Antirassistische Initiative e.V.’s Dokumementationsstelle has released an update to their research and documentation into state and societal racism.
This documentation, now encompassing 22 years, mirrors the degrading conditions, to which refugees, asylum seekers and people without papers are subjected in Germany. The documented cases (ca. 7000) demonstrate the pressure exerted by laws, agencies and society. They show how this pressure works collectively and how only few can survive it without being harmed. All of this does not happen solely due to restrictive legal conditions, defined by federal asylum laws to detain refugees. Also and especially, we are talking about employees of departments and agencies, the police, deportation centers, medical staff, administrative and security personnel in refugee accommodation centers, pretending to be omnipotent, using arbitrariness, harassment, blackmail, illegal action or plain physical violence against people who are looking for protection. This as well is a consequence of the racist consensus between state and society that led to the factual abolition of the right to asylum 22 years ago. To closed borders, the refusal to protect, making it impossible to live a self-determined life because of discrimination, incapacitation, ostracism – leading to the final consequence of kicking people out of Germany.
The current proclamation of a ‘welcome culture’ by this same racist political establishment is nothing but derision when we consider the reality that refugees face here.
- Jun 13, 2013: La Ceiba in Honduras. Victor Osório Turcios (42) dies after his deportation because he had run out of his medication
- Sep 1, 2014: Tamil Y.A. swallows 40 pills of his psychopharmaceutic drug.
- Jan 20, 2014: Two adult and four underage refugees from Syria drown in the Mediterranean on their way to their relatives in Germany.
- Feb 3, 2014: An Afghan woman (25) swallows an overdose of her psychopharmaceutic drug.
- Feb 8/9, 2014: Ghayeb Y. (33), a Kurd from Syria slits his arm and upper body.
- Feb 11, 2014: Ahmad J. (43) from Libya dies in an accommodation center due to officials’ failure to render assistance Feb 20, 2014: Iranian Kahve Pouryazdani (49) pours gas over himself and dies in the fire.
- Feb 2014: Sharif X. (21) tries to kill himself with a razor.
- Mar 11, 2014: A 39-year old detainee tries to poison herself by drinking shampoo pending deportation.
- Apr 10, 2014: The baby of Vita M. from Ghana dies because of officials‘ failure to render assistance.
- Apr 23, 2014: A man from Iran (27) tries to poison himself.
- May 14, 2014: A Somali man (27) jumps out of a police van at a speed of 65 mph.
- May 24, 2014: Muslim H. (28) from Kosovo is being overwhelmed by eight employees of the Landshut prison and dies from “situation-based suffocation”.
- Summer 2014: An African refugee hangs himself.
- Jul 26, 2014: Mokhtan Meguitif (48) from Algeria slits his wrists.
- Jul 27, 2014: A Black teenager is found in the bike compartment of a transportation plane.
- Aug 15, 2014: At Burbach center, Marwan Rahmani (28) is being tortured and humiliated by employees.
- Sep 2, 2014: An Afghan refugee (24) slits his wrists.
- Sep 7, 2014: A Nigerian woman (29) tries to poison herself and her two kids
- Sep 23, 2014: A man from Azerbaijan pours gas on himself and sets himself on fire.
- Sep 28, 2014: Siwar Jouma (16) from Syria drinks a bottle of shampoo and jumps out of the window.
- Nov 7, 2014: An asylum seeker (32) is hurt severely due to a „self-inflicted injury“.
For further information on these cases, please click on the link “Beispiele” on ARI’s website.
The documentation covers the period from 1.1.1993 to 31.12.2014:
- 179 refugees killed themselves in the face of their impending deportation or died trying to escape from deportation, 64 of them while in custody pending deportation,
- 1383 refugees injured themselves out of fear of deportation, in protest against the impending deportation (risk hunger strikes) or tried to commit suicide, 659 of them in custody pending deportation,
- 5 refugees died during deportation and
- 472 refugees were injured by compulsory measures or mistreatment during their deportation,
- 34 refugees died in their country of origin after their deportation, and
- 584 refugees were mistreated and tortured by the police or military in their country of origin or were at the risk of their lives due to severe illnesses,
- 71 refugees disappeared without a trace after their deportations,
- 194 refugees died on their way to the Federal Republic of Germany or at its borders, 130 of them died at the German Eastern border, 3 people were driven off course on the river Neiße and have been missing ever since,
- 590 refugees suffered injuries crossing the borders, 321 of them at the German Eastern border,
- 19 refugees died because of physical force used by police or guards either in detention, in custody, while being arrested or deported, on the streets or in governmental agencies – at least 899 were injured.
- 20 refugees died through neglected assistance
- 75 refugees were killed in fires, attacks on refugee accomodation centres or dangers in these centres, 980 refugees were injured, in part severely,
- 19 refugees died through racist attacks on the street and 922 people were injured.
Since 1993 at least 451 refugees have died as a result of measures taken by the German Federal Republic.
– 94 people died through racist attacks and through being accomodated in camps (i.e. attacks, fires).
This documentation in regularily updated. The latest version can be found on ARI’s website.
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