Europe : Debrecen Hungary report and reflection about protest against detention system‏

Dear all,

more than one month ago, on 17th of May 2014, a protest day against 
detention of asylum seekers took place at Debrecen/Hungary:
http://noborderserbia.wordpress.com/

Here's a report about this action, written by a participant from Vienna,
combined with some reflection about the significance of protest and 
resistance against detention policies in Hungary within the struggle 
against European border- and deportation regime:


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Debrecen/Hungary: Protest against detention and its significance in the 
struggle against European border- and deportation regime

For several years, Hungarian asylum system has been unfamous for its 
practices of detaining refugees in closed prison camps or, on the other 
hand, throwing people on the street, without any place to stay. At 
Debrecen in the east of Hungary is located one of the biggest refugee 
camps in the country, with both open camp section and closed detention 
camp. Saturday, 17th of May 2014, Debrecen has been in the focus of 
bringing this systematic violation of freedom and basic human rights and
also refugees' resistance against this system to public attention: 
Around 50 people living in the open section of the camp, together with a
group of Hungarian and international activists who came by bus from 
Budapest, organised by the group Migszol (Migrants Solidarity Group), 
came together for a protest rally in front of the refugee camp. Major 
demands: Stop of detention of refugees in Hungary, but also an end to 
bad living conditions and abuses taking place in open camps, too. People
from the refugee camp and visitors from outside held speeches and 
shouted slogans for freedom, interrupted by music and dancing. From the 
entrance area of the open camp, the demonstration moved to a point 
opposite the outside walls of the closed detention camp, so that people 
inside this prison could see and hear it. Many of the prisoners, in 
turn, shouted and waved from inside – a moment of solidarity as well as 
of feeling helpless against the physical power of barbed wires and 
prison walls. For many of the people living in the open asylum camp, the
detention section is not an unknown place: They have been inside 
detention at Debrecen or other camps, often for months, after being 
arrested by Hungarian border guards, after being deported to Hungary 
from other EU-countries based on Dublin-rule, or as a form of 
intimidation and punishment by the authorities. It is said that people 
with supposedly bad chances in the asylum trial are more likely to be 
detained, but in general, the descision of who will be sent to a closed 
camp is a totally arbitrary one, working as a threat upon all asylum 
seekers in Hungary. Many of the refugee protesters had stories to tell 
about their sad and cruel experiences inside detention camps at Debrecen
and other places, like Nyírbator or Békéscaba: Stories about being 
systematically beaten and maltreated by prison guards, some of them 
showing traces of injuries on their bodies. Or stories about people 
psychologically traumatised and broken iside detention. While many 
refugees at Debrecen have experienced Dublin deportation to Hungary, 
often from Austria or Germany, it also became evident that at the same 
time, many people fear being deported out of Hungary, especially to 
Bulgaria, based on Dublin rule, too. Several people pointed out that in 
Bulgaria, like in Hungary, it is common for Asylum seekers to be 
detained, while those who are „free“ are left homeless on the streets, 
without any kind of accomodation or support from the Bulgarian state.
This short day of protest, a day of joyful coming together, of rising up
for freedom, but also of sharing harmful and traumatising experiences, 
ended with cordial farewell and confident motivation among the 
participants that further steps of protest need to follow.


Detention and push back

In the beginning of 2013, the practice of detaining asylum seekers was 
limitted by modifications of Hungarian law, meaning that people applying
for asylum immediately after being picked up by Hungarian border police,
as well as people being deported to Hungary based on Dublin rule, should
not be detained any more. Anyhow, detention as a common standard was 
reintroduced only on 1st of July 2013, introducing a form of detention 
that is legally different from deportation custody and allows Hungarian 
authorities to imprison asylum seekers up to 6 months. This new law, 
which concerns people who were arrested inside Hungarian borders as well
as those deported there from other EU countries, offers very different 
justifications of detention: Among others „Verifying someone's 
identity“, „suspicion of delaying the asylum procedure“, „not fulfilling
duties of asylum procedure“ or generally „protection of public order and
national security“. In daily practices of Hungarian asylum system, this 
means that refugees in Hungary live with the permanent threat of being 
sent to a closed detention camp for any arbitrary excuse. Many times, 
people imprisoned in Hungarian detention centers have complained about 
extremely bad living conditions, insufficient food and medical treatment
and violent abuses. Several times, refugees have responded against this 
detention system in collective acts of resistance: In August 2013, 
people started a hunger strike at Nyírbator detention center and in 
November 2013, a prison riot took place at Békéscaba. Due to inhumane 
living conditions and pressure from the authorities, many have chosen a 
so-called „voluntary“ pushback to Serbia as the only exit option 
seemingly available to them. At the same time, forced deportation to 
Serbia, which is not part of the EU Dublin regulation, also seem to be 
common, like stated in a testimony by a participant of Békéscaba riot: 
„(...) During this period I had seen that they deported people who had 
been there for four months (from Pakistan, Algeria, and other 
countries). They [the wardens, the police] would just come, without 
informing them before and deporting them the same night or the early 
morning of the next day. The people were angry that they just deport us 
back. We came to seek asylum and they would just push us back to 
Serbia.(...)“


Countries at eastern periphery of EU serving as „prison camp“ within 
Dublin-system

While it is an important challenge to struggle for the stop of Dublin 
deportations to Hungary because of the danger of detention, it also has 
to be pointed out that detention is not simply a specific failure of 
Hungarian asylum system. Closed detention camps in Hungary are set up 
and maintained with money from the EU and certain member states, like 
Germany. In this sense, an EU banner can be seen waving over the 
entrance doors of camps in Nyírbator, Debrecen and other places. 
Detaining asylum seekers is not something Hungarian state does against 
common EU human rights standards, but something it does to fulfil its 
role within EU migration regime. Deportations based on Dublin rule and 
the imprisonment of migrants and refugees in detention centers are 
corresponding parts of the system of repression against the free 
movement of people. With the breakdown of Greek asylum system, which has
forced the EU member states to stop Dublin deportations to Greece, other
countries at the periphery of the EU are more and more in the position 
to replace the role of Greece as buffer states. And Hungary is not the 
only state whose institutions actively try to fulfil this role: 
Bulgarian state, for example, also has become unfamous for the detention
of asylum seekers and transit migrants. Even in Hungary, with all the 
atrocities of its own asylum system, refugees talk about their fear of 
getting Dublin deportation to Bulgaria. This is not only because of the 
threat of detention, but also because of the total lack of accomodation 
and basic vital support for those people who are not detained and 
because of frequent racist attacks. And even in those states which are 
no EU members yet, steps are made to get more actively involved in the 
repressive European border regime. Serbian authorities, according to 
observations by activists living there, are presently preparing to 
introduce systematic detention of refugees and „irregular“ migrants, 
too. Detention, push backs and other forms of movement restriction, with
all its cruel consequences for the lives of people, are, to a large 
extent, caused by the policy of rich central EU countries like Germany 
and Austria. These states, until now, have been the most active ones to 
implement and to extend the Dublin – by now Dublin III – system in 
Europe, aiming to keep „unwanted“ people outside their own borders at 
any price. At the same time, this interest corresponds to the racist 
anti-refugee/anti-migrant agenda of right wing and fascist groups and 
parties who have become increasingly powerful in Hungary, but also in 
other countries. Globally, the extension of detention push backs and 
generally repressive migration control in the countries of eastern 
Europe and the Balkans is also due to their geographic position as 
transit countries into the EU for people fleeing from the war zones in 
Asia and Africa as well as for others searching for a better life. And, 
not least, from eastern and southeastern Europe itself, people who are 
facing economic crisis, poverty and racist persecution are setting out 
towards richer western EU countries. With the latest escalation of the 
horrors of war in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and other parts of the world, 
one of the major concerns for European bureaucrats and mainstream media 
is how to „handle“ and control the expected rise of the numbers of 
refugees. Media in Austria or Germany are full of „alarming“ reports 
about allegedly „exploding“ numbers of Asylum seekers – numbers in fact 
ridiculously small compared to people who are blocked in refugee camps 
in Africa or Asia -, while the EU members' role in plundering resources,
supporting oppressive regimes and inflicting wars keeps being ignored. 
In this context, detention, pushbacks and (Dublin) deportations along 
the flight- and migration routes through eastern Europe are tools of the
same ruthless asylum- and migration control regime implemented by the 
member states of the EU that kills people in the Mediterranean- and 
Agean sea and in the deserts of northern Africa. Thus, delegitimating, 
undermining and saboting these tools of repression is a fight for 
freedom of movement that can contribute to remove barriers for people's 
possibilities to save their lives and to claim access to the resources 
that are denied for them in a capitalist world system.


Marginal position of refugee solidarity protests in the context of 
rising nationalism and fascism

On the day of anti detention protest in Debrecen, local Jobbik fascists,
one of them a deputy at Hungarian parliament, held a counter rally to 
intimidate the refugee solidarity action and, as they said, to „support 
the Hungarian government“ and „protect the local population“. Although 
no physical confrontations happened, this incident is typical for the 
marginal position of refugee- and migrant solidarity in Hungarian 
society: No person from Debrecen who is not an inhabitant of the refugee
camp showed her solidarity. The only ones presently supporting refugees'
demands for freedom and basic rights seem to be some activist- and NGO 
groups mostly from Budapest, while Jobbik, with their fascist and often 
violent racist ideology, have become one of the most powerful political 
parties in Hungary. This, too, is not an exclusively Hungarian problem, 
but fits into the rise of fascist and other rightwing and racist groups 
almost everywhere in Europe.


Debrecen protest as a step for new cooperations and visibility of 
struggles

The demonstration in Debrecen on 17th of May has not been the only and 
not the first example of asylum seekers protesting against detention and
social exclusion in Hungarian refugee camps. Riots and hunger strikes 
have take place at Bekescaba and Nyirbator. Of a new quality was, on the
one hand, the cooperation between inhabitants of a refugee camp raising 
their voice and supporting groups from outside and, on the other hand, 
the high attention and visibility in Hungarian media. In this sense, 
for refugee activists as well as for the Migszol group, the Debrecen 
protest day was a big success, though it was clear to the organisers 
that substantial changes of inhumane living conditions are not likely to
happen quickly. Future will show in how far refugees struggling against 
detention and deportation system and supporting groups will be able to 
build up a broader and more continuous protest movement and in how far 
they will have the power to resist against repression and intimidation 
by Hungarian authorities and racist groups. According to a report of 
Migszol, who visited Debrecen some weeks after the public demonstration,
refugees continue to struggle against desperate living conditions, 
often using their bodies as the only tool available: there were people 
who went on hunger strike or sewed their mouth, in most cases far from 
any media attention. Internationally, the protest against detention 
system in Hungary is a highly important point of reference in the 
struggle against deportation through Dublin rule. In the case of Greece,
Dublin deportations have already been suspended due to the all too 
obvious inhumane conditions of Greek asylum system, but only after 
visible scandalisation through protests, revolts, media reports and 
exemplary juridical cases. Also for Hungary, Bulgaria and other „target 
countries“ of Dublin deportations, there have been successful individual
court cases of people who claimed their right to stay in another EU 
country. But still, authorities and courts in Austria, Germany etc. 
strictly refuse a general suspension of Dublin deportations, as this 
would put their strategies of refusing entry to refugees at stake. 
Achieving this would be a strategic goal in the struggle for freedom of 
movement in Europe. In Hungary and elsewhere, active refugees and 
migrants are the ones who are in the most exposed, most risky position 
within this struggle. It's a challenge to participate in breaking 
isolation to make it successful.


More insight and background information:

Blog of Migszol group/Budapest:
www.migszol.com/blog

No Border Serbia:
http://noborderserbia.wordpress.com
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