archiv.ffm-online

This week, once again, thousands successfully overcame Europe’s maritime borders, especially the Aegean Sea and the Central Mediterranean Sea. The Alarm Phone was alerted to more than ten groups in distress somewhere in the Greek-Turkish borderzone, to two vessels between Morocco and Spain, and to six vessels off the coast of Libya. On the 22nd of August alone we witnessed a record number of travellers being rescued from various vessels in distress in the Central Med. We were supporting six vessels on that day, carrying hundreds of people. Also on the 22nd, thousands overcame armed borderguards and fences toward Macedonia, successfully moving further toward Central European territories. Many of them had overcome the Aegean Sea only days earlier. Of course, while there are many reasons to be hopeful, we also witnessed the hardship and suffering of those on the move. Obstacles are placed in their paths that make journeys dangerous and lengthy. Our friends on the Greek islands encountered injured people, the elderly, children and pregnant women who, after incredibly strenuous sea crossings, had to walk for hours until they found some refuge and had to struggle for days and weeks afterwards in order to be allowed to leave the islands. The situation is dramatic and the humanitarian crisis is far from being adequately addressed. Nonetheless, through their stubborn movements, these travellers enact the freedom of movement and subvert the European border regime physically, thereby challenging policies and technologies of population control, including the Dublin III regulation. Under immense pressure, German authorities announced that Syrians would not be returned to other EU countries of entry or transit anymore – a huge success for the people concerned and their supporters.

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