647 signatures
Petitioner did not submit the petition.
Petition is addressed to: Mayor Andreas Bausewein, City council of Erfurt
Erfurt should become a safe haven!
We demand pro-activity instead of empty promises! As a safe haven the state capital Erfurt should declare its willingness to accommodate and rescued people directly and beyond the distribution ratio.
Moreover, what we want from Erfurt is public solidarity, support and decriminalization of sea rescue, commitment for safe passage, active positioning against racist discrimination on personal as well as on institutional level and more transparency by the city. The city of Erfurt should stand up for better arrival and better perspective to stay and fight against deportations to the extent possible.
You think that the dying in the Mediterranean has to end and Erfurt must support to end it? Then become part of the movement and sign our Open Letter "Make Erfurt a safe haven!". (see Reason)
Thanks to all supporters! The Seebrücke Erfurt
Reason
Dear Mayor,
Dear city council of Erfurt,
the situation for refugees, especially at the Mediterranean Sea and in Libya, is getting worse and worse. In this year alone, more than 1000 people drowned, in the last one it was far more than 2000! This makes the external border of the EU the deadliest around the word. In the future, too, people will be forced to flee from hunger, poverty, war and persecution. Who will save them? Where will they be able to live in peace?
While the EU continues to seal off its borders, even arming a Libyan militia, dying in the Mediterranean continues. At the same time, refugees and returnees are held in Libyan torture camps. Even the UN explicitly instructs Europe not to bring people back to Libya because it is not safe there. By disregarding these conditions, the EU is violating human rights to a large extent.
Since 2015, the EU member states have been struggling to find a solution. Currently, it is only the civil Search & Rescue NGOs, such as Sea-Watch, SOS Méditerranée or Sea-Eye etc., that are rescuing people from the Mediterranean, defending human rights and thus facing up to the humanitarian responsibility that is simply ignored by the state. Rather, the NGOs are repeatedly sabotaged and criminalized in their work by the EU and its members. Ports closed to them often force the civilian sea rescue ships to wait for weeks at sea, putting the rescued people in danger again.
Because these conditions are unacceptable, a broad civil society solidarity movement has formed in Europe. Many municipalities and cities want to accommodate people and thus offer the rescued a safe haven.
By making a decision at the municipal level, a city or municipality can declare itself a safe haven and thus actively combat human rights violations. We therefore demand that Erfurt also declares itself a safe haven and actively participates in the alliance of safe havens. This is how the city shows its solidarity with refugees and offers receptive places beyond the distribution ratio. Furthermore, it commits itself to ensuring safe and dignified arrival and stay by providing all necessary resources, especially in the areas of housing, medical care, work, education, social and cultural participation. Such an application will be submitted to the Erfurt City Council in the beginning of 2020.
We must not longer just stand idly by and watch. We must seize the opportunity presented by the decision of the Landtag to make Thuringia a safe haven for a Europe of human rights („Für ein Europa der Menschenrechte - Thüringen wird sicherer Hafen“). Therefore, support the setting-up of a safe haven for refugees in Erfurt.
Together with us, ensure safe escape routes and respect for human rights in the Mediterranean!
Petition details
Petition started:
12/20/2019
Petition ends:
04/22/2020
Region:
Erfurt
Topic:
Migration
This petition has been translated into the following languages
News
-
Petition wurde nicht eingereicht
on 05 Jun 2021Liebe Unterstützende,
der Petent oder die Petentin hat innerhalb der letzten 12 Monate nach Ende der Unterschriftensammlung keine Neuigkeiten erstellt und den Status nicht geändert. openPetition geht davon aus, dass die Petition nicht eingereicht oder übergeben wurde.
Wir bedanken uns herzlich für Ihr Engagement und die Unterstützung,
Ihr openPetition-Team -
Safe Haven Erfurt
on 04 Jun 2020For a week now, Erfurt can call itself one of the 154 safe havens in Germany! An important step in the right direction and a reason to celebrate - at least briefly. What is most important for us is what follows now. Behind us lies a long back and forth of committees, submissions, opinions, negotiations and a long search for compromises. The decision taken on Wednesday 27 May is a reason to breathe a sigh of relief. But we will continue to work on it: we will monitor the practical implementation of the points that have been decided upon and, following on from that, demand further steps! Our work is far from being done.
We want to make transparent what was actually going on - and what was not. After all, what compromise could five political groups (SPD, LINKE, GRÜNE, Freie Wähler/Piraten, Mehrwertstadt) agree on? And what not?
What was decided?
... that the city of Erfurt officially shows solidarity with refugees and people who are on the run.
... that it is in solidarity with the aims of the Potsdam Declaration and also declares itself to be a supporter of a Thuringian state admissions programme. (Such a programme was decided this week for people from the Greek camps)
... that the city administration is commissioned to draw up a concept of measures for the integration concept that has been in place for years. The Foreigners' Advisory Council and other actors in migration work are to be involved and several proposed measures are to be taken into consideration. These are primarily concerned with active steps to improve the situation for refugees and migrants in the Erfurt Foreigners Authority. We had originally developed these demands as fixed points of resolution, they have now become "proposals for measures". We hope that they will actually be implemented.
However, the comparison with the original proposal "Making Erfurt a safe haven", which the city council factions LEFT, GREENS and Value Added City had worked out together with us, throws a somewhat more differentiated - possibly sobering - light on it. We look back: Over months we actively contributed our demands to the development of this proposal. Apart from the "usual" SEABRIDGE demands, which are aimed at the mass death in the Mediterranean, there was no way to wipe out the problem: The city of Erfurt also has to deal with grievances concerning the situation of refugees who have already arrived here. In exchange with the Refugee Council of Thuringia and with people who have made their own experiences with the Erfurt Foreigners Authority, a lot of things came together. In the end, one application became two - one with demands in the supra-regional SEEBRÜCKE context and one with measures on site for safe arrival AND stay for refugees. For that is the importance of a consistent safe haven. It is not without reason that several hundred fugitives and migrants took to the streets in Erfurt last year against arbitrary action by the authorities and racist discrimination. To claim that Erfurt "has long been a safe haven", as the SPD often put it, we think is naive and wrong.
What was NOT decided?
In the course of the debate with other factions, several demands finally fell through - through different ideas of importance, responsibilities and feasibility and through the attempt to find jointly feasible compromises. So in short and painful terms: Not decided was...
... the signing of the Potsdam Declaration and thus the accession to the Cities Alliance of safe havens for networking with other cities
... the active support of sea rescue
... a receptiveness beyond the distribution key and
... a declaration of solidarity with the goals of the Seebrücke!
... an appeal by the city of Erfurt to the federal government to support European municipalities and regions in the reception and integration of refugees at European level.
The sobering realisation that a clear position against deportations - which must be rejected always and everywhere, no matter by whom, no matter to which country - has no place in an Erfurt city council motion if a majority is to be found for it, still hurts. #StopDeportation
So we have not achieved all the demands - but we have achieved much more than nothing. We would like to thank all members of the city council who have now voted for the motion, for a safe haven for Erfurt in this form.
To all supporters who supported our open letter, accompanied us on the streets, during the month of action and during our online campaign #OpenErfurt: Thank you!
This is just the beginning of a process towards a real safe haven Erfurt. We continue to fight for legal and safe escape routes, for freedom of movement for all!
Debate
No CONTRA argument yet.