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We are addressing you from our tent in Berlin, we have set this tent to declare our unity with the asylum seeker’s struggles in Würzburg, Aub, Bamberg, Regensburg and Düsseldorf. Today we are protesting in the streets to gain our rights and to defend the right of an honorable life. We are the voice of those eliminated and neglected people who now want to remind their existence to all people. Our tents are the strongholds of resistance and struggle. It is only in the streets where one can reach out for one’s rights, therefore we shall leave our rooms in the camps and unite in the streets.
We, the asylum seekers of Berlin, demand the following:
1- Receiving residents permit in Germany
One who is not entitled to residents permit in Germany lives an unclear life in the asylum camp and faces many limitations and inhuman conditions. All of her/his life is postponed to an ambiguous future. We, the striking asylum seekers of the Berlin tent demand an urgent procedure of our cases. We also demand to be entitled to the residents permit in Germany.
2- German citizenship for children born in the camps
The children who are born during their parents asylum seeking procedure, face an ambiguous situation from the very beginning. Although they are considered to be born in Germany, but even for receiving an asylum passport they need a separate procedure than their parents. During this time, which is one of the most critical periods of one’s life, they have no access to sufficient facilities. We demand German passports to be issued for children who are born in the camps during their parents’ asylum seeking process.
We share the rest of our demands with our friends in Aub tent as follows:
3- Abolition of deportation laws
We believe that the right to choose where one lives is of the most basic human rights, and that the sole determining factor of this choice is the individual’s will. The deportation of asylum seekers to their original countries is a violation of this universal right, especially when it occurs due to the economical and political arrangements between the governments of the original and destination countries. The striking asylum seekers demand the German government to stop the current common yet inhumane deportation of asylum seekers.
4- Abolition of the 40-kilometer limit of travelling
meanwhile Germany is a part of the shengen agreement that abolishes boarders between European countries asylum seekers are not allowed to move beyond a 40 kilometer limit. we consider this sistematical isolation of the asylum seeker an unacceptable and inhuman treatment.
5- Abolition of laws forcing asylum seekers to live in asylum camps
Asylum camps isolate the asylum seekers from the public and sometimes even the urban spheres. The guarded camps and the lack of facilities has turned them in to a place not for living but merely surviving. We demand the abolition of asylum camps where no asylum seeker has any access to a privet space.
6- The process of asylum seeking,
we demand the procedure to be as fast as possible, we believe that the current waiting time is an indicator of white and psychological torture. we demand a time limit regarding the procedure and result of the asylum case.
7- Food packages
we believe any human being is entitled to choose the quantity and the quality of one’s daily meals. Limiting them to a certain food diet is an obvious violation of basic rights of people. We certainly demand the limited food packages to be replaced with the right to choose the diet by the asylum seeker, her-himslef.
8- Work permit
many of the mass medias have created the illusion that Asylum seekers are merely consumers. We believe that it is the current limiting regulations which lead to such situations, therefore we demand unconditional work permit for asylum seekers since we believe any person is able to work to make living and it is also one ‘s right to do so.
9- German language
as a result of systematic isolation of asylum seekers, they are denied the right to learn German language. We believe that voluntary access to learning German, is ones obvious rights, we demand equal rights to learn German in credible institutions to be legally issued.