Since May 1st, 2013 more than a hundred prisoners in migrant detention centers throughout the Netherlands have gone on hunger and thirst strike. Some have already been broken by intimidation and isolation, but some, such as Nessar, who is on hunger and thirst strike in Rotterdam, are still on strike at the time of writing (the 13th of May). Since he is a spokesperson for the strikers, he was placed in isolation a few days ago. They are waking him up every hour, refusing to allow independent doctors visits, and since his kidneys are failing, he was brought yesterday, against his will, to the penitentiary hospital.
These strikes have only become known due to the solidarity demo’s that took place in several migrant prisons on the 5th of May. The recent hunger strikes deserve our full solidarity, as a desperate call for dignity and freedom. In the Netherlands thousands of people are locked up simply for being ‘illegal’. The ones who decide to take these ‘measures’, the ones who make laws to which everyone must bend, are the ones profiting from control and repression.
A few actions that have been taken in solidarity with the strikers:
– Since the beginning of the strikes there have been almost daily solidarity gatherings at the detention center of Rotterdam.
– “Last Friday night (the 10th of May) about ten windows were smashed at Royal Haskoning Architects in Nijmegen. Additionally, ‘Geen mens is illegaal’ (No one is Illegal!) was written on the wall of the building. Royal Haskoning was targeted due to their contribution to the design of the Rotterdam detention center, where a hunger strike is currently taking place. Solidarity to all who have been ‘illegalised’, and other victims of state repression. Fuck prisons and fuck borders —Some anarchists.”
– Last Saturday (the 11th of May) anarchists and participants in the NoBorder network called a noise demo to show solidarity at the migrant prison of Schiphol.
– During the night of the 13th of May the word MURDER was painted on the training office of the ‘Immigration and Naturalization Service’ in Utrecht. The communiqué for the action reads: ‘End the racist asylum politics, now! Otherwise we will find you, and next time it will be with more than paint…’