On 8 March 2025, International Women’s Day, Women in Exile and Friends will protest against the right-wing turn, racism and deportations in front of the First Reception Centre in Eisenhüttenstadt from 12.00 noon. The reception centre for people in the Dublin procedure is currently being built on the site of the first reception centre. It is due to open in mid-March. The aim is to deport people as quickly as possible. Residents will only be provided with ‘soap, bread and a bed’ – no other services. This was the populist announcement of Brandenburg’s interior minister. Her words are reminiscent of prison. Refugees are being criminalised; flight is being declared a crime. We are taking a stand against this incitement and the shift to the right.
We denounce laws that gradually abolish the right to asylum. Planned mass deportations and forced returns have deadly consequences for people in need of protection. Without human rights and the protection of vulnerable groups, democracy becomes an empty phrase.
Women in Exile strongly condemns the racist policies and agitation that are also being promoted by centrist parties.
For some time now, we have been experiencing increasing institutional racism and racism on the streets. Some of us have been physically attacked by strangers and others have been insulted by neighbours. Racial profiling and police violence are commonplace.
Media agitation against refugees and populist speeches by politicians have one function: to distract from fundamental social problems. Refugees become scapegoats. The gap between rich and poor, the consequences of climate change, the effects of armament and war, and the plight of education and health-care systems are pushed out of the limelight.
We also condemn the populist debate on forced labour. Refugees work for 80 cents an hour in reception centres, painting rooms, cooking, cleaning, translating and planting gardens – 8 hours a day. Instead of giving us the right to work, we are exploited or hear hateful calls for forced labour.
For 23 years, Women in Exile has been making visible the violence experienced by women* and their children in the camps, which is very important to us on 8 March: lack of privacy and sexual assaults, including by staff, are part of everyday life in the shelters. Queer people are also very vulnerable to violence. The camps serve to isolate us from society. We demand the closure of the camps!
Discrimination continues with the payment card forced on refugees. With this card, the Brandenburg government is investing millions in marginalising refugees and fuelling racism.
Visa is the main beneficiary. But there is hope: we welcome the fact that the districts are refusing to introduce this racist method of payment. We hope that they will instead strengthen social infrastructure, schools, kindergartens and mobility – for the benefit of all, regardless of origin, residence status and social affiliation. Solidarity perspectives are more necessary than ever: After the results of the elections on 23 February, it is very important to join forces more intensively with various democratic groups and individuals and to stand up resolutely for a just society that protects all people and nature and gives inalienable value to the rights of refugees.
Our rally in Eisenhüttenstadt is supported by a broad alliance from Berlin and Brandenburg: Seebrücke Potsdam, Brandenburg calling, Kommit, Widerklang Berlin, Haus des Waldes and Lavine. Together we demand:
– Permission to work, earn decent wages and pay taxes.
– No camps for women*, Lgbtiq+ and children, abolish all camps!!!
– Abolish the payment card!!!
– No deportations – right to come, right to go and right to stay!!!
