Schon wieder starb eine Schwarze Schwester in einem deutschen Psychiatrie-Krankenhaus … Schon wieder erfolgte eine Zwangsbehandlung, die tödlich endete … Schon wieder wurden die Beschwerden der Patientin über die starken Nebenwirkungen der Zwangsmedikation nicht ernst genommen … Schon wieder wurden die Angehörigen nicht unmittelbar über die Zwangsbehandlung, die Notfallverlegung in ein Herzzentrum und den Tod der Patientin informiert … Schon wieder soll ein „Herzinfarkt“ für den Tod der 34-jährigen Patientin verantwortlich sein …
On this year’s World Refugee Day on June 20, we want to show solidarity especially with African and international refugees that fled the war in Ukraine and are being discriminated against on racial, ethnical or national grounds. They are refugees of the same war, have suffered the same trauma of war and flight from war, had to leave behind their valuables and belongings, their normal lives and achievements – but are treated differently through discrimination and exclusion from temporary protection.
We want to advocate for the right to equal treatment of ALL refugees of ALL wars or due to ALL other valid reasons to flee once country of living.
Global Pathology of Wars, Borders, Migration and Exclusions from Equality:
Racialized violence and discrimination of refugees fleeing the European war in Ukraine on all levels and at all stages of their flight. The European Council’s choice to exclude 3rd country national refugees of the war in Ukraine was opening doors and opportunities for arbitrary administrative and executive decision making including violations of and obstructions from refuge and human rights. Black & Brown refugees/displaced are being neglected and left to the charity of civil society. The shameful neglects target also minorities like Roma/Sinti.
It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Valérie Iyobor on March 21, 2022 in Uelzen, Germany. Seven-year-old Valérie had been experiencing excruciating abdominal pain and started vomiting on Sunday. She was urgently presented to a pediatrician at the Hammersteinplatz Medical Care Center in Uelzen the following day.
However, the pediatrician sent the little girl home recommending that the worried mother give her bananas to eat and water to drink. That very same day, however, little Valérie’s pain became increasingly unbearable and her condition progressively worsened, prompting her mother to call 112 for an ambulance. She was taken to the hospital and underwent emergency interventions, but unfortunately all efforts to save her life failed. The police informed the mother that the preliminary autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a ruptured appendix.
It is with deep sorrow that BLACK COMMUNITY announces the death of Valérie Iyobor in Uelzen. Seven-year-old Valérie’s excruciating stomach pains were dismissed by the pediatrician of the Medical Care Center „Medizinischen Versorgungszentrum“ Hammersteinplatz for short, who sent the little girl home and told her mother to give her water and banana to eat. The pain increased and her conditioned continued to deteriorate that very same day. She was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately all efforts to save her life failed.
The police told the mother that the autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a ruptured appendix.
How come the pediatrician did not recognise appendicitis as a possible cause for the severe pain and vomiting? Why did she not examine Valerie thoroughly or order appropriate tests? Why couldn’t she make an accurate diagnosis?
We stand in solidarity with Sister Jennifer Iyobor in her demand for clarification of the circumstances leading to the death of her child Valerie. What she describes is a nonchalant attitude and negligence that people of African Descent often face in health care.
WE ARE AFRICAN AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND REFUGEES OF THE UKRAINE WAR
Like millions of Ukrainian citizens we were forced to flee for our lives due to the war in Ukraine since February 2022 – we are refugees of this war and had to leave behind our belongings, our houses and flats, our studies and other ways of peaceful living in Ukraine as well as our investments in and fees for our future education and perspectives – some of us were separated from friends and loved ones and some even had to witness them being killed violently …
Unlike those millions of Ukrainian citizens many of us have been discriminated against all the flight way long – we have been excluded and even forced out of public transportation, we have been picked up and set out in remote forests, we have been held back at the borders from leaving the war-torn country without shelter from freezing temperatures, some of us have been dying unprotected from the cold at night and day, we were immediately told at the EU borders to return back to our respective countries of origin without regard to given situations and without access to refugee protection measures …
The EU-Council was very fast to announce that Ukrainian citizens will be granted unequivocal protection inside EU territories including unconditional access to social and medical care, work and education under temporary protection for refugees of war. Later on the same EU-Council even went on to announce that „ALL PEOPLE, who are fleeing war will be granted protection from and access to the EU, health, education, labor and residence – regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or skin color“ …
Despite this actually unambiguous statement, there were immediate exclusions from exactly this unconditional protection status for refugees of war, formulated along exactly those lines of nationality, ethnicity and skin color from the very same speakers of the EU-Council for those refugees of war who do not hold Ukrainian citizenship otherwise a Ukrainian permanent residence or have spouses of one of the 2 first categories …
What we demand:
According to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, the European Convention on Human Rights and other subsequent international treaties, declarations, codes and programs of action that EU countries are party in
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE PROTECTION AND EQUALITY OF TREATMENT!
We appeal to the German government that the unprecedented decision to grant immediate temporary protection to ALL those who call Ukraine their home is now being translated into a practice of equality.
For all of us Ukraine has been our home and the center of our lives.
All of us have invested substantial funds and efforts as to enable their studies or respective ways of life in Ukraine and all of us had to leave behind considerable belongings, properties and deposits in uncertainty of probable loss or destruction by bombing, looting or to state of emergency laws. Also from that point of view we are in no way different from other refugees of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
How do we feel?
After walking for days on end and having to experience segregation, racism, hunger, abuse and violence at the borders as well as separation from families and loved ones, with parents and little children being affected and exposed to harsh weather conditions and the experiences of destruction of documents, financial losses, educational losses, we now face burdensome uncertainty about our future. We are afraid and have anxiety. The trauma haunts us all. Some of us have problems sleeping, some of us have flash backs or strong reactions to unexpected noises. The war has affected us all. We do not know how our future will be. We start to wonder if we should go to another country …
We do not know if we will ever be accepted here …
Should we go or should we stay …
We arrived in Germany to again face unequal treatment based on our nationality, ethnicity and skin color as compared to people of Ukrainian citizenship, who were treated warmly and differently. While the German Minister Interior stated on March 3, 2022 “Third-country nationals who have been living in Ukraine with a regular residence status are also not required to go through an asylum procedure”, the German directive on how to address our specific situation of March 4, 2022 even falls short of the EU operational guidelines to the Temporary Protection under Article 5 of the EU Council Directive 2001/55 by excluding various groups of Ukrainian residence holders from temporary protection under section 24 of the German Residence Act, who would lose their actual accomplishments and their future by “going back to ‘their’ countries”, which they have left for still unchanged true reasons.
We need temporary protection and clarity now!
We Africans and other non-European nationals from Ukraine are neither responsible for nor part of the ongoing geo-political war but equivalently afflicted. We got into the same situation of war – both NON EUROPEAN CITIZENS & UKRAINIANS alike – and we should be given the same rights and treatment because none of us planned this war and the impact and trauma affects all of us. Bombs and bullets do not discriminate amongst their victims! And thus protection should be the same for all of those who had and lost their homes in Ukraine when war broke out. Many of our friends or international student colleagues have even met the dramatic decision to rather stay back in war-torn Ukraine than to flee to EU countries that refuse to provide protection for them.
Non-Ukrainian nationals from the war in Ukraine arriving in Germany have been facing very different terms of treatment – both in different federal states and cities but also within the very same city throughout time and different facilities. While some received so called “Fictitious Certificates” for 1 year without further procedures others were pressurized to submit an asylum application with their finger prints registered and passports seized. Again others were given a so called “Duldung” including the threat of deportation.
We call for immediate and unobstructed Temporary Protection, including the Right to Study, the Right to Work and equivalent access to social benefits i.e. accommodation, finances, medical care and social welfare as Ukrainian refugees of war. Those of us that have been forced to apply for asylum due to lack of information and administrative inconsistencies should have the asylum application withdrawn and given back their passports.
We ask to be given valid and consistent information for clarity.
Germany should take an example from other EU countries that offer protection and opportunities for studies to ALL. It is basically a shame to Germany for stepping back in regard to its responsibilities.
EQUALITY IS A UNIVERSAL RIGHT – NOT A PRIVILEGE TO SELECT!
EDUCATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT – NOT PRIVILEGE BY CHOICE!
Get important information about the German higher education and the latest facts that concern African students who fled the war in Ukraine, as well as helpful content and exclusive tips.
Host: Sista Oloruntoyin
Speaker: Brother @Jethro Chikato – Engineer from Zimbabwe based in Hamburg, Germany – School Director and Educator providing educational services and medial help to students especially of African Descent
We give guidance and tips to those who would like to take up studies in Germany.
This includes: career guidance, choice of degree programs, applications, students jobs and meeting required conditions to study here.
We look forward to assisting you, so that you can make a difference here and on the continent.
Call for solidarity and equal treatment of all refugees of the Ukraine war
The war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee war-torn areas, and many more are currently either unable to escape the hostilities or are still on the run.
Unfortunately, people of African Descent have experienced racial discrimination, horrific treatment, and violence at the EU’s external and internal borders, and exclusion from public transportation as they have fled. In particular, people of African descent were excluded from intra-Ukrainian train and bus travel and were forced to trek for days with children and in freezing temperatures. Families and circles of friends were sometimes separated or torn apart. At Ukrainian borders, Blacks were prevented from leaving the country for days at a time and were left to fend for themselves without shelter from the cold and wet. Once again Black people face a double-sided sword of war and racism.
Due to this unbearable situation for people of African Descent in war-torn Ukraine, our Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense joined the rescue action #EvacuateAfricansFromUA, initiated by Asmaras – World e.V. and the Association of Mandate Bearers of African Descent [VMA] e.V., in collaboration with The African Network of Germany [TANG] e.V..
Within the framework of this rescue operation, we participated logistically and organizationally in the rescue operation by traveling with the bus convoys to the Polish-Ukrainian border and bringing back refugees. In the last three weeks, we have self-organized accommodation, medical consultations, legal advice, crisis intervention, psychological counselling and for African refugees, as well as care for Ukraine war refugees of other origins.
Since the European states offered immediate, unconditional assistance to war refugees from Ukraine right from the beginning only to people with Ukrainian citizenship and people with permanent residence permits in Ukraine, all other war refugees like students or temporary residence permit holders were unequivocally signalled by the border authorities of neighboring states that they were not welcome, would not receive official assistance, and must leave the EU-Schengen area as soon as possible.
The Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defence condemns the unequal treatment of vulnerable people who have all been equally affected by the war in Ukraine and we demand that unconditional and equal protection be distributed regardless of nationality or residence status at the time of the start of the war on February 24, 2022.
Dividing war refugees into groups of those worthy of protection and those groups not worthy of protection is a painful double standard that is neither acceptable nor consistent with universal human rights. The affected and marginalized people have found themselves in this war situation through no fault of their own, and they were all driven out of what they thought was a safe home in Ukraine where they had legalized residency conditions.
The consensual and immediate offer of protection for war refugees with Ukrainian citizenship must be followed by comparable offers of protection for ALL other victims of this European war if the much-invoked European values and principles of humanity and equal treatment are to be taken seriously, especially when war and hardship make it particularly necessary.
Against this backdrop, we take note of the transitional regulation issued by the German government on March 7, 2022, according to which Ukrainian war refugees from third countries are to be temporarily exempted from the requirement of a residence permit until May 23, 2022, although the arbitrary setting of a deadline without reference to the end of the Ukrainian war seems neither appropriate nor comprehensible. What happens after May 23, 2022?
We point out that a temporary exemption is no guarantee for a residence permit – after the deadline expires, there is a risk that registered persons will be obliged to leave the country again or will be forcibly deported. This is not acceptable. It is a shame if the German authorities fail to challenge the violence of migration policy and choose to use citizenship as a racializing weapon.
We draw particular attention to the plight of pregnant women and also children. Children and their families, regardless of their nationality and especially when fleeing war, should be given priority and equal treatment and urgently receive humanitarian assistance, protection and child-friendly housing and education.
We demand
– Residence permits for ALL people affected and displaced by the war in Ukraine
– immediate right to stay for pregnant women, children and families
– immediate and unconditional access to medical and psychological care
– possibilities to receive BAföG or scholarships for ALL students affected by the Ukraine war
– issuance of work and student permits to complete or continue studies
as to enable all people affected by this extraordinary war situation to live a largely self-determined life in Germany.
Students among the non-Ukrainian nationals who had to flee from the war already had to bear and traumatic experiences and financial burdens for their respective studies in Ukraine. We demand the exploration of all possibilities to avoid financial double burdens for normative study access here in Germany and to create regulations for the transitional continuation of their courses of study interrupted by war as well as for the acquisition of the necessary language skills.
The registration of African students and nationals of third countries other than Ukraine who were legally in Ukraine at the time of the outbreak of war should be carried out without forcing them to apply for asylum.
We would like to appeal to all people of African origin and the Afro-diasporic communities national associations, churches, mosques, etc. to join the demands formulated here to the federal and state politicians and to organise together. Refugee work for the most neglected groups needs all of our commitment and networking so that the available resources can be optimally used and coordinated.
We thank Hamburg’s civil society, anti-racist organisations, labour unions, student organisations for the extraordinary solidarity and concrete willingness to help, especially those people who have been racially marginalised alongside the unspeakable traumas of war.
The German government has a responsibility to ensure that ALL refugees not only have safety but also equal access to rebuild their life and heal in dignity. Majority of „Africans Fleeing Ukraine“ can barely survive in Hamburg without self-organised civil society solidarity measures.
The refugee crisis in Ukraine is not only an important opportunity for Germany and Europe to demonstrate its humanitarian values and commitment to the global refugee protection regime, but also a critical moment of reflection. It is a question of political and humanitarian decision-making at the federal and state level as to how the effective and equal protection of all Ukrainian war refugees can be concretely designed and implemented.
This is not the time for legal restrictions and false demarcations. We call for a wholesome ethic of care and responsibility.
Grant full protection to ALL refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Action must be taken NOW!
Touch One -Touch All!
Individuals and organizations who would like to support this appeal, please let us know by mail info@blackcommunitycoalition.de.
1st Signatories:
Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense
Sista Oloruntoyin (LaToya Manly-Spain) faces criminal charges for allegedly “holding a prohibited or unregistered manifestation and rally in spite of ban or police order to disperse in accordance with Paragraph 26 of the law on assemblies”. About 5000 protesters joined in solidarity to send a strong signal across the globe. We are seeing this juridical criminalisation of Sista Oloruntoyin as an attack on the Black Community in Hamburg and all protesters. We call on all civil society groups and organisations to come out in active support and solidarity.
Am 9. Dezember 2001 wurde unser Bruder Achidi John (Michael Paul Nwabuisi) am Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Hamburger UKE von Dr. Ute Lockemann und mehreren Polizeibeamten durch die Anwendung der Brechmittelfolter brutal ermordet. Bruder Achidi John wehrte sich in Todesangst gegen die zwangsweise Einflößung des Brechmittels Ipecacuanha und warnte seine Mörder*innen mehrfach und eindringlich mit den Worten: „I will die!“. Bruder Achidi John wurde von insgesamt 5(!) Polizisten brutal fixiert, während die Ärztin Dr. Lockemann mehrfach versuchte, eine Magensonde durch seine Nase einzuführen, um dann 30ml Brechmittel und 800ml Wasser zwangsweise in ihn hineinzupumpen. Als Bruder Achidi John durch das Einflößen dieser Menge an Flüssigkeiten in seine Lungen das Bewusstsein verlor, ins Koma fiel und starb, unternahmen seine Peiniger*innen nichts und unterstellten ihm stattdessen, er würde sein Sterben nur „simulieren“. Erst nachdem eine anwesende Medizinstudentin keinen Puls mehr fühlen konnte und intervenierte, wurde ein Reanimationsteam des UKE hinzugerufen, die sein Leben allerdings nicht mehr retten konnten. Bruder Achidi John wurde notfallmäßig zur intensivmedizinischen Alibi-Behandlung und zur Vertuschung der Nachweismöglichkeit der Einflößung des Brechmittels in seine Lungen noch 3 weitere Tage maschinell „beatmet“. Die behandelnden Intensivmediziner gaben der Anwältin der Familie zu verstehen, dass ihnen quasi ein Leichnam zur „Behandlung“ übergeben worden war. Am 12. Dezember 2001 wurde der Leichnam dann offiziell für hirntot erklärt und die Beatmungsmaschine abgestellt.
