Press Release 16.12.: Protest against nightly deportation in Erfurt

On the 16th December between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. 20 people protested against yet another mass deportation from Thuringia in Magdeburger Allee in Erfurt. Once again several families from Serbia and Croatia have been deported. The protesters started a sit-in in order to prevent the departure of a police vehicle, in which a family that was meant to be deported to Serbia was sitting.
The blockade failed because it was violently disbanded by the police. Therefore, the deportation could not be stopped, but the protesters
voiced their critisism and their anger via banners and chants. In particular they demanded a right to stay for Romani people.
More than 90% of the refugees from the so-called „safe countries of origin“ in South-Eastern Europe belong to the minority of the Romani
people. There they are heavily discriminated against, a fact that the German state does not recognize to be a valid reason to flee. Although
their existence is threatened in these countries, they were yet again forcefully deported by the German police today.
The police partly took rough action against the people participating in the sit-in. Some protesters were slightly injured.
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