Commemoration of Schiphol Detention Centre Victims

Join the live stream on Thursday night, October 26, 2006 from 8 pm until
Friday 27th 10 a.m

Go to: http://www.vertrokkengezichten.net
http://streaming.medialab.hva.nl/vertrokkengezichten

Tonight a live web stream will be produced to commenorate the people that
died at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (The Netherlands) during a fire at
the temporary detention centre in the night of 26-27 October 2005. Eleven
irregular migrants were killed, and fifteen other people injured, as a
result of the fire.

One year later, on the night of 26 to 27 October 2006, commemorations will
be held all over the Netherlands in memory and respect of those who lost
their lives in that terrible night one year ago.

Commemorative service in the Dominicus Church, Spuistraat 14, Amsterdam,
07:00 08:30 p.m.

Family, friends and survivors will gather before the gate of the detention
centre at five minutes before mid night, the exact time the fire broke
out. An all-night vigil will be held at Schiphol East detention centre,
Oude Meer, Ten Pol 64, from 09:00 p.m. 8 a.m. the next morning.

Turning point: Schiphol

A calamitous fire at Schiphol Airport deportation centre in the night of
25-26 October 2005, in which 11 defenseless migrants died, was the
immediate and shocking cause for denouncing Dutch immigration policies and
initiating the LEFT WITH NOTHING campaign (named “vertrokken gezichten” in
Dutch). Its objective: immediate abolition of detention of migrants. All
people should be equally free to cross borders as money, goods and
services!

The catastrophic fire at Schiphol was a sad and all-time low in 20 years
of restrictive immigration policies in the Netherlands. Our objective is
to make it a turning point. The campaign intends to demonstrate that there
are better ways of approaching the realities of global migration issues:
together with survivors and the next of kin of the victims we mark the
occasion of this tragedy, while trying to turn over a new leaf.

Deportation and detention centre Schiphol-East was built as expeditiously
and cheaply as possible, in answer to the need to construct a large number
of low-cost holding cells at the earliest possible notice. Holding cells
for detaining large numbers of people. Their safety was not an issue:
efficiency was key. The fire at Schiphol thus shows the true face of Dutch
immigration policies in all its horror.

We seek to highlight that the fire at Schiphol was by no means an isolated
incident. Rather, it was a direct result of our national immigration
policies, where parsimony is the operative word the core policy objective
is to expel illegal aliens as cheaply and expeditiously as possible.

The Campaign

LEFT WITH NOTHING intends to translate the widespread feelings of unease
and horror into real solidarity. We raise money in support of the victims
and to help them rebuild their lives, for meeting the costs of legal
redress and for active campaigning: Detention of innocent people must be
stopped!

LEFT WITH NOTHING directly addresses the survivors immediate needs.The
campaign runs a contact point for all those who are victims of the fire:
including all those who have been branded illegal, those who have
subsequently been deported (!) and those who have had the random good
fortune of obtaining generally only temporary official status. The
campaigns support team of professionals and volunteers provides them with
much-needed opportunities to unburden, share experiences and receive
assistance.

Solidarity means support for migrant self-organisations, cooperation with
individuals and groups working on alternatives and researching human
trafficking and chains of exploitation.

Excluding people, hunting them down, locking them up and deporting them
these are the core elements that sum up Dutch immigration policies.
Outrageous policies, which make many victims. In the Netherlands, some
22.000 migrants – people who have not committed any criminal offence – are
put behind bars every year, with fewer rights than the average suspected
criminal. Children, women, men: Anyone failing to produce the required
documents, is mercilessly locked up.

For LEFT WITH NOTHING, solidarity also entails mutual support and
cooperation, allowing people to contribute from their own (professional)
backgrounds and perspectives. As such, we offer perspectives to act to all
those who are burning with shame for the way newcomers – migrants as well
as illegal aliens – are being treated in our society.

Eleven people died in the calamitous fire at Schiphol Airport detention
centre. Their deaths are the immediate and tragic result of exceedingly
restrictive Dutch immigration laws. Laws to exclude, hunt down, lock up
and deport innocent people.

Some 298 people were being held at the Schiphol detention centre when the
fire broke out: each and everyone a of them a victim of this terrible
catastrophy.

We call for solidarity with all of the victims.

We demand that detention of aliens with the sole objective of expelling
them from our country be ended forthwith!

Migrants are world citizens like you and me!

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Support the victims of the Schiphol fire. All donations into the Postbank
account. no. 609060, in the name of X-Y, Amsterdam (NL) with a reference
to Victim Support (VS), will be gratefully received and put to good use.

Post your ideas and initiatives to LEFT WITH NOTHING at
http://www.vertrokkengezichten.net

LEFT WITH NOTHING – an X-Y Solidarity Fund initiative is linked to the
Amnesty Now!

and No Imprisonment of Children

campaigns.

XminY Solidarity Fund
De Wittenstraat 43-45
NL-1052 AL Amsterdam
T ++ 31 20-6279661 F ++ 31 20-6228229
email: info@xminy.nl

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