The International Migrants Alliance (IMA), in cooperation with the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), GABRIELA Germany, IBON International, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the International Women’s Alliance, MIGRANTE Europe, and supported by local groups, unions and associations in Germany and other parts of Europe, will hold the SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT as an activity of the 7th International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR7).

The SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT will be held in the morning of 28 June 2017, the official opening day of the Global Forum on Migration & Development (GFMD) that will be attended by high-­level and senior government policy makers. The IAMR7 will send a strong message to them regarding the continued marginalization of frontline peoples and communities affected by forced migration and human trafficking.

On this day, migrant and refugee communities will claim their space and assert their right to be seen and heard. It is important to give space to the voices that challenge the legitimacy and capacity of the GFMD to effectively address the problems and respond adequately to the challenges of migration and development. These grassroots and frontline communities will share their perspectives and solutions to the problems confronting them and engage
with policy-­makers in the parliament of the streets, bearing witness to their effective exclusion from decision-­making processes that affect them principally but which take place behind closed doors.

The activity will:

1. Expose the neo-liberalist migration agenda of the European Union and the United Nations’ complicity in implementing it.
2. Unite migrant and refugee organizations to further develop their organizing capacity, strengthen their cooperation, and build their movements of grassroots and frontline communities to fight the antimigrant and refugee attacks of neo-liberalist policies on their fundamental rights and freedoms.
3. Establish and strengthen the solidarity among migrant and refugee organizations and their allies and 3 advocates and create possible opportunities for cooperation among them through common campaigns, activities and actions.
4. Highlight the issues and problems confronted by migrants and refugees in Germany and other parts of Europe, as well as their demands for government action and response against their criminalization and to put an end to the punitive measures being taken against them which include massive arrests, detention and deportation.

The event’s program will feature a speakers’ list composed of representatives from local and international migrant and refugee communities, their allies and advocates coming from the churches, trade unions, solidarity organizations, academe, the media, women and youth organizations, political parties and politicians, development and other civil society organizations.

Cultural performances (poetry reading, songs, street theater, chanting) will also feature in the program and will highlight the aspirations of migrant and refugee communities and the solidarity of allies and advocates from among the nationals of receiving countries.

Information materials will be disseminated to GFMD participants in order to popularize the position of frontline and grassroots migrant and refugee communities and energize advocacy and lobby initiatives among official and civil society stakeholders.

Finally, a unity statement will be read out and a ritual of commitment will express the resolve of frontline grassroots communities of migrants and refugees and their solidarity allies and advocates to address root causes and effect genuine change that will truly benefit their lives and that of their families, whether in their countries of origin or destination.

Issues:

• The impacts of neoliberal globalization policies on the plight and eventual criminalization (massive arrests, detention and deportation) of migrants, refugees and their families.
• Resource wars, wars of aggression, climate change impacts and the resultant migration and refugee crisis and the rise of racism and xenophobia in the world.
• Critique of the UN’s Global Compact on Migration and Human Rights and related GFMD documents and its impacts on migrants and their families.
• Critique of current German policy on migration and refugees, related problems and alternatives.

Calls:

• DEFEND & END Impunity of Attacks against Migrant and Refugee Rights!
• END Criminalization, Racism and Marginalization of Migrants and Refugees!
• ADDRESS the Root Causes of Migration!
• EXPOSE neo-liberal globalization’s anti-migrant and anti-refugee agenda in the European Union and in the United Nation’s migration and development agenda!
• PROMOTE migrant, refugee and frontline communities’ genuine solutions to the migration and development debacle!

Organised by:

International Migrants’ Alliance – Europe
Migrante Europe

Supported by:

Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
Churches Witnessing With Migrants
Coalition Against Trump
Courage
Democracy in Europe Movement 25 – Berlin
Die Linke Internationals
Gabriela Germany
Ibon International
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
International Women’s Alliance
Solidarity International

More information: www.iamr7berlin.wordpress.com