Report on racist behavior towards Roma refugees and demonstrations in support of
them ---- On Thursday, May 19, at three o'clock, we met in front of the Ministryof the Interior to protest against the inhumane treatment of refugees at Prague'sCentral Station. The state acts racistly, fails and delegates itsresponsibilities to volunteers. People on the run in Hlavák are facing, forexample, a lack of food and hygiene facilities. Families with children sleep onthe floor, and newcomers must share the already nutritionally insufficientallocations with those who have not been provided with assistance in theassistance center.Mostly Roma refugees live at Prague's main railway station with the attention ofalmost all media and politicians for more than a week. Many of them are in theCzech Republic - without systemic help and in a legal vacuum - of course evenlonger. They may find themselves in Brno, where the police prevent them fromgetting off the trains, or they are doomed to sit in disgrace in front of thelocal station and just watch all day as people passing through the dirt do notsee them.When refugees, mostly young women with children, come to the mentioned Hlavák,they often fall into the process of identity verification, where - according tovarious testimonies, mostly exclusively among the Roma - they look for whetherthey cannot be sold by having formal citizenship. How many such people, by theway, usually really live in Ukraine, there are, however, state agencies areunable to say.Another problem is accommodation. What the state "offers" in remote centers ismore like a cell than a dignified shelter, so it's no wonder that refugees preferto return to the station. In the media, we only hear about "ungrateful refugeeswho refuse to stay."Just as Czech Roma are a priori suspected of stealing or "abusing" socialbenefits, the Ukrainian authorities understand in advance as someone who drags tothe Czech Republic to pack up with the state. By the way, according to expertsworking directly on Hlavák, there are up to eleven different legal situations inwhich people now come to Hlavák - so there is no mass of "Hungarians who comehere for contributions".The Minister of the Interior, Vít Rakušan, prefers to hypocritically writeoutbursts about Nicholas Winton on Facebook. By the way, the statue of thisgiant, who saved hundreds of children from the Holocaust, stands directly on theplatform, where Romani families are sitting wearily waiting for something tohappen. Of course, the Austrian somehow "dropped" from his contribution.So while politicians are busy that the Czech Republic has replaced Russia in theUN Human Rights Council, volunteers at Central Station are facing a human rightscrisis. Helping hundreds of refugees at the station - unlike empty words aboutUkraine's support - will not bring points to the elections, and therefore theparty papals are not interested. And that's why we came at the initiative of RFKand Kolektiv 115 to show our empathy appropriately loudly and where they havethis really stinking butter on their heads: in front of the mentioned Ministry ofthe Interior.Nothing ends with the protestThe sidewalk in front of the ministry was beautified with slogans written inchalk such as: "The ancestor of Bohemia was a migrant" and "no one is illegal".We made banners to the sound of music and hung them on police roadblocks. We fromthe Anarchist Federation walked in front of the gates of Mordor with a somewhatpunk banner "Nádražka na Hlavák, Refugees to Strakovka", which then kept thebanners against the Ministry of the Interior: "You are a problem group" and"Solidarity instead of police batons".At six o'clock, the demonstration itself began with the participation of about150 people, the speeches were made by the organizing teams and Architects WithoutBorders. The Ukrainian girl then sang a folk Ukrainian song. Honza from northernBohemia - from the great community association from Chan's Aver Roma - left thegreatest impression, offering a Roma perspective. He spoke impressively aboutboth racism and the war in Ukraine. He reminded that the solidarity that thefugitives from the war zones already deserve fully, we may also need. And that heis fighting for us in Ukraine.Despite the seriousness of the situation, the demo was out of speech in a relaxedto slightly partying spirit: music was played, many were refreshed with beer inthe heat, people got together and discussed. The police practically ignored us,there was only a traditional annoying photo shoot with secret and force, in orderto remove the assigned banners after the event.When we parted, the knowledge that we were only at the beginning prevailed,rather than the impression of a successful event. The Ministry of the Interiorand the state in general have apparently decided to make the whole problem ofHlavák and the systemic discrimination of the Roma invisible, taking advantage ofthe exhaustion of extremely dedicated volunteer organizations that cannot provideassistance to hundreds of people in unsatisfactory conditions forever.We certainly do not consider the situation of refugees - whether at the mainstation or without a clear perspective scattered elsewhere - to be resolved. Weknow that Czech society treats hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine ingreat solidarity, but we will not be silent if it wants to just exclude thousandsof people from helping according to the ethnic key.As long as the children live on the ground at the Nicholas Winton statue, we willgrowl and shout. Likewise, in the longer term, we will be careful not to turnUkrainian refugees into an exploited labor force or a new class of ethnicallysegregated, socially excluded people. When we say that our weapon is solidarity,we mean it.https://www.afed.cz/text/7665/nadrazku-na-hlavak-uprchliky-do-strakovky_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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