Desert Storm - no borders

Free Movement For People, Not Just Capital!!

Border Camping

The UN High Commission on Refugees estimates that there are 12.1<????> million refugees world-wide. An estimated 3 million people live in Europe sans-papiers (illegally without visa papers). The rhetoric of globalisation calls for the removal of economic borders and free trade, meanwhile freedom of movement for people is another story. Governments are playing on nationalism and racism, promoting fear of 'the other' and scapegoating refugees to justify greater border protection, while in the mean time benefiting from the cheap labour that those without legal status provide.

"Kein mensch ist illegal,"
"Ninguna persona es ilegal,"
"No-one is illegal."

The European Noborder Network banded together to form an international movement after a series of grassroots demos and direct actions against the 1999 EU heads of Government meeting in Tampere, Finland. This came after the Rothenburg German-Polish-Czech border camp in 1998 and there have been camps over Europe each summer since.

"Freedom of movement": Bordercamps Summer 2001

Tarifa, Spain

The biggest flow of African migrants that arrive in Europe pass through the Straits of Gibraltar. They arrive every night in "pateras", little wooden boats only 14 km across the water. About 300 people participated in a bordercamp organised by the Spanish network "ninguna es illegal". The camp involved a public nude action where tourists and locals were treated to the sight of more than 50 naked people appearing on the beach, dancing and singing. In front of a no-doubt captive audience, the nudists turned round to flash their backs - each with a big letter painted on it which spelt the message: Ninguna Persona Es Ilegal - Racismo No - Ya Basta! (No Human Being Is Illegal - No Racism - Enough Is Enough!). Behind them a huge "Frontera de Europa - Peligro de Muerte" (European Border - Danger of Death) banner was unfurled, and passers-by were leafleted.
In Tarifa's beaches, you can often find shoes or clothes from the migrants who risk their lives to get here, and more than 1,500 people have already died at sea and around one thousand are arrested a month trying to make their way across.
See www.sindominio.net/ninguna

Lendava, Slovenia

From 4th - 8th July about 100 people participated in a camp in the village of Petisovci near Lendava, 1km from Slovenia's border with Croatia, and 2km from the Hungarian border. The key action was a borderwalk between the three countries, ending up in a carnival procession and street party with the locals of Lendava listening to Italian and Slovenian bands performing. Slovenia has recently become a key transit country for people seeking to enter Germany, with an estimated 36,000 clandestine migrants crossing the Slovene border in 2000 - up 91% from the previous year.

Bialystok and Krynki, Poland

The Noborder camp at the Polish-Belorussian camp was held between the 5th - 12th July.<year??>
Starting off with a demonstration of 250 people in the town of Bialystok featuring activists from Poland, Ukrainia, Belarus, Russia, Finland, and Germany, the group then set off to Krynki, a border town between Poland and Belarus, and setting up an info tent in the town square.
The police/military response was extreme with a dozen police vans, trucks with water cannons, two army transporters and even a tank (!) turning up for the party - the largest display of military force since martial law days. At one point campers were surrounded in a park by police cars circling with sirens on, and when some of them shouted at police, the police attacked the crowd but support from locals helped tone down the tense atmosphere.

Campsfield

The Wombles called for a No Border camp to coincide with immigration day during the G8 protest in Genoa on July 19th, 2001, but a week before the day a media and police campaign warning the public of "dangerous" protestors, was in full swing. The small town near the detention centre was turned into a Genoa-like no-go area, with a massive police presence, closed pubs and empty streets. About 80 detainees were moved out of Campsfield. Although a proper border camp was not possible, protestors took to the streets of nearby Oxford in a solidarity march.

Frankfurt Airport

Almost all German deportations of asylum seekers are carried out by airlines under the escort of migration police, and Frankfurt Airport is responsible for most of them - around 10,000 a year. On Sunday August 2nd, Frankfurt airport was inaccessible. Fraport, the private company running the airport, allowed only ticket-holders in - those who wanted to pick up friends or family had no access. As a result, travellers had plenty of time to discuss "free movement for everyone", and enjoy the classical live music of the orchestra "Lebenslaute" which was also part of the border camp.
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Tijuana Mexico

August 15-16<?> 2002 saw bordercamp actions taking place along the US/Mexico border. Border activists and hactivists descended on Tijuana for the third borderhack festival. Tijuana and San Diego are one city, divided. To the south, cardboard shantytowns in the dust, to the north, skyscrapers sparkling in the sun. Between them a 2000-mile wall running alongside a strip of no-mans land.
Camped on the beach where the tall metal fence trails off into the Pacific Ocean, the wired-up three day event brought 100<2002?> US and Mexican activists together.

Woomera, Australia

Easter 2002 saw more than 1000 people converge on the Woomera Detention Centre in a 'festival of freedoms'. People on both sides of the razor wire converged and broke apart the fences. 50 asylum seekers escaped.
woomera2002

Strasbourg, France

From the 19th to 28th July 2002, 3000 people converged at Srasbourg, on the French/German border. The ten day international noborder action camp brought activists together from all round the world for a 'laboratory of civil disobedience and creative resistance'.
strasbourg.noborder.org