UNITED: Asylum-seekers death toll rises to 2000
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 21:05:56 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: UNITED: Asylum-seekers death toll rises to 2000
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: UNITED <[email protected]>
UNITED: Asylum-seekers death toll rises to 2000
E-NEWS 14/06/2000
Dear friends,
We have a sad message for you: the number of cases of people who died
because of the policies of "Fortress Europe" has risen to over 2000.
We need to get this news in the newspapers! Policy makers and the
general public need to know what the results are of these
short-sighted and narrow-minded policies.
We strongly believe that it is impossible to shut down borders for
people when capital and goods are moving freely. Europe needs contact
with the rest of the globe as much as the rest of the globe needs
contact with Europe. This attempt to keep out migrants and refugees is
based on intolerance and xenophobia and needs to be stopped.
Please help us by sending this press release to:
- the mainstream media (newspapers, tv, radio, magazines)
- the alternative media (NGO magazines, internet discussion lists)
- your members or member organisations
- keeping UNITED informed (sending newspaper cuttings, translations of
the press release, etc.)
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Press Release 14/06/2000
The tragic result of European Refugee policies:
DEATH TOLL RISES TO 2000
More than 2000 refugees and migrants have died in and around Europe
since 1993 as a result of European refugee policies. Instead of
finding a safe place and a better perspective for their life people
have drowned, suffocated, been beaten to death by racist attackers,
gagged to death by policemen or committed suicide in dispair.
These deaths can be put down to border militarisations, asylum laws,
detention policies, deportations and carrier sanctions, summarised as
"Fortress Europe". As possibilities for legal entry for refugees and
migrants are more and more restricted, and as borders are made more
impermeable, people are forced to take more and more dangerous routes.
The cases that have been documented by UNITED include amongst others:
Nearly weekly people drown during their attempt to cross the
Mediterranean. On the 31st of December 1999, 39 people drowned in the
Adriatic Sea when their rubber boat sank.
A Reuters news item quotes a Spanish report about 120 assumed deaths
in the first four month of this year of people who drowned while
attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.
On 6 May an Algerian asylum seeker desperately committed suicide at
the detention centre at Frankfurt/Main (Germany) airport after being
held there over 8 months.
In August last year a stowaway clinging to the underside of a lorry
was crushed to death while disembarking in Dover (Great-Britain).
UNITED protests against the deadly realities of Fortress Europe. It
will be impossible to shut the borders totally. As capital and goods
freely cross borders, people will continue to follow. We need to work
towards long-term solutions for global problems instead of dnying
these facts.
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A full list with all 2000 cases, is available from the UNITED office,
or you can download it from the UNITED website
http://www.united.non-profit.nl
This press release is related to the International Refugee Day on 16
June.
Organisations highlight the situation of refugees in many European
countries. UNITED supports activities by producing a poster informing
about refugees and refugee resources.
For more information call Saskia Daru at the UNITED office.
UNITED for Intercultural Action is the European network against
nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees,
supported by more than 500 organisations in 40 countries. Since 1993
UNITED monitors all deaths of the people who became victims of the
policies that can be summarised as the creation of "Fortress Europe".
***********************************************************
16 June International Refugee Day
You can order posters now!
***********************************************************
UNITED for Intercultural Action
European network against nationalism, racism, fascism
and in support of migrants and refugees
PB 413, NL-1000 AK Amsterdam
phone +31-20-6834778, fax +31-20-6834582
e-mail [email protected] website
http://www.united.non-profit.nl
***********************************************************
Start your cyberday on http://www.icare.to Internet Centre
Anti-Racism Europe
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