NOTES – International Women* Space

Do you live in a Heim / Shelter in Berlin or Brandenburg > Could you answer a few questions about the Bezahlkarte?

IW*S — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 17:33:12 +0000

The introduction of the Bezahlkarte for refugees is taking us back then to the old system of Vouchers we once fought to be abolished.

We want to identify where the Bezahlkarte is already in use and where it will be soon. We want to know what information is being shared about it and what questions people have.

We have created a short survey for anyone living in Heims / Shelters in Berlin or Brandenburg.

There are only a few questions and it will take just take a few minutes to answer.

Information shared is anonymous.

> PLEASE CLICK HERE TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

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The Voucher System was used to pay refugees social assistance by the State. In 2012 the O-Platz refugee movement come together to fight the voucher system and the Residenzpflicht. Both stopped! Over the past years, refugees received this assistance through cash or over the counter cashing cheques!

Now, we see a change and the introduction of the Bezahlkarte which is taking us back then to the old system.

IW*S are hosting open meetings on the Bezahlkarte topic for organisations / collectives / individuals to join together again and to oppose this again! This survey will support and ground our work.

How can some of us be more human than others? – Collecting our thoughts on the 75th Human Rights Day

IW*S — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 11:08:09 +0000

“Anyone with a brain can understand what this country is trying to do by treating us like this. When they leave us in this misery, and let us live in situations like this, when they force us into a corner they want us to come out and say to ourselves that we want to go back. This is what I hear, and it is what I see, that I am in this situation and God is my witness. And I ask myself where the freedom and the human rights are. We are human like you and our children are children like your children, what is the difference?”

– Excerpt from the story “Whether in Iraq or Germany, I will not allow anyone to compromise my dignity” from our book IN OUR OWN WORDS.

Today, December 10th, is the International Human Rights Day. Human rights and human dignity are presumed to be universal and apply to everyone, which is clearly not the case. The Western canon argues that including human rights into international law is one of the ‘great moral achievements of human history’. However, we see how human rights law has failed to reach many people.

Refugees arriving in Germany are placed into isolated accommodation facilities, which restricts their access to information about their rights, important resources and segregates them from the rest of society. Refugees face abuse, trauma, exploitation, racism and oppression by border regimes. Europe’s border controls dehumanise and illegalise refugees. The very existence of asylum seekers is depicted as a threat and a burden that must be contained. Testimonies of refugees show the multiple dimensions of exploitation that come with displacement: from being held in detention, to experiencing physical and sexual violence and racism while fleeing. We are witnessing war crimes every day. We witness the violation of human rights and global injustices every day, specifically in the Global South. From the modern-day slavery in the Congo to the war in Sudan. Women who are raped and sexually exploited as a form of violence during war. We see the mass killing of Palestinian civilians – including children, illegal occupation, systemic displacement, and numerous war crimes. In Gaza, International Human Rights Law is violated by the targeting of hospitals and civilians, especially women and children. To name but a few…

The substance of human rights loses its purpose when our rights are repeatedly violated without intervention. Human rights become a privilege when the rights of some are placed above the rights of others. Racist biases and ethnocentric thinking obscure and define who is deserving of human rights. How can some of us be more human than others?

Resisting this indifference, exploitation, and disenfranchisement is necessary to make human rights a reality for everyone. Securing, protecting, and recognizing human rights is a constant struggle. Human rights law needs to live up to its promise; lest they remain an illusion, merely an empty signifier.

Photo: Markus Spiske (Unsplash)

Compact with Africa: A colonial echo?

IW*S — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:18:53 +0000

written by Rose and Karenine

The “Scramble for Africa” Conference on November 15th, 1884, set the stage for effective occupation. Similar to these colonial echoes, last week, Europe convened a conference with the purported goal of “finding ways of developing Africa”. The selection of the venue, timing, and Africa’s representation by this year’s event organizers, carries historical connotations that are offensive.

Almost 200 years later, but less than a 10-minute drive away, the German capital city again proudly claims its place for Western actors to discuss economic visions for Africa. On November 20th, 2023, the fifth meeting of the Compact with Africa (CwA) conference took place in Berlin, bolstering Europe’s continued conquest of the African continent, in a new language. What are Europe’s ‘plans’ for Africa today? Nothing: Africa remains a source for raw materials and power production, such as gas, and oil deposits, and a place for renewable energies to materialize– for the Global North. Once again, Africa becomes an arena for them to compete over. German federal chancellor Olaf Scholz seeks to “diversify foreign trade relations” and create growth. Evidently, these discussions operate within the Western capitalist discourse, where Europeans have the goal to “maximize the potential of the African continent”. Politicians claim that the era of development aid is over and that these investments profit both sides. Are we confusing equality and equity once again?

Clearly, green colonialism conceals relations where community lands are expropriated to generate profits for investors which “sustains the status quo of resource exploitation, greenhouse gas pollution, and North/South power imbalances”. In addition to this, a discourse that stresses sustainability by greening capitalism would rather find new ways of using technology for capitalist expansion, rather than question the processes of labor and extractivism. This fails to recognize that the deteriorating state of our environment, which is a cause of what they term ‘irregular’ migration, is the outcome of a system that must answer to endless accumulation.

The CwA initiative unites members of the G20 summit, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and has the aim of improving economic conditions by amplifying private investment in African countries. Is history repeating itself? While the “Scramble for Africa”, in which European colonizers divided the African continent into colonial spheres of influence, excluded representatives from Africa, at least today’s framework includes 13 African countries. With skepticism, we view how only a select few African countries that are considered “well governed” fall into the category of the CwA (these are: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia). Representatives from Angola, Kenya, and Zambia attended the conference and are interested in being admitted as members. Effectively, we see the exclusion of African perspectives, since countries that are predominantly rural, have a “weaker” infrastructure or are in crisis, are left out of this discussion.

This eerie parallel raises the question of historical continuities. The initiative’s vision stresses partnership over extractivism, but what about the political setting and its goals have changed? What does the CwA entail? As Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan veteran journalist and editor, puts it: “That first-ever international conference on Africa established a template for how the world deals with the continent. Today, Africa is still seen primarily as a source for raw materials for the outside world and an arena for them to compete over. Conferences about the continent are rarely held on the continent itself and rarely care about the views of ordinary Africans”.

Undoubtedly, the CwA as a process is guided by G20 capitalist exploiters. Now, more than ever, the topic of migration sparks discussions around “managing” new flows of “irregular” refugees– without recognizing the link between racial injustice and climate justice. With a critical view, we observe the dynamic of paternalism in which African countries take on the role of recipients of beneficial and benevolent initiatives, which, in reality, are limited to small private investments and are ordered within a fragmented investment framework that often creates more debt. German politicians make claims about their visions for the future, but private investments do not create large new infrastructural projects in African countries, which are indispensable in order to generate new jobs. As we can see with other countries such as China, which has practiced its “debt-trap diplomacy” before, these relations take away the economic independence and self-determination of these African countries. German politicians criticize China’s policies in African countries –which cause economic hardships, lead to the realization of projects but do not ensure their preservation, and only exploit raw materials instead of promoting their further processing locally’– thereby demarcating their approach and underlining their vision of real partnership. Geopolitics are at play.

Why does Berlin, once again, become the space for discussing the sustainable development of African countries? Do we have any historical sensibility?

Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/11/15/berlin-1884-remembering-the-conference-that-divided-africa
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/green-colonialism-two-carbon-offsets-africa

Notes on the death of an asylum seeker in hospital in Germany

Break Isolation Group — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 21:53:28 +0000

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Words by Rose Wanjiku

*Names have been changed to hide identity

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An African asylum seeker died under unclear circumstances while undergoing treatment at Universitätsklinikum Ruppin-Brandenburg Hospital.

Questions have been raised over the cause of the death of Mercy Kagai, who died on August 4, 2023 due to what doctors reported as Stage IV lung cancer.

Mercy’s journey in Germany began when she arrived at the asylum reception center in Eisenhüttenstadt on January 12, 2023. She was later transferred to a residence in Wusterhausen/Dosse-Logow, Neuruppin Alle on May 30, 2023. Over a span of just over two months, Mercy went through a series of medical treatments, surgeries, and even a chemotherapy session.

In April 2023, Mercy was transferred from the reception center to a transition center in Wunsdorf, Brandenburg.

While in Wunsdorf, she discovered she had a small swelling on her neck. When she sought treatment, she was given painkillers and told to seek further treatment when she would be transferred to the Heim. Her health problems worsened when she sought treatment at the hospital in Neuruppin. Since then, she was in and out of hospital and taking various medications.

Reports from those close to her indicate that she was treated for tuberculosis (TB) and lung inflammation. However, doctors later determined that she had lung cancer, which allegedly ultimately claimed her life.

According to a close friend named Dominic* Mercy’s treatment journey was marked by uncertainty and pain. Her initial hospital visit, intended to alleviate the neck swelling, turned into months of treatment, including a period where she was admitted into hospital and isolated for treatment of TB.

On some occasions visitation was restricted. During this period, Dominic says he is unaware of the results of the many tests that Mercy had informed him she had undergone. He also says during the period of isolation, Mercy was left for days unattended.

After a period of TB treatment where she was taking 13 tablets, the doctors said that they had misdiagnosed her and started treating her for lung inflammation. They did a biopsy to determine if the swelling on the neck was cancerous and also a non-invasive surgery to drain fluids from her lungs.

According to Dominic so many tests were carried out on Mercy and she was in constant pain. He says they took various samples from different parts of her body yet the tests did not reveal anything, at least not any that the doctors told him.

About four days to her death, Mercy had undergone one chemotherapy session, something that raised eyebrows because she had been under medication to treat lung inflammation.

Friends say that although Mercy was on treatment for over two months, she never indicated that she was informed of her sickness. Despite numerous tests, Dominic claims that Mercy was left in the dark about her condition, with test results not being adequately communicated to her.

“It is a wonder therefore that doctors said she had Stage IV lung cancer. I don’t understand how that could have been the case when they first told her she had an inflammation and then TB,” says Dominic.

“At one point she was taking so many pills that I did not know if they were necessary. One time they changed her medication halfway in her treatment. They said it was not the right one. I have several packets of some of the medication that I was asked to buy for her,” he says.

A particularly puzzling aspect was the decision to administer chemotherapy, seemingly contradictory to the ongoing treatment for lung inflammation. Questions surround the timeline of Mercy’s diagnosis and treatment leading up to her death, especially given the initial diagnoses of inflammation and TB.

Dominic says two days before she died, she had told him she was in pain due to the many blood tests and a biopsy they had done on her lower back.

“I have so many questions because none of the events leading to her death makes sense to me,” he says.

Another friend, Joz*, says she is still in shock. She is dead now and I don’t understand what killed Mercy.

“The doctors told us of a diagnosis that still makes no sense to me. If they say it is cancer, how come they did not know this from the start?” she asks.

Joz, who was registered at the reception camp the same day as Mercy and was her roommate in the Heim, says that if cancer was the cause of death, then the health system failed her friend.

“We all underwent medical tests in Eisen. Like me, Mercy was told she was healthy.”

There are more questions as to why the cancer was not discovered during the mandatory X-Ray scan that all asylum seekers undergo at the reception center in Eisenhüttenstadt. Mercy arrived in the camp in January and she was given a clean bill of health.

Another friend, Paula*, suggests that Mercy might have been treated as an experiment by the hospital due to the frequent changes in diagnosis and medication. In the final weeks before her death, Mercy expressed her pain from the numerous tests and blood draws.

“They seemed to come up with different diagnosis every week. How could they let her take TB medication for such a long time and weeks later say they were wrong. They did not even care after the misdiagnosis. They just changed the medication and continued drawing blood from her,” she says.

Paula says that in the last week before her death, Mercy told her she was in pain because of the many tests she was undergoing.

“She told me that they were doing so many blood tests that her hands were painful at the points they were drawing blood,” she says.

“I think she was also anemic because they took blood from her for tests almost daily,” she says.
There are no clear medical reports as to the cause of Mercy’s death. When Mercy passed away, her friends were called by the hospital but were not allowed to view her body, leaving them with unanswered questions.

Dominic, Joz, Paula, and others have numerous inquiries for the doctors who treated Mercy. They seek clarity on whether Mercy had TB, lung inflammation, or cancer, whether she comprehended her treatment and medications, and what the results of the neck swelling tests revealed. They are also interested in the details of the autopsy report.

These concerned voices fear that Mercy’s case may not be an isolated incident and that there could be issues of negligence within the German healthcare system when it comes to diagnosing and treating migrants. While the discussions may be held in hushed tones for fear of repercussions, they shed light on the challenges faced by refugees within the healthcare system in Germany.