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  • COMMEMORACTIONS FEBRUARY 6th, 2025

    11 years of remembrance and calls for justice

    The following cities will hold CommemorActions in memory of February 6th, 2014:

    Innsbruck / Austra / Feb 1st, 14h @ Landhausplatz
    Vienna / Austria

    Brussels / Belgium / Feb 6th, 16h @ Place de la Monnaie

    Douala / Cameroun / Feb 9th, 14:30h

    Brest / France, Feb 2nd @ haut de la rue Siam
    Briançon / France, Feb 6th – 8th
    Caen / France / Feb 9th, 15h @ Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer
    Calais / France / Feb 7th, 17:30h @ Park Richelieu
    Douarnenez / France / Feb 1st, 12:30h sur le rosmeur
    Grenoble / France / Feb 6th, 18:30h @ Place Félix Poulat
    Le Havre / France / Feb 8th, 15h @ Hôtel de Ville
    Marseille / France / Feb 6th, 18h @ Vieux-Port
    Morlaix /France / Feb 8th, 12h @ Place du Dossen
    Nantes / France
    Paris / France
    Perpignan / France
    Redon / France / Feb 8th, 10h @ devant les Halles de Redon
    Rennes / France / Feb 8th, 11h @ Place Saint-Anne
    Saint Etienne / France / Feb 6th, 18h @ Place du peuple
    Strasbourg / France / Feb 8th, 15h @ Place des Bateliers – Place Corbeau
    Toulouse / France / Feb 6th
    Valence / France

    Berlin / Germany / Feb 6th
    Frankfurt / Germany / Feb 8th, 15:30h @ Hauptwache
    Göttingen / Germany / Feb 6th, 16:30h @ Gänseliesl
    Hamburg / Germany / Feb 6th, 16h @ Hansaplatz
    Hanau / Germany / Feb 6th, 19h @ Metzgerstraße 8
    Magdeburg / Germany

    Athens / Greece
    Mytilini (Lesvos) / Greece

    Mamou / Guinea

    Messina / Italy
    Milan / Italy / Feb 6th, 18:30h @ Piazza della Scala
    Oulx / Italy / Feb 8th, 15h
    Parma / Italy / Feb 6th, 12h @ ArtLab & 18:30h @ Ester’s Corner
    Rome / Italy / Feb 6th, 18h @ Welcome Center, Piazzale della Stazione Tiburtina
    Ventimiglia / Italy / Feb 6th, 17h @ Ponte San Ludovico

    Tripoli / Lebanon

    Bamako / Mali / Feb 6th

    Nouadhibou / Mauretania / Feb 6th, 11h @ Centre du Savoir
    Nouakchott / Mauretania / Feb 8th, 9:30h @ Conseil Régional de Nouakchott

    Agadir / Morocco / Feb 6th, 14h @ plage
    Berkane / Morocco / Feb 6th
    Dakhla / Morocco
    Laayoune / Morocco / Feb 6th, 12h @ Centre d’ accueil de l’Association Sakia
    Nador / Morocco
    Oujda / Morocco / Feb 9th, 15h @ Espace de formation et d’animation du
    tissu associatif Oujda
    Tanger / Morocco

    Amsterdam / Netherlands
    Nijmegen / Netherlands / Feb 6th, 16:30 @ central station

    Agadez / Niger
    Niamey / Niger

    Dakar / Senegal / Feb 8th, 16h @ terrain de basket Cayar
    Mbao / Senegal

    Catalunia / Spain
    Xixon (asturias / Spain / Feb 6th, 16:30h @ Place La Llume

    Bern / Switzerland / Feb 6th, 19h @ Schütz

    Sokodé / Togo / Feb 6th, 20h @ CLAC

    Bizerte / Tunisia / Feb 5th, 16h @ Menzel Bourguiba
    Tunis / Tunisia / Feb 6th, 10h @ Complexe des jeunes Maghrébin de Radès

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  • Commemoractions on February 6th 2025

    11 years later – not forgotten, not forgiven

    World day of action against the border death regime and to demand truth,justice, and reparatios for migration victims and their families.

    On February 6,2024, a major transnational mobilization marked the 10th anniversary of Commemor-Action. On February 6, 2025, we aim to further amplify this mobilization in support of the families of those who have died or disappeared during migration.

    On February 6, 2014, more than 200 people departed from the Moroccan coast and attempted to swim to the Tarajal beach in the Spanish colonial enclave of Ceuta. To prevent them from reaching “Spanish soil,” the Guardia Civil used riot control equipment, while Moroccan soldiers stood by, allowing people to drown in front of them. Fifteen bodies were recovered on the Spanish side, dozens more went missing, and the survivors were pushed back, some of whom perished on the Moroccan side.

    For more than thirty years, the direct or indirect violence of border regimes has continued to cause death and disappearances along migratory routes. Shipwrecks occur in succession, often marked by the lack of assistance and, at times, the active involvement of coast guards and Frontex. The number of people disappearing without a trace, either at sea or in the desert, keeps increasing. Meanwhile, efforts by authorities to search for and identify bodies are often hasty and fail to involve the families affected by these losses.

    For more than thirty years, families and loved ones, associations, and all those fighting for equal mobility rights have continuously demanded truth and justice for these victims. They have highlighted the responsibilities of racist migration policies, worked to expose these responsibilities, and supported families and loved ones in their painful search for the missing and identification of victims.

    We call on all social and political organizations, secular and religious groups, victim families’ collectives, and citizens worldwide to organize protest and awareness-raising actions on February 6, 2025.

    We invite you to use the logo above, alongside your own logos, as a symbol of the connection between all the different initiatives. Please share information about your initiatives with us (preferably before February 6) to help make the collective mobilization visible through the Commemor-Action website.

    To endorse this call, you can write to:

    Email: globalcommemoraction@gmail.com

    Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/330380128977418/

    Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076223537693

    Past Commemor-Action Page: https://missingattheborders.org/news

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  • The Pylos Massacre, one year on

    Exactly one year ago, at 16:53h on 13 June 2023, the Alarmphone alerted the Hellenic Coast Guard to a boat in distress, near the coast of Pylos in Greece. There were over 700 people on board the heavily overcrowded boat called ‘Adriana’. They could have all been rescued. They could still be alive today. But most of them were not rescued. Most of them are no longer alive.

    The email to the authorities ended with the words “They are urgently asking for help”. This call remained unanswered. The Adriana sank and most of its passengers drowned in front of the eyes of the Hellenic Coast Guard, roughly 10 hours after we had sent out the alert. Over 600 people are estimated to have died. This shipwreck was not an accident. It was a massacre, it was a state crime.

    Today, one year later, we commemorate all those who lost their lives and we fight for the ones still alive. We mourn the dead and continue to struggle for freedom of movement for all! We condemn the criminalization of nine survivors who were imprisoned by the Greek authorities and released only a few weeks ago. And we support the demands of relatives for appropriate assistance in the search of the bodies of their loved ones. This is essential for them to find some peace after experiencing this horror.

    With several hundreds of people who disappeared when the Adriana sank, there are thousands in many different countries who are searching for them, seeking answers and justice. But the European border regime that killed them is not giving any answers. We have stayed in contact with some of the relatives of people who were disappeared on 14 June 2023. We are trying to support them in their search and in dealing with their loss. We also try to draw attention to the ongoing mass murders committed by the European Union at the external borders. Some of the relatives told us that until today, their biggest need is support in the search for the bodies – a need which has been ignored by the Greek authorities. Behind every person who loses their life while migrating, there is a story. There are brothers, a neighbour, sisters, a comrade, a colleague, parents and friends, looking for them, mourning their deaths, trying to keep their loved ones alive in memory.

    These countless deaths are preventable. But unfortunately, they are a logical consequence of the brutal border regime established by Greece and the EU in the past years. Pushbacks, brutal attacks at sea and increasing criminalization against border crossers force people to board unseaworthy boats in high numbers. They often try to remain hidden as for people on the move, encountering the Hellenic Coast Guard, the Hellenic Police or the Hellenic Border Guards often means violence and suffering. Innumerable cases of pushbacks in the Eastern Mediterranean, executed or coordinated by the Greek or other border guards, have been documented. People on the move know that they need to travel as far as they can to increase their chances to avoid pushbacks or pushbacks by proxy.

    While Greece continues to direct blame at survivors and intensifies the criminalisation of projects like the Aegean Boat Report, also the violence at Greek borders continues. Just last week, Alarm Phone was in contact with several different groups in the Evros region who reported brutal attacks. Also pushbacks in the Aegean Sea continue to happen systematically – they became less visible after the Pylos massacre, but they never stopped.

    While survivors and relatives fight for justice and against criminalization, the real crimes continue to happen: The war against migration and people on the move. As Alarm Phone, we continue to fight against death at sea, against border violence and against a global regime of migration apartheid. We are fighting for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all!

    We are not alone. Survivors, relatives, lawyers and activists joined forces to collectively fight for justice. In the reconstruction of the Adriana shipwreck, survivors testify what really happened: they explain in detail the production of a disaster by the Greek authorities, who were subsequently trying hard to disappear evidence. This reconstruction serves as a powerful counter-narrative to the account of the Hellenic Coast Guard, which is still too often believed in the media and public. Also, forty survivors have filed a criminal complaint against all responsible parties before the Naval Court in Piraeus. They are supported by a powerful alliance of human rights groups and lawyers, who seek accountability for the deadly actions and inactions of the Greek authorities. Moreover, there was a strong legal and solidarity campaign in support of and together with the nine survivors, who were cynically accused as smugglers and of having caused the disaster. The charges against the nine Egyptians were dropped in May.

    We’ll never forgive, we’ll never forget: We build a collective memory from our pain in our struggle for a society based on solidarity and the freedom for all to make their own decisions about their lives.

    United in Solidarity – Freedom of movement and equal rights for all!

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