, is a symbol of Europe’s racist policy of exclusion: there are the luxury holidaymakers who comfortably cruise on the bus to the next Instagram-worthy hike. Who move in the mountains with a self-confidence that only a European passport guarantees – at the same time, there are all the people who cross this border with mortal fear. Not on the bus, but on foot. Not in expensive outdoor clothes, but in rubber slippers and wool socks, if they carry anything at all, only their last private belongings on their backs. Not with tourist ease, but with the certainty that in the deep forests the danger of being pushed awaits. Dozens of countries they have crossed on foot, some the sea. They are at the end of their journey and also of their strength. And yet they are not allowed to arrive beyond this border. Because even if they make it to Briançon, the next largest town on the French side, they are not yet safe. The French cops are still conducting pushbacks several kilometers past the border. The Red Cross in Oulx is helping.

Within our months on the ground, we have seen almost daily how the bus from the Italian Red Cross, in cooperation with the French border police, drove people back to Oulx. The same drivers who participate in the pushbacks run an emergency shelter here where people on the move can sleep for a few nights. It is clear to everyone that no one wants to stay here. People want to go on to France, Belgium, Germany or the UK. Many are in poor health. They come from Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Tunisia and dozens of other countries. Most of them want to go straight on. No time to waste in this dangerous part of the country, where a check, a pushback, an arrest can happen at any time. When they join us in the truck for breakfast in the morning, we only sometimes briefly hear parts of their stories.

One young man tells of holding out for weeks in forests on the so-called Balkan route, often for days without food or drink. The forest has dug deep scars into his hands and feet. He walks with a limp. He wants to walk at night, even though snow might already be falling by then.

Another tells of being adrift on the sea just a week ago. At one point, he said, he no longer expected to survive the journey. And now there is this mountain range in front of him. He’s never been in the mountains before, he says. What if I fall off? What if I can’t go on? What if the police beat me up there? He also says he thought in Europe, he’d be safe.

A man who comes to the truck in the morning to get information speaks to us in German. He says he worked in Afghanistan for a long time as a teacher for Bundeswehr instructors. In a plastic bag, he carries papers written in German. They have forgotten me, he says, but the Taliban, they have not forgotten. For him, the journey does not end behind the border. He wants to get to Germany.

Every day, 15-20 people visit the truck, get information, exchange ideas. Whether their journey ends in safety, we will not know. Towards the end of our time in Oulx, we still feel that it is getting more and more difficult to cross this border: In the kindergarten next to our base camp, they are voting. We are told not to park the truck so close to the facility because of the children. Italy elects a fascist government on this day. What the renewed institutionalized fascism means for this region remains to be written (see also https://nonationtruck.org/en/is-anyone-here-even-aware-of-what-is-happening-in-italy-right-now/).

But there is a little hope: we continue to see and support our comrades from Passamontagna, who continue to fight with all their energy in the region for the right to freedom of movement, and who were again subjected to strong repression this summer. They will stay through the winter. The Yallah, a self-managed squat above Oulx is still standing. And the past has also shown: if the cops clear a squat at the border, a new one will be built. Also people will not stop crossing these mountains on foot – no matter how life-threatening this route is and no matter who governs in Italy.

The new fascist government of Italy only exposes in its communication what the EU has practiced all along in a subtle way. A policies of foreclosure for rich, for white and privileged people at the cost of human lives. It is the same racist, indifferent and inhuman policy as the open racism of the Italian government, only with more hubris. That’s why the truck will continue to be on the road at Europe’s borders, everywhere where people need to move on to be safe.

The truck is back in Germany – In maintenance but not in standstill! We will keep you updated.

Donation from Second Bandshirt

28. November 2022

Our new friends from Second Bandshirt have given us a big check and are helping us out a lot. This money comes exactly at the right time, because financially things have been a bit more difficult than at the beginning of the year.

From 2600 € we can finance the costs for the use of our truck for a whole month and buy a new pavilion for the protection against rain and sun, which had recently passed away. From 2600 € we could also pay the insurances and the taxes for our truck and our transit for the whole next year. 2600 € is a lot of money for us.

The gang behind Second Bandshirt will arrange for your shirts to be sold for a fair donation and will pass on the profits transparently. Check them out and leave some love: https://www.secondbandshirt.com/

Is anyone here even aware of what is happening in Italy right now?

14. November 2022

Is anyone here even aware of what is happening in Italy right now?

For about two months, Italy has been governed by a new right-wing government. The right-wing alliance together won 44% – led by the current prime minister and neo-fascist Giorgia Meloni. Meloni is quite open about her ties to the far right.

As one of its first official acts, Italy closed its ports to civilian rescue ships two weeks ago. At that time, several large ships were already operating in the Mediterranean and had many hundreds of rescued people on board, some for two weeks. We know the stories of how high the psychological strain is for people on board, some of whom have been severely traumatized: the more people are rescued, the more cramped the space on deck becomes, the more stories and experiences come together, and over everything hangs the constant fear of being taken back to Libya after all. Nevertheless, Italy began its sick game, played out on the backs of the rescued, allowed the ships into its ports to let the sick and children disembark, but sent the rest back to the open sea. Fortunately, the ship’s leaders showed great courage and refused.

In Germany, almost no one was interested in all this and there was hardly any news coverage. Where is the feminist foreign policy of Annalena Baerbock, who supposedly opposes violence and discrimination?

Meanwhile, last week another sea rescue organization successfully asked to be allowed to land in France to bypass Italy. The right-wing government in Italy promptly presented this as its success in getting rid of the first sea rescue ship in just a few weeks of government. France often claims to be a great ally state that likes to put the fascists in Italy in their place, but it directly stated that this action will remain a one-time exception, that it will not accept any more refugees from Italy for now and that it will strengthen its border controls to Italy. This morning we heard the first reports from the French-Italian border that every single car was controlled despite kilometer-long traffic jams. That escalated quickly.

Over the weekend, the Mediterranean states of Malta, Greece and Cyprus, already known for pushbacks, other violence and inhumane practices at the borders, drafted a joint letter under Italy’s leadership against civilian sea rescue – which, however, is only used as a symbol for the migration policy of the richer EU states, with which it is falsely thrown into the same pot by the fascists. This power struggle will soon have the same effect on flight movements and aid organizations on land.

The fight here is not about the rights of people fleeing, but about who is allowed (first) to seal themselves off against immigration and who is not. The border between France and Italy is thus becoming increasingly impassable for people who actually have a right to flee from war, poverty or injustice. We await the reports of the coming weeks from our comrades from Squat Yallah and the group Kesha Niya with great concern.

Anecdotes from the Italian-French Border

4. October 2022

Barbed wire fence over the walls of the church area. A highly observed entrance gate of the emergency shelter “Refugio Massi”. The sun is shining, a soccer game is taking place in the garden. A 9-year-old girl plays with a small puppy in the yard. In the community room, people are sleeping on the tables, although actually every day they are awakened at 6:00 in the morning. The day before, so many people had arrived that the capacity of the shelter was exhausted. Now everyone has to get out. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!!!!”. A great rush breaks out, no one wants to miss the bus to Clavière. But in the last Italian village, carabinieri will already be waiting for the bus, and some of the people will be handed over to the French gendarmerie at the border. If there are people who can run up the steep ski slopes, they will be caught by the French police in the forest at the latest. Push backs are becoming more professionalized and violent every day. And still: on the picture you would still be able to see smiling faces.

A few days ago, a group of people on the move told us about a push back in the mountains as they tried to cross the border into France. They said the gendarmerie caught them in the forest, where they slammed a person’s head against a tree. Police violence on the Mongenèvre border is increasing. Temperatures are dropping and soon there will be the first snowfalls. The escape over the high mountains has many dangers and some people gratefully accept the support of activist structures.

Oulx, a community between tourism and racism. True, here we found the best pizza and the most delicious pistaccio ice cream we have ever eaten. But we don’t feel like tourists here. Quite the opposite, we assume we are being watched and monitored by Italian investigating authorities. “We know everything, you are helping the migrants,” a digo told us to intimidate us and make us feel criminal. But the absurd perspective shift hides the view on the reality. Who is it that beats people up at the border and makes the flight so dangerous that people even die here in the mountains?

Also some residents are bothered by the presence of people on the move and by our presence. Some parents of the local kindergarten have complained to the mayor, who sent a digo to us and ordered us to move our truck. On the same day, we were informed of a “novelty” in the bus schedule. The bus from Oulx to Claviére wants to take from now on only school children and no more migrantized people.

No Nation Truck is back in action and has a new companion

4. August 2022

No Nation Truck is back in action and has a new companion

… at the Italian-French border, where our Italian comrades take care of people who have made the dangerous journey across the Alps by foot. At the beginning of July, our first crew left for a journey of two days before arriving in the border region.

In addition to the truck, our NoNation Transit – a more flexible car with small sleeping and cooking facilities – recently arrived at the border. The extension of the transit was financed by donations. It enables us to move on site, to drive spontaneously between the mountain villages and to provide another crew member with a place to sleep.

In Oulx, 20 kilometers from the Clavière border crossing, we have rebuilt the Truck as a safe stop for people on the move. Oulx is located at 1500 meters, the border with France lies another 500 meters higher. People on the move are currently making use of the truck’s cell phone charging station in particular.

We also observe that structures in the region are changing: At the moment, little medical care is needed on our part, as medical care is covered by solidarity structures in the region. In addition, a refuge (drop-in center) has been established nearby, so people no longer necessarily have to seek shelter at the truck.

However, we know from last year that solidarity structures in this region are quickly attacked and destroyed by repressive authorities. While we hope for the best, we remain prepared for the worst.

Many thanks to all who make our work possible through their support!

In solidarity,

The No Nation Truck Crew

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