Dear friends and supporters,

we are a group of people, that actively want to help refugees who are stuck in Italy because the borders have been sealed tightly. We were planning an action to go to the balkan-route in spring of 2020 but couldn’t realize it due to the Covid-19-pandemic, the lock-down and the border closures which made it impossible to travel, now many borders are still closed so we decided to go to Italy instead and to the balkan-route in summer.
The majority of people fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe arrive in Italy. Thousands of people die on their way due to failure to provide assistance, and those who make it to Italy expect inhumane accommodation, immense problems to get asylum applications approved and the almost impossible route to other EU countries.
People seek refuge from war, hardship, forced marriage, persecution and hunger in their countries of origin. There are many NGOs, that provide first aid along these routes. We want to relieve these local structures in spring 2021 by cooking, providing medical first aid, supporting border-monitoring or spreading information. To make this happen, we need financial support. We will finance food, materials, medication and travel costs. We count on your support.

TOGETHER WE CAN OPPPOSE TO THE DEADLY ISOLATION-POLITICS OF THE EU.

Contact / e-mail: directsupport@riseup.net

Bank account: Medinetz Halle / Saale e.V.
Iban: DE65 8005 3762 1894 0424 05
BIC : nolade21hal / Saalesparkasse
Reference: directsupport

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the situation it is causing, we have decided to travel to Ventimiglia on April 9, 2021 to the Italian / French border. There we want to support people who suffer from violence on the run, which is practiced at inner-European borders as well as on all escape routes. For this we want to offer food, medical first aid and a place to breathe.
For this purpose we will relieve the local structures with a medibus, a mobile kitchen and an infobus that provides free WLan and information material.

After our arrival in Ventimiglia we will publish the first report about the situation of refugees in this border region.

Our plan to travel the Balkan route is now planned for late summer/fall 2021.

The date for the direct support trip is planed on spring 21

Dear friends and supporters,

We are a group of people, that actively want to help refugees who are stuck on the balkan-route because the borders have been sealed tightly. We were planning an action in spring of 2020 but couldn’t realize it due to the Covid-19-pandemic, the lock-down and the border closures which made it impossible to travel. The balcanroute is hermetically sealed since 2015. European politics of isolation make it almost impossible for refugees to cross to northern and western Europe. People seek refuge from war, hardship, forced marriage, persecution and hunger in their countries of origin. In september, the camp “Moria” on Lesvos burnt down. Even before the fire, this camp was a place, that endagered the existence of tenthousands of people and not even in the moment they became homeless instantly, did Europe actively try to end this misery. There are many NGOs, that provide first aid along these routes. We want to relieve these local structures in spring 2021 by cooking, providing medical first aid, supporting border-monitoring or spreading information. To make this happen, we need financial support. We will finance food, materials, medication and travel costs. We count on your support.

TOGETHER WE CAN OPPPOSE TO THE DEADLY ISOLATION-POLITICS OF THE EU.

Contact / e-mail: directsupport@riseup.net

Donations to:
Bank account: Medinetz Halle / Saale e.V.
Iban: DE65 8005 3762 1894 0424 05
BIC : nolade21hal / Saalesparkasse
Reference: directsupport

After a long sleepless night we arrived in Ventimiglia. I feel like I never even left. After some organizing time the everyday life feels just like in spring. With some new people and some people from last time missing. But things changed here around us. The Border Point is not the same as before. People don‘t use the red house for sleeping anymore, after it got evicted in april. There are almost no ways for people on the move to reach France by train, since they are stopped by the cops even in Ventimiglia already. I feel like less activists are around, yet I still meet familiar faces. Mostly at the Via Tenda/distribution place where we build up our structure every day. Our structure consists of the medi bus and the info bus, providing WiFi and phone charging and distributing food, coffee and tee. Last days have been surprisingly calm. There are less people here at daytime (30-50). In the evening with the distribution of warm food the numbers grow to 50-100. Many people are sleeping under the bridge right at the place where there was the camp before. That can be dangerous. The bridge lies right at the river and there can be floods at this time in the year in Italy. Many people on the move gladly use our infrastructure and spend the day charging their phone with a drink. Our medi team is quite busy, the next hospital is 30 minutes away with the bus. Many people on the move have to wait a long time to get minimal medical attention. Pretty busy are also the smokers of our group to match the need by rolling a 100 cigarettes a day. Our kitchen team has to cook considerably less then last time. After the daily lunch we provide at the parking lot we drive through the town in the evening, looking for people that didn‘t manage to visit or don‘t know about the distribution place to give them some warm meal. Since the border point has been evicted (after complaints of the neighbors) and Kesha Niya (a group of activists from here) is not able to cook there anymore we also drive up there to bring food. Besides we still go to the squat/red house, the beach, parks and train station to find people looking for food and blankets. We are looking forward to meet some new group member in the next days. Then we will also have the capacities to do some additional tasks like border monitoring and publications and support the other groups here.

At this point we‘d like to thank everyone who shows their solidarity and supported us financially or emotionally.

The border point is placed between Ventimiglia and the french border at the road leading to the french cities Menton and Nizza. It‘s a place to sit and provides a good view, right at the side of the road.

This location has been the major rally point for persons on the move until summer. The self-organized group Kesha Niya is providing food, informations about Ventimiglia and company in multiple shifts a day. People who are exhausted from walking or devastated from the countless repressiosn and push backs of Italian and French police and military find a place to rest and gather new strength.

Even public and non-government organizations like Caritas or Save The Children used the spot to make contact with the people on the move.

For some years this place has more or less been tolerated by the italian police. This summer however this long grown place has been evicted and closed off.

People who pass now can only see fences and some remains of the former border point. Behind the fences just a dusty, empty space, another symbol for the european border regime.

But in spite of this repression people find new ways and spaces for solidarity and support.

Dear friends and supporters!

since beginning of october direct support is back in Ventimiglia. The situation has become worse for the people on the move sind april. Since the squat (casa rossa) has been evicted, most of them sleep unter a bridge near Via Tenda ot at the trains station. The way to France is getting blocked by the illegal french push backs. Basic needs like food, clothes, blankets, showers, communiation an medical care is much needed. We can provide food, tea, coffee, WiFi, charging, hygiene products and basic medical support with our infrastructure.

This would not be possible without your support and donations. We want to thank you a lot! However, we are still dependent on your solidarity. We need need financial support to stay flexible as the mobile group that we are. So we can react fast to new situations and can also act at other places.

Therefore we’d like to ask you again for yout support in monetary and materials form. Please share this call.

For a world without borders!

No borders – No nation!

Solidarity Now!

Medinetz Halle/Saale e.V.
IBAN : DE65 8005 3762 1894 0424 05
BIC : nolade21hal
Saalesparkasse
Verwendungszweck : directsupport

blog : directsupport.blackblogs.org

About the current situation you can hear in our interview at radio Corax from Halle.

After our arrival and the establishing of our camp at the weekend we quickly started with our work. In the early week we had some difficult weather though. There where storm warnings for all of Liguria with heavy rain and winds. Schools and even the graveyard at the Via Tenda where closed. The parking lot of this graveyard is the central place where we and other NGOs are working from. Even the people on the move where being warned from sleeping under the nearby bridge, since there had been multiple casualties in last october due to floodings. Of course that‘s all the public authorities did. No shelter or dry sleeping places where provided. It‘s already a lot that this night the people on the move where tolerated to sleep in front of the trains station. Usually they get sent away from there by cops. In the end the storm was not as bad as expected and the next day was already sunny and there where a lot of people at the Via Tenda.

Today, at Wednesday there where a lot less people at the place though. The kitchen was somewhat sad, since they could only give out a few portions of food. However the reason for that was actually nice. People at the distribution place told us that a large group made it over the border at the last day. However, the people we talked to did not have so much luck, since they had been pushed back by the french police. These push backs at inner european borders are rarely present in the media. Push backs are quick deportations with no chance of moving on or pleading for asylum. This illegal methods are practiced systematically by France and many other states on the migration routes. People have to try a lot of times to finally make it over the border. And that‘s still not enough. Still behind Nice push backs are enforced. Not even minors are spared. The safer and more obvious the route, the larger the danger becomes to get caught by the police and be forced back. This way people are forced to take more and more dangerous routes. In the few days we where here we already heard of casualties and missing person reports. One person was killed trying to travel on the top of a train. Another report is speaking of a group of people that called for emergency in a local mountain pass but have not been found. The name of the pass: „passo della morte“ – pass of death. A clear picture of the deadly borders inside of europe, between the two sunny vacation spots Monaco and Ventimiglia.

The first days haven been busy. At all time there was one person inside the medibus during the first two days. Wounds on feets and legs were very common, headaches and bag pain as well, but also dental problems. The dental problems brought our medical treatment to a limit. Unfortunately as far as the local activisties know there is no solidary dentist. Therefore we cannot do more than recommending the people on the move to go to a hospital.

However, the hospital is only an option for a few. The closest one is in Bordighera, which is 25min by car or an one hour walking tour. Even if people take this trip – which can be difficult when you‘re injured or hurting – a treatment is not always guaranteed. It is their legal right to get treated but sometimes they‘re turned away anyway. Some don‘t want to go to the hospital as they fear oppression or deportation. Another reason is the separation of their group, their families or friends on the move that comes with a hospital visit. Leaving his friend behind appeared to be the main cause of hesitation for one person on the move we followed to the hospital.

With the first people of the move that we convinced to visit the hospital, we where the only group that had to wait for hours – outside until he was treated.

Convincing the people from the urgency to got to the hospital, was quite often hard for me. How much convincing is necessary and how much is too much?

One patient with a necrotic toe [1], we could not treat sufficiently besides handing out pain killers. He refused to go to the hospital. After the third or fourth attempt to point out the neccessity and urgency of medical treatment at a hospital, I started to feel uncomfortable. Was it because of miscommunication? Or didn‘t we understand his wishes? After 20Kappa [2] organised a translator, it turned out that he indeed didn‘t want to go to a hospital, but rather whished to go home. Taking the severeness of his condition/siutation, I wasn‘t satisfied over his decision. However, more than about my disappointment over it, I care about that it‘s his decision.

Rala & the Medi-Crew

[1] necrotic means that the tissue is dying

[2] 20Kappa is a selforganised group, working constantly in Ventimiglia

Bad news arrived today that we like to share. The ultra right wing mayor managed to pass an inhuman law that expicitly aims at homeless people. Starting today it is prohibited to lay on benches, put mattrasses on the ground, public drinking or even putting bags on benches, just to name a few. There is no answer to the obvious questions: Where are all the people supposed to sleep if empty house are being evicted, no apartments or tents are provided and sleeping on the ground is prohibited. Instead they get fined with 100 to 300 Euro. It‘s not like people choose to live on the streets, sleep on the ground, do not know where to go and get imprisoned and sent back for crossing the borders. Hoping for raising protests we try to support people and show them ways to safe places.

Homelessness is not a crime!

Fight against the system!

Power to the people!

Italian article: https://www.riviera24.it/2021/10/ventimiglia-contrasto-ad-abuso-di-alcool-bivacchi-e-degrado-sindaco-scullino-firma-lordinanza-721844/

Translation of the italian article:

Ventimiglia. The law for „Fighting public consumption of alcoholic beverages, illegal parking on public places that lead to camps and the decrease of urban environment“ has been published at the black board in Ventimiglia today. It has been signed into action by mayor Gaetano Scullino.

Since today consumption of alcoholic beverages of any kind is prohibited in all public spaces and publicly accessible areas. Exceptions are outer areas of bars and the time between 11:30 an 15 o‘clock. The law is in force until december 31.

The mayor also enacted a 24 hour ban on sleeping on the street, the unintended usage of benches (laying, putting up shoes, sleeping, putting bags, backbacks, sacks or casesf on it). He also prohibits stacking up materials as a bed (mattrasses, carton, tents and other materials that lead to decay of public order).

These restrictions are active for all alreas with schools, sports facilities, museums, monuments and churches. Also at the train station and areas used for public transport, health services, markets and public events. This includes cemetries, gardens, parks, public playgrounds, flowerbeds, the Nervia oasis and the SCU area at the Roja river, any pedestrians and bicycle areas, all areas adjacent to the ocean and river, comercial districts, Via Tenda, Piazza Cesare Battisti, Piazza della Livertà, Piazza Marconi, Piazza della Cattedrale, Funtanin area, Via della Repubblica.

Violating the law results in a penalty fine starting with 100 Euro, which is a third of the maximum fine. Except if it is not a crime. If the perpetrator does not follow orders to remove the materials, the materials are being confiscated. Also: If the materials are used as a bed, they are being confiscated immediately (according to Art. 13 of law 689/1981) by transferring them directly to waste processing.

This law has been signed by the mayor after an approving statement of the prefect and a negotiation between Scullino and the majority. It is supposed to end the distressing coexistence of the inhabitants of Vemtimiglia and the migrants. „The unlawful occupation of public spaces contributes to a perception of urban decay and a collateral disruption of public peace for the people living in these areas.“ states the document.

„Disruption of public peace in areas where most of the camping has been documented by complaints of citizens and spontaneous committees. It has been a heavy burden for the city administration. The situation is fuealing unrest and unsafety of the citizens and grows fears over freely and safely using public spaces that are supposed to accessible for everyone.“