Letter of Support for Protest "Balkanroute calling: mobilitazione a Trieste e sul confine Italo-sloveno!" (17. 4. 2021)

Hello Trieste, This is Ljubljana calling,

Dear Comrades,

We are joining the call to:

STOP POLICE VIOLENCE ON THE BALKAN ROUTE IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY!

Institutionalized violence against people on the move along the Balkan route is intensifying. The biggest problem continues to be chain push-backs of people from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia to camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Reports of brutal violence used in these collective chain expulsions describe a similar story that is repeated almost every day.

People who manage to get to Slovenia are often exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. Some are detected by police with high-tech equipment, while others are denounced by the local population. They are then taken to a police station, where a short interrogation takes place, the purpose of which is not to determine individual reasons for migration or record possible asylum applications. Asylum seekers face threats, sometimes even beatings. Asylum applications are systematically ignored.

People are then handed over to the Croatian police that expels them, often violently, to Bosnia or Serbia. Up to 15 people are crammed into a police van. Inside, the air is extremely bad and many are having trouble breathing. When they reach the green border, they are let out individually or in pairs. Outside, they are met by a cordon of masked policemen with steel bars in their hands. They must run while the policemen savagely beat them.

From 2018 to 2020, 25,642 people were deported from Slovenia to Croatia, despite numerous and irrefutable evidence that they were in danger of being tortured. In 2020, 1,116 people were deported from Italy to Slovenia and 176 people from Austria to Slovenia. We ask: Where are they now?

This systematic violence against people on the move is co-organized by European nation-states. This is European violence. It is clear that the European Union is prepared to turn a blind eye, cover up crimes and even provide further funds for the continued implementation of state violence on the Balkan route in order to keep its external borders closed.

Unfortunately, we could not protest together against the atrocities that are happening daily on the outer borders of the EU. But we are sure our common struggle will grow stronger and that we will be able to protest together in person in the near future.

In solidarity, INFOKOLPA

In Ljubljana, 17. 4. 2021