Dear friends and comrades
the Global Day of Action against
racism and for the rights of migrants, refugees and displaced people set for
December 18th is drawing near. As always, we want to contribute and
have our voices heard in a unified and coordinated way, for the respect and
affirmation of the rights of migrants, refugees and displaced
people.
A few days ago, on Oct. 3rd,
2014, we were reminded of the shipwreck in the waters of Lampedusa island, in
which 368 people lost their lives one year ago. In 2014, just in the first nine
months, 2,086 more people have already perished in the Mediterranean sea.
The International Organizations for
Migration (IOM) has just published a report in which it states that the deaths
along terrestrial and maritime migratory routs since the year 2000 have already
reached 40,000.
We believe it is very urgent to
assemble all initiatives currently in place throughout the world in order to
denounce this war against migrants, once again.
This year, in deccember, several
Italian organizations will echo the caravan of central-American Madres searching
for their loved ones in Mexico.
At the Sabir Festival in October in
Lampedusa Island, the organizations of relatives of perished and missing
migrants, as well as other organizations who support them, have decided to
combine their efforts and build an informal network which will work specifically
on this issue.
A network of several organizations from
the norther and southern shores of the Mediterranean has launched “Watch The Med
Alarm Phone”, a cost-free telephone service that migrants in need of help may
use. The service is managed by a team from civil society which can immediately
alert the authorities and monitor subsequent interventions.
The Committee Nuovi Desaparecidos in
Italy is preparing the discovery stage for a session of the International
Tribunal of Peoples, in which it contends that the death and disappearance of
migrants along their journey toward Europe is not a mere tragedy, but the direct
consequence of a clear strategy against migrants resulting from migration
policies promulgated by “fortress” Europe. These deaths and disappearances are
in fact crimes against humanity!
There are many more initiatives and
campaigns being developed in various countries about this specific issue of
which we are not aware, but would like to publicize.
These
victims are people, not numbers, and we believe that this point must
be made forcefully on December 18th.
For this reason, we invite everyone to
give this issue maximum visibility in the initiatives that will take place on
December 18th, date in which the International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
was signed. For the last three years, many organizations around the world have
been involved in the promotion of a global Day of Action against racism for the
rights of migrants, refugees, and displaced people; this event was born during
the 4th edition of the World Social Forum on Migration in Quito,
Equador, in 2010, and we have attached a brief text regarding the birth of the
Day of Action.
We also inclose an appeal which will
shortly be added to the Global Migrants Action website (http://globalmigrantsaction.org/) and we invite everyone to
send us any material detailing your projects for the event of December
18th and surrounding days.
Finally, we are forwarding the logo for
the event of 2014, and we again ask you to use it in your initiatives. You can
also download the logo from the website. This way, we will give greater exposure
to the worldwide dimension of this Day of Action, which togher, we will bring to
life once again.
We ask that you send all information
regarding initiatives being developed (text files, photos, videos, etc.) to the
following email address:
A global movement for the rights of
migrants, refugees, and the displaced is growing up: on December
18th, 2014!
Edda Pando (Arci-Italia) Sergio Reyes
(USA)
October 20th,
2014
Edda Pando
No comments:
Post a Comment