Since August 22, 2007, seven Tunisian fishermen have been on trial before a court in Agrigento (Sicily), accused of “assisting illegal immigration”, a crime punished by Italian law. They risk up to 15 years imprisonment. Prosecuted as human traffickers, what they did was in fact just their basic duty of solidarity : on August 8, in the high sea near the island of Lampedusa, they picked up 44 passengers from a boat in distress at sea and brought them to the harbour. Without their intervention the shipwrecked people - including two pregnant women and two children - would propably have suffered the same fate as the thousands of migrants and refugees who have drowned over the last years while trying to reach the European coasts.
The trial in Agrigento is a new phase in the war EU leads against migrants and refugees. After the militarisation of the Andalusian coast ; after the dramatic events in Ceuta and Melilla in 2005 where several people were shot dead by the Moroccan police for trying to cross the Spanish border ; after the cordoning off of the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal to prevent crossings to the Canary Islands ; after the construction of detention camps where, as happens in Libya, the rights of refugees and migrants are trampled on ; today, it is the weapon of deterrence that is wielded.
By punishing the provision of assistance to people in danger, the Italian authorities force sailors and fishermen to breach the international law of the sea, which demands that they do everything in their power to rescue ships in distress. But that is not all : by criminalizing rescue operations, they make themselves responsible - in the best case scenario - for the deportation of people to countries where the rights of people in need of protection are not respected. At worst, they condemn to death women, men and children who have done nothing but to seek a better existence or even to save their lives.
Italy, a veritable laboratory for EU migration policy, has in 2005 deported hundreds of migrants by charter flights to Libyan jails. Today, Italy denies migrants access to its coasts, thereby implementing the logic of the externalisation of European border controls - of which the European agency Frontex is the standard bearing instrument.
We, agents of the civil societies of sub-Saharan Africa, of northern Africa and of Europe, activists and democrats from the south and north shores of the Mediterranean, demand the abolition of the ideology of security and repression that currently drives immigration policies through externalisation of asylum and border control and the criminalisation of migration. We oppose the “crime of solidarity” against defenders of human rights. We demand the release of the seven Tunisian fishermen of the boats Mortadha and Mohammed el-Hedi.
To sign the call : send an e-mail to Claire Rodier: rodier ras.eu.org
Signataires
Allemagne/Germany
AG Blinde Passagiere-Hamburg (Groupe de travail “passagers clandestins”), Fluechtlingsrat Hamburg (Conseil des Réfugiés, Hambourg), Komitee fuer Grundrechte und Demokratie (Comité pour les droits fondamentaux et la démocratie), no one is illegal Hamburg
Belgique/Belgium
APD (Aide aux Personnes Déplacées), Caritas International Belgique, Centre social protestant, CIRÉ (Coordination et Initiatives pour et avec les Réfugiés et Étrangers), Convivium (accueil et insertion des réfugiés), CSC (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens), Défense des enfants International, Équipes Populaires, LDH Belgique, Services droit des jeunes de Belgique, MOC (Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien), S.O.S Migrants Bruxelles
Cameroun/Cameroon
AFVMC (Aide aux Familles et Victimes des Migrations Clandestines)
Danemark/Denmark
Intet menneske er illegalt (no-one is illegal)
Espagne/Spain
ACAT-España (Acción de los Cristianos para la Abolición de la Tortura), APDHA (Asociación Pro-Derechos Humanos de Andalucía), CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado), Fundación FICAT (Barcelone)
France
ALIF sans-papiers, ANAFE (Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers), Centre des Cultures (Paris), CIMADE, Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF), FASTI (Fédération des Associations de Solidarité avec les Travailleurs Immigrés), FTCR (Fédération des Tunisiens pour une Citoyenneté des Deux Rives), GISTI (Groupe d’Information et de soutien des Immigrés), IPAM (Initiative pour un autre monde), LDH France (Ligue des droits de l’homme), La Marmite (association d’accueil et d’information santé auprès des migrants d’Afrique subsaharienne), MRAP (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples), RESF (Réseau Éducation Sans Frontières), SUD Éducation, fédération SUD éducation
Grande-Bretagne/United Kingdom
Statewatch
Grèce/Greece
Antigone, Chios Commitee of solidarity to Refugees, Antiracist Initiative of Thessaloniki, Network of social support to refufees and migrants, Network for the civil and social rights
Italie/Italy
ARCI, ASGI (Associazione Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione), Centro delle Culture di Roma, Sindacato dei Lavoratori-intercategoriale
Liban/Lebanon
Frontiers Ruwad Association
Mali
AME (Association Malienne des Expulsés)
Maroc/Morocco
AMDH Maroc (Association Marocaine des droits humains), ARCOM (Association des réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile congolais au Maroc), ATTAC Maroc, Red Chabaka (Associations du Nord du Maroc), CMSM (Conseil des Migrants Subsahariens au Maroc), Collectif des Réfugiés au Maroc, GADEM (Groupe Antiraciste d’accompagnement et de Défense des Étrangers et Migrants au Maroc), Pateras de la Vida
Mauritanie/Mauretania
AMDH Mauritanie (Association Mauritanienne des droits humains)
Tunisie/Tunisia
ATFD (Association Tunisienne des femmes démocrates), CNLT (Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie), CRLDHT (Comité pour le Respect des Libertés et des Droits de l’homme en Tunisie), LTDH (Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’homme)
Réseaux européens et internationaux/European and international networks
AEDH (Association européenne pour la défense des droits de l’Homme), réseau Migreurop, EJDH (Association Européenne des Juristes pour la Démocratie et les Droits de l’Homme dans le Monde), REMDH (réseau euro-méditerranéen des droits de l’homme)
For technical reasons, we will not give the list of individual signatures. Please accept our apologies migreurop.