Toleration and work bans

Juni 2021

An endless loop of isolation and humiliation: Most refugees and migrants from a non-EU country are only granted a very precarious status under aliens law. The asylum applications are rejected. Afterwards, most of them live here with with a ‘toleration’.

The toleration is always limited in time and must be renewed at intervals. During a toleration period, a person is “obliged to leave the country” but cannot be “obliged to leave the country, but cannot be deported. Deportation is always possible once the toleration has expired. In addition a toleration can be terminated at any time without notice. Therefore a person with a toleration status is always threatened with deportation.

Some of us know from our own experience what this means. Desperate emergency calls from refugees in collective accommodation have encouraged us to have strengthened our resolve to talk more intensively with those affected.

We visited collective centres in various regions and spoke with refugees refugees who could no longer endure this situation and were now and are now living in ‘illegality’. They told us that they live in in constant fear and see no chance of building an independent existence and existence and to shape their lives independently.

In addition, their often traumatic experiences in their country of origin and during their journey to Germany country of origin and during their journey to Germany, due to a lack of psychological support here.
With a toleration permit, it is also very difficult to obtain a work permit. to obtain a work permit. Some are even banned from working with different are even punished with a work ban. In addition persons are subject to a blanket work ban after the law that came into force on 21.08.2019, with a “Duldung light” are subject to a blanket work ban – as well as a residence requirement. This means that refugees and migrants without work remain

Thus, refugees and migrants without work remain dependent on social benefits and cannot leave their reception centres or other collective accommodation (camps) under these conditions – even after years. This means that they are not allowed to move to a place of their choice. Even a short stay in another federal state can earn them a fine.

These collective accommodations for refugees and migrants are often old military barracks in remote locations with no public public transport connections. All these hurdles hinder the search for employment and any participation in society; e.g. also integration and German courses, which are not offered in the shelters.

Many know neither the way in nor out of this situation, which often lasts for years and for years and sometimes even decades!
They are desperate and fall ill. Time and again, suicide is the only way people find to end their hopeless situation.

Others decide to “go underground” in order to escape deportation or to deportation or to lead a self-determined life. They are thus illegalised and extremely defenceless and exploitable.

Since 01.08.2015, Germany has had a so-called right of abode regulation that does not depend on a specific date. This means that people with a toleration permit who have been in Germany for a long time, can, under certain conditions, be granted a secure residence permit residence permit on the grounds of “sustainable integration”.

A possible right to stay is no longer tied to a cut-off date and and can be granted if the respective foreigners authority determines “successful integration”. However: “From the information provided by the Bundestag printed matter 18/11101 of 07.02.2017, it can be read that the right of abode regulation according to §§25a and b of the Residence Act for for long-term tolerated persons is largely ineffective.

There is an enormous discrepancy between the number of potentially entitled persons and the residence rights actually granted.”

Those who are deprived of all access to participation in society and who are who are deprived of all access to social participation and have to live in constant fear integrate into society.

We therefore demand a right to stay for all!
And we demand

• the right to work
• the right to live in dignity in a place of one’s own choosing
• the right to unrestricted medical treatment
• the right to full cultural and political participation.

For the right to freedom of movement

June 2021

Article 1 of the Charter of Human Rights states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
And Article 13 “confers on everyone the right to move freely within his country and to leave any country, including his own”.

The reality is different: People from the rich industrialised nations move around the world as a matter of course. People from the global south, on the other hand, are denied this right.

Overwhelmingly, this reality is seen as ‘normal’ in rich countries like Germany. We do not share this view. Among other reasons, we do not share it because we believe that rich countries are largely responsible for flight and migration.

Instead of facing up to this responsibility, they predominantly rely on deterrence and isolation: with the expansion of ‘Fortress Europe’, deportations and restrictive practices that deny many refugees and migrants a dignified life.

From their point of view, refugees are a problem, a cost factor or a cultural threat.

We oppose this and are committed to a right of asylum and residence that enables refugees to become an equal part of this society and against all restrictions that hinder this.

This requires a radical departure from the policy of deterrence and isolation – for a society of cultural diversity.

Pan-African Vision

June 2021

For real and complete economic and political self-determination of African countries

We look back with anger on centuries of economic exploitation, political oppression and cultural dispossession in Africa. Formal political independence has done little to change this.

Colonial governors have now been replaced by small African elites who dominate political and economic decisions in more or less dictatorial regimes. In dependence or close coordination with the large industrial nations, they guarantee their interest in the further exploitation of Africa’s natural resources. They support the flooding of African markets with the products of multinational corporations. And last but not least, they cooperate in the relocation of ‘Fortress Europe’ to Africa.

In many African countries, resistance to this is rising and pan-African ideas of solidarity among African countries for real economic and political self-determination are gaining influence.

We really hope that Africa’s growing self-confidence will help to strengthen this vision.

What is the CFA franc ?

In 1945, as a colonial power, France introduced a currency in various African countries that was initially linked to the value of the French franc: the “CFA franc”, “Colonies Francaises d’Afrique” franc.
The CFA has remained the valid currency in most of the countries affected, even after their independence. After France joined the euro zone, France and the other members of the euro zone set a fixed exchange rate to the euro.

Of the 14 countries in which the CFA franc is still a means of payment today, 8 countries belong to the “West African Economic and Monetary Union” (UEMOA):
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo

In these countries, the CFA franc bears the name of
Franc de la Communauté Financière d’Afrique

Another 6 countries whose currency is the CFA franc belong to the “Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa” (CEMAC):
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad

In these countries, the CFA franc bears the name of
Franc de la Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale

“The fate of the CFA is decided in Paris and Frankfurt. But the priorities of Europe are not those of the African countries” (Demba Moussa Dembele)

How does the colonial system CFA franc work today?

• CFA franc banknotes are produced in France.
• Currently about 656 CFA franc are exchanged for 1 euro.
• France guarantees the convertibility to the euro and decides alone on revaluation or devaluation of the CFA franc against the euro.
• The two central banks of the CFA’s African currency areas in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Dakar (Senegal) must deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves permanently with the French central bank.

What does the colonial system CFA franc mean for the people and the economy in the affected African states?

• Pegged to the “strong” euro, exports from the CFA currency zone are too expensive and thus not competitive with non-euro states. It is as if exports from the CFA zone were burdened with a tax.
• Pegged to the “strong” euro, imports from outside the CFA zone are too cheap. Imports therefore prevent and displace their own products. It is as if imports into the CFA zone are subsidized.
• The CFA countries are deprived of the opportunity to pursue their own economic and development policies, as they have very limited access to their own financial resources. They do not receive more than 3% of their own funds on loan.

What consequences does this have for the 155 million people in the CFA currency area?

• Domestic producers have no way of building labor-intensive production lines (lack of liquidity and export opportunities).
• Instead, valuable raw materials (cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, rubber) and raw materials (gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, manganese, diamonds) are exported abroad unprocessed. The dependence on world market prices and compulsory contracts below world market prices deprive the CFA countries of their natural wealth.
• The CFA countries are flooded with cheap products from all over the world, which are produced elsewhere under equally poor conditions.
• The CFA countries lack the compulsory foreign exchange reserves at the French central bank for future investments in infrastructure, education and health.
• The euro convertibility of the CFA franc promotes capital flight from the CFA currency zone, which enriches corrupt elites from these countries.

CFA must disappear!

For a sovereign African common currency!

Enough’s enough:

African economy for Africa!

That’s enough:

Africa’s money must not be deposited in banks of France!

Africa’s money belongs to Africa!

France:

Hands off Africa’s money!

Away with the CFA!

CFA = means French colonial currency in Africa

     = means Exploitation of Africa by Europe