On 22.5.2016, a group of 50 Romani people rose to protest against their imminent deportation at the Berlin memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered in National Socialism. The manifestation was supposed to continue until the next day, the 23.05.2016, ending with a press conference in front of the memorial at 11am. During the night, however, the police evacuated the area, in consultation with those responsible for the memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered in National Socialism. The Romani people, among them descendants of Nazi persecutes, were thus deprived of the right to fight for a dignified life in the present at the place of memory of their history.
Press statement by the protesters:
We are here – Berlin memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma
Some of us are threatened with deportation. Others should be deported. With the changes in the law in recent months, the situation has become very bad for us.
Those who come to Germany during this time to seek protection often do not manage to arrive at all: barracked in special camps for Balkan refugees, among others, they have to wait for their applications for protection to be processed, almost one hundred percent of which are rejected. A perspective of staying is excluded from the outset and prevented by law. Be it organised collective deportations or the unmistakeable call for “voluntary return” – separated from the refugees whose reasons for fleeing are considered legitimate, we are assigned only “low prospects of staying”, and therefore ways to an equal life here are prevented. No matter if we have been living here for three months, for 2 or 20 years – if we go to the countries whose eagle adorns our papers, persecution, racism, exclusion are waiting for us – and no donation from Western Europe can solve our problems there. The solution of our problems lies here.
We can no longer remain in our hiding places.
We can only be on the road – or occupy something.
We have decided to set off. We left the municipalities refusing our requests for protection. We come to this place, to Berlin, where the laws that end our lives here are decided. To Berlin, where most recently in April of this year an event took place at the memorial to the murdered Roma and Sinti of Europe, in which the majority society wanted to declare solidarity with us: the Vice President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Mark Dainow. Activists who are still protesting against deportations during the event with their interceptions. Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz, Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration represented the German government. Zoni Weisz, Sinto from the Netherlands. Uwe Neumärker, Director of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Federal President Joachim Gauck. Wana Limar, MTV host, and Arne Friedrich, former national football player. The German Bundestag Vice-Presidents Petra Pau and Claudia Roth as well as Christine Lüders, head of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Office.
That was just over a month ago! The memories about the barriers for celebrities are still fresh. We also remember some of the beautiful sentences that were said there.
Our problems cannot be solved on a public holiday, no matter how long it has been prepared. Now we are close again, in the same city.
Many of the Roma currently threatened with deportation have histories of persecution in their families. Many are descendants of victims. This fact needs to be finally addressed
We have nothing left but to fight for our rights here.
With the following requirements:
We need your solidarity.
We demand unconditional right to stay in Germany. For all of us. Ten years of residence and opportunities for school education, apprenticeships, integration into the labour market – even if that sounds confusingly normal: that would be a start.
We have no roof over our heads. We do not know where to go. We ask cities as well as activists: for asylum. For the next few weeks or forever. We would like to feel welcome.
We demand the recognition of our reasons for fleeing according to the Geneva Convention. We claim European law because our persecution is a European problem in its tradition. It is not possible to dismiss this fact.
To implement the historical responsibility in Germany means to grant members of the Roma minority, who have been persecuted here and there for generations, recognition and at least protection against renewed persecution.
The decision regarding security in Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro is a charade. It should be a tool to block the possibilities for people to build perspectives in Germany. This has nothing to do with the situation in the countries, especially that of the Roma. These decisions must be withdrawn. (He or she who says A does not have to say Z. He can also realise that A was wrong). Everyone stays!