IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 20/03/2012 - 12:22

On the 18th of march 2012 participants of the Transborder Conference organised a demonstration in front of the detention center in Edirne near the Greek border. This has been financed by the European Union and is managed by the UK Border Agency.

The border is the problem!
We are standing outside a new, luxurious building. But this building is not built for a social purpose. On the contrary, it is a detention center, a prison for people who have committed no crime; people who were arrested while crossing the borders. Migrants are all the more criminalized, described and treated as a menace by the Governments and the authorities.
Within the last years travelling without papers has been raised as a major problem. What we find a major problem, however, is that people are constrained from moving freely, from choosing the place they want to live, from having rights in the countries they choose to settle.
We are here in the Turkish- Greek border, outside the new detention center of Edirne, just a few kilometers from the detention centers of Evros, from the wall that is being built on the Greek side of the border. We have also been in many similar places around the world: in Lyubinetz in Bulgaria, in Patra’s port, in Calais in France, in Ceuta and Mellila, in Shousha in Tunisia, in the Sahara detention centers, in Sinai passage, in Warsaw and in Brussells just to name a few. Places where the anti-migration policies are applied or designed and coordinated.
Against global inequalities and racism, against repression and control policies, against detention centers, walls and deportations we claim freedom of movement for a life with dignity, we claim open borders and the right to settle.

Articles from local and national newspapers in Turkey. Overall they do a decent job in explaining who we were and what we were doing there, although of course they continue using the term "illegal migrants":
http://www.ajanstabloid.com/haber.aspx?pid=105
http://www.aktifhaber.com/edirnede-kacaklara-ozgurluk-eylemi-573497h.htm
http://www.edirnehaberci.com/guncel/uluslar-arasi-bir-gosteri-oldu-h7818...
http://www.habergalerisi.com/haber/edirnede-kacaklara-ozgurluk-eylemi-65...
http://www.haberler.com/kacaklar-icin-ozgurluk-istediler-3460160-haberi/
http://www.posta.com.tr/turkiye/HaberDetay/Kacaklar_icin__ozgurluk_.htm?...