We got a warm reception at the LiZe in Regensburg and after eating and relaxing, we started what was defined by the Regensburg group as a „lager walk“ around 4pm. In the city of Regensburg are many lagers, but five of them are situated closely to one another. Two of those camps are “arrival“ and “transit“ centres which will change to „AnKER“ centres on 1st August 2018.
We started the walk from the BAMF office and walked shouting to the nearest lager, which is called the arrival lager in the former military complex of Bajuwarenkaserne. We made a small rally outside and some refugees from inside joined us and took the loud speaker as well to let out their stress and anger to the system which is holding them as prisoners though their only crime is seeking for asylum in Germany.
The next lager on our route was the so-called transit centre in Zeißstraße 1, which we had visited 2 months ago. We started shouting slogans with our loud speaker and banners and some refugees, children included, came to the gate. The grown-ups were afraid to come out but the kids wanted to force their way through the gate, but the security pushed them back. Only few people came out – unlike the other lager where the residents came out and took the loud speaker and spoke about what is going on inside, e.g. single people, families with children being kept inside without perspectives and waiting to be deported to other European countries or to their countries of origin.
In the next lager (Gemeinschaftsunterkunft Dieselstraße), the securities were not hostile to us but while our short rally was ongoing, no one came out. After we finished and were about to leave, some young Afghani men came out and were asking us questions because they heard some women speak Dari/Farsi on the loud speaker.
After four hours of our lager walk we decided to go back for our evening meal at LiZe and then to the sleeping places.
The following day we travelled to Deggendorf, another “transit centre“ which is ready to just remove/change the sign into „Anker“. Our aim was to invite women to our „Stop Deportation“ workshop which was taking place later at the protestant church‘s rooms. We decided to make a spotaneous rally in front of the gate of the lager. Some people managed to come out to listen to our slogans and songs. When we reached the protestant church‘s rooms, we found more than 20 women waiting for us. We started the workshop immediately because some women had waited for long and were getting impatient. After a few minutes to the workshop, one woman who had left her child behind got an emergency call that her room is burning and her child has been taken by the police. We later realised that there was a problem with an electricity cable. We are in touch with host group to keep up with the incident.
Those who continued the workshop liked it very much because of the tips we gave on where to get information and people who can assist them with the many problems they are facing in this small city where racism is openly practised.
