Refugee Protest Camp Vienna
The Refugee protest camp Vienna is a started in November 2012 and persistent protest of refugees and activists in Vienna . The protesting refugees, mainly from the border region Pakistan / Afghanistan , are mainly supported by the platform Families and Friends Against Deportation , an association of NGOs and groups such as SOS Mitmensch and the Trotskyist Socialist Left Party (SLP).
course
The protest began with a march on November 24, 2012 from the Traiskirchen refugee camp to Vienna , organized by the anarchist and anti-fascist Hans Georg Eberl from Bavaria , who had already organized or supported refugee campaigns in Vienna. An illegal tent camp was then set up in Sigmund Freud Park between the University of Vienna and the Votive Church . On December 18, 2012, some refugees moved to the Votive Church and requested a meeting with the Ministry of the Interior, which took place on December 21. Even so, several refugees went on hunger strikes the following day .
The tent camp in Sigmund-Freud-Park was cleared by the police on December 28th. Thereupon the Ombudsman Board, chaired by Terezija Stoisits (The Greens) , initiated an official investigation into this eviction. The Mayor of Vienna Michael Häupl (SPÖ), however, indirectly defended the executive's approach and stated that he naturally knew about it.
On January 22nd, around three dozen asylum seekers on hunger strike suspended their hunger strike and resumed it on February 1st. In doing so, they reiterated their demands, including that the residence status of all those who had been part of the protests must be legalized .
Since March 2013, the 63 refugees have lived in the Servitenkirche in the Servitenkirche in Vienna-Alsergrund. On March 9, there was a fight between two asylum seekers. The 63 men were initially allowed to stay until the end of June due to construction work in the monastery. This deadline has also been extended.
As of March 2013, negative decisions were received for 27 of the asylum seekers. Eight of them were deported to Pakistan at the end of July 2013. Twelve more certificates of return home had been requested from the embassy but were not issued. On July 30, 2013, six refugees, including three of the asylum seekers in the Servite monastery, were arrested on suspicion of being a smuggler. Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner explained in connection with the arrests that the smugglers "acted extremely inhumanly [...] for example if there were problems with pregnant women on the smugglers' route, then these women were left helpless on the route". The Kronen Zeitung described the arrested as “smugglers' gang from the Servite monastery” and “brutal smugglers syndicate” that “not only collected millions” but also left “screaming pregnant women, the elderly, the sick” on their way. As research by the Vienna weekly newspaper Falter revealed, none of these allegations were found in the actual court files of the public prosecutor's office. Rather, the allegations and figures came from press releases by the Federal Criminal Police Office . In October 2013, in response to a parliamentary question from Alev Korun , Mikl-Leitner stated that her statements about the arrests did not refer to these people at all, but to an “international smuggling ring”.
On September 22nd, 2013, 17 asylum seekers occupied the Votive Church again because they “didn't feel safe” in the Servite monastery. The church was evacuated by the police that same day. Two days later, some activists held a demonstration in front of the parliament building . The 24 remaining refugees in the Servite monastery had to leave the monastery by the end of October 2013 due to renovation work.
On October 29, 2013, the asylum seekers occupied the Academy of Fine Arts after a discussion event . Although they were offered individual quarters, they wanted to stay at the academy because they feared someone from the group might be deported. A call was made on Twitter to bring sleeping bags and mattresses to the academy “urgently”. The rector Eva Blimlinger gave the refugees an ultimatum. You should have left the academy by November 4, 2013. The refugees promised to move out a little later, and Caritas assured their support.
On the afternoon of November 5, 2013, the asylum seekers left the Academy of Fine Arts. On the evening of the same day there was a protest rally by the “refugees” at the Leopold-Ungar journalist award ceremony, during which there were insults in the direction of Caritas. Caritas promised the refugees that it would also support them in the form of return counseling.
In March 2014 the trial began in Wiener Neustadt against a total of eight refugees, including four who had lived in the Servite monastery and who were accused of being a smuggler. Six of them had been in custody since June 2013. According to the police and the public prosecutor's office, they are said to have temporarily hid refugees in the Servite monastery. All of the accused were released by the judge after the first few days of the trial because, among other things, the indictment was too imprecise, did not contain any concrete evidence, accused individual acts several times, and because the transcribed translations of intercepted phone calls were partly incorrect and partly contained passages that were even in the records were not present. Seven of the eight defendants were sentenced in December 2014 to partial prison terms of 7 to 28 months, and one was acquitted. Most of the prison sentences have already been served in custody. The judgments became final in June 2017.
Political demands
The protesters' demands include basic services for all asylum seekers, full access to the job market and housing market, and unrestricted freedom of movement. The fundamental questioning of the Dublin II regulation and the deletion of fingerprints were also called for.
Reactions
People from politics and civil society met with the protesters, including Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner , Archbishop Christoph Schönborn , Vice President of the EU Parliament Othmar Karas and Jean Ziegler , member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council. Criticism of the protests came mainly from the FPÖ , support from the Greens .
Literary processing
Inspired by the protest, the Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek wrote the theater text Die Schutzbefohlenen , which was later performed as an original reading by the Lampedusa group in Hamburg . The scenic world premiere took place in May 2013 by the ensemble of the Hamburg Thalia Theater at the Theater der Welt festival in Mannheim. Nicolas Stemann's production was subsequently shown at the Holland Festival and at the Thalia Theater. The Austrian premiere took place on March 28, 2015 in the Vienna Burgtheater , directed by Michael Thalheimer .
See also
Web links
- Report from the protest march (asylum demonstration from Traiskirchen to Vienna)
- Homepage of the Refugee Protest Camp Vienna
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Kurier : House ban for left activists ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ↑ Der Standard : Supporters against Caritas in the refugee protest ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ^ FAU-IAA Stuttgart: Solidarity with Hans-Georg Eberl ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ↑ Press release : 10.10.-12.10: Demonstration and permanent rally by Somali refugees (PDF; 105 kB); accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ↑ ORF -Online: protest group calls for talks ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ^ ORF-Online: Votive Church: Round Table on Asylum ; accessed on January 23, 2013
- ^ ORF-Online: Several refugees in the Votive Church on hunger strike ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ^ Salzburger Nachrichten : Ombudsman examines evacuation of refugee camps ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ^ Austria : Häupl defends camp evacuation ; accessed on Jan 23. 2013
- ^ Die Presse: Votivkirche: Occupiers interrupt hunger strike ; Retrieved Feb. 2, 2013
- ↑ Kleine Zeitung : Refugees in Votive Church on hunger strike again ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); 1st February 2013
- ^ Refugee protest : hope for dialogue and papers in the monastery cellar ; Retrieved March 17, 2013
- ^ Brawl between asylum seekers in the Servite monastery ; Retrieved March 10, 2012
- ^ Votive Church: Refugees are looking for quarters again ; Retrieved May 20, 2013
- ↑ Refugee Camp Vienna: Stay in the monastery extended, for good reason! ; Retrieved July 5, 2013
- ↑ Die Presse: 27 negative asylum notices , accessed on July 30, 2013.
- ↑ Krone: Eight monastery refugees have already been deported , accessed on July 30, 2013.
- ↑ Asylum: For the time being, no further certificates of return home , accessed on August 3, 2013.
- ^ ORF : Votive Church Refugees: A Chronology , February 19, 2013 and later
- ^ ORF : Servite refugees: people smuggled , June 30, 2013
- ↑ Falter 32/2013, Florian Klenk : Leg hard posse
- ↑ Der Standard , Irene Brickner : Mikl-Leitner relativizes smuggling allegations against refugees , October 10, 2013
- ^ Votive church cleared by the police on wien.orf.at, accessed on September 26, 2013
- ^ Refugee roll call in front of parliament ended at wien.orf.at, accessed on September 26, 2013
- ^ The first refugees have moved out of the Servite monastery in Vienna on vienna.at on October 28, 2013
- ↑ Refugees have to leave the Vienna monastery on salzburg.com from October 24, 2013
- ↑ Refugees want to stay in the academy on orf.at, accessed on October 30, 2013
- ↑ Vienna, October 29th: Refugees occupy the Academy of Fine Arts - Rector sets deadline ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on liv3.at, accessed on November 1, 2013
- ^ Servite monastery refugees should leave the academy by Monday on vienna.at, accessed on October 31, 2013
- ↑ refugees packed into the Academy their stuff on BBC News November 5, 2013, accessed on April 23, 2020
- ↑ Refugees moved out of the academy at standard.at on November 6, 2013
- ↑ Refugees protest against Caritas at the Journalist Prize at standard.at on November 6, 2013
- ^ Refugees: Protest after moving out on wien.orf.at
- ↑ Der Standard : Protesting refugees as "smugglers" , March 16, 2014
- ↑ Der Standard (live report): Criticism of translations in the smuggling process , March 17, 2014
- ↑ Der Standard : All defendants in the smuggling trial released , March 27, 2014
- ↑ Maria Sterkl: Wiener Neustädter Schlepperverfahren: judgments final. In: derstandard.at . June 21, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2018 .
- ^ Die Presse : Votivkirche: Asylum seekers continue hunger strike ; Retrieved Feb. 2, 2013
- ^ Lampedusa refugees: What happened so far ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) ndr.de from October 25, 2013
