From Lampedusa to Bruxelles: The struggles for Freedom of Movement are breaking borders
Lampedusa - 29th of June 2023: on this day 46 boats from Tunisia and Libya arrived on the island. Only during the last days of June more than 4000 people risked the dangerous routes and reached Italy to ask for protection and looking for future perspectives in Europe.
Bruxelles - 1st of July 2023: spokesperson for Refugees in Libya, for Refugees in Tunisia and from Alarm Phone Sahara in Niger came together in front of EU-institutions to accuse the death and suffering in these countries as a consequence of the EU-policy of border externalization.
Caltanissetta - 2nd of July 2023: about 50 people imprisoned in the repatriation centre rioted against the injustice of detention and the threat of deportation by setting fire to mattresses inside the halls and climbing on the roof of the building.
While the management of Ukrainian refugees over the past year demonstrated that another approach towards freedom of movement and free choice of a destination country is always possible, in the Southern borders racist policies of externalization and brutalisation continue. Left to die at sea and violent pull and push backs keep constituiting the daily reality in the central mediterranean sea.
With people escaping from war and prosecution searching for protection, as well as leaving precarious living conditions created by global systems of oppression and exploitations and looking for perspectives for a better life, the tenacity of migrants movements appear again to be stronger than all risks and obstacles imposed by the border regime and its violence. Despite and against the post-fascist Meloni government, which is fully backed up by EU-policies, through money and Frontex operations, people on the move keep exercising their freedom to move. During the first six months of 2023 a new record of more than 60.000 people fled from Libya and Tunisia and reached the shores of Italy.
The arrival of so many people on the island of Lampedusa forced the italian government to accelerate the transfer process to Sicily and the mainland. Thousands of people on the move find themselves now in another transit situation in Southern Italy and are confronted with the attempts of the government to keep control, detain and filter out and deport people, who just could overcome one of the deadliest border zones of the world.
But these repressive state practices keep sparking protests and resistance both at sea and in the camps - as we could witness with the riot in the CPR in Caltanissetta.
All solidarity groups and networks are invited and challenged to follow the tenacity of migrants movements and to intervene by any means necessary. On land and at sea, let's keep tearing down all systems of repression, incarceration and criminalisation of people on the move and of those who facilitate freedom of movement. On land and at sea, let's keep building and extending antiracist and antifascist infrastructures for freedom of movement to welcome and to support people on the move in their powerful struggles for freedom. Let's be inspired by these struggles rather than being intimidated by political repression. People's passion for freedom is much stronger than any border and prison.
Links:
— Brussels action days: https://www.refugeesinlibya.org/call-to-bruxelles
— Media reports on arrivals and acceleration in LMP
(ANSA) - CALTANISSETTA, JULY 02 - Migrants rioted this afternoon at the Pian del Lago CPR in Caltanissetta. Some 50 guests of the facility protested against the detention and imminent repatriation, throwing stones at police and setting fire to mattresses inside the halls. The intervention of police and carabinieri prevented the worst. The protest lasted for a couple of hours. Several immigrants climbed onto the roofs. After mediation by police officers, calm was restored (ANSA).