Ín december 2000 the UN declared the 18th of december to be the international day of migrants – after the 18th of December 1990 was already the date when the international convention for the protection of the rights of all migrants and their family member was accepted/ratified by the UN plenary session.

It was against this background that the world social forum for migration 2010 in Quito (Equador) as well as the World Social Forum 2011 in Dakar (Senegal) agreed to declare the 18th of December to be a world-wide action day against racism and for the rights of migrants, refugees and displaced persons. Since then each year on the 18th of december such a day of action takes place (in the frame of the International day of migrants). This year’s call has the motto ‘Open the borders ! Migrate to live, not die!’; it can be found in four languages on the website of Global Migrants Action or further down in english.

Afrique-Europe-Interact is going to participate on the the 18.12.2015 with actions in Mali and Togo:

In Mali there will be on the 19 th of December 2015 in Kita (180 kilometres west of the capital Bamako) a commemoration action for those at least 184 Malian migrants, who have died since the beginning of the year in the Mediterranean Sea. Many of them come from the region of Kayes, of which Kita is a part. Concretely, relatives of at least 75 families, who have lost family members, will participate in the ceremony, among them hopefully representatives from Balandougou as well. Because alone from this small town, which is made up of several villages, in april 2015 30 young people have lost their lives during several big maritime desasters (with more than 1.200 deaths) in the mediterranean sea. The region of Kayes is one of those regions in Mali, from which for decades innumerous migrants have set of – among other reasons because the population could not even a little bit benefit from the numerous gold mines or other mineral resources. The action in Kati is organized by self-organzied deportees, which are active in the network Afrique-Europe-Interact and who have been for a while building up their own agricultural cooperative.

In Togo the Association of the deportees of Togo will conduct two actions in Sokodé in the north of the country: On the one hand side a conference is planned, which is to last several hours, which is going to focus especially on the situation of the deportees; on the other hand after that a demonstration for the rights of migrants and refugees is going to take place. Many of those active in the ATE are deportees from Germany, about whom the film Da.Sein, which was made in cooperation with Afrique-Europe-Interact, is about.

“Open the borders” is the plea yelled by men, women, and children who are standing in Idomeine, at the border between Greece and Macedonia, who are currently on a hunger-strike. Their protest represents what many other thousands of people are demanding, as they are stopped in their migration along the borders of all four corners of the world.

“Open the borders” is the scream coming from the current genocide, whose victims are the many thousands of people who unfortunately could not make it to their destination. It is also what these victims’ families are asking for their missing or dead loved ones, lost along their migration journey; because we know that if human beings were allowed to cross borders like it is allowed for goods, this humanity on the move would not be forced to entrust its fate to the mafia and to human traffickers.

Opening borders and welcoming those who flee war and miserysearching for a better future is an answer to the terror and fear sown by terrorists’ bombs. Instead, many Nations in the North of the planet, along with mass media, are feeding into this same terror and fear, transforming migrants and refugees into the enemy from which we must protect ourselves, and then sealing and militarizing their borders even more.

Opening borders is an answer that could foster the creation of true solidarity between those who were born in a particular land and those who arrived there from elsewhere; solidarity based on the affirmation of a society in which there are rights for all men and all women.

The final assembly of the 2010 World Social Forum on Migration, in Ecuador, called for a Global Day of Action; with this in mind, the Global Day of Action on December 18th, 2015, will contribute to give more visibility to all initiatives taking place on that day throughout the world, demonstrating against racism and promoting human and civil rights for migrants, refugees, and displaced people.

Because asserting their rights means asserting the rights of all men and women!

A global day of action for the rights of migrants, refugees, and the displaced, is possible: on December 18th , 2015!

November 26th, 2015