Every single deportation is one too many.
We are stunned and angry at the imminent deportations due to protests at the FU campus. We demand an immediate stop to the deportation proceedings and an end to the criminalization of migrants and political activists!
As various media have been reporting for several days, four activists are facing deportation. The people affected, some of whom have been living in Berlin for decades, are to be deported to Poland, Ireland and the USA on April 21, which poses an immediate threat to their livelihoods. Two of these people are trans, one of the trans people is to be deported to the USA, where the current fascist government systematically persecutes trans people and wants to erase trans identity and history. [1]
The people concerned had taken part in protests on campus last year. Their participation in this protest against the genocide in Palestine is now being used to justify drastic repressive measures. This is happening without a pretextual conviction. Even with a conviction, however, deportations remain fundamentally unjustified.
It has now become sadly commonplace for accusations of anti-Semitism to be instrumentalized in order to criminalize and endanger Palestine solidarity activism. People who exercise their fundamental right to peaceful protest and political freedom of expression are increasingly threatened in this way. The lawyer responsible, Alexander Gorski, rightly warns that these cases will be a test run for broader repression against migrants and activists. [2]
For several years now, universities have been undergoing an ever-increasing authoritarian transformation, which has now reached a new peak of escalation. For months now, the Presidential Board of the so-called Freie Universität has stood idly by and allowed peaceful protests on campus to be repeatedly crushed with police violence. In particular, the police operation following the occupation of the Theaterhof in May last year is a clear violation of the basic right to freedom of demonstration. The Presidential Board has filed criminal charges against its own students and, despite public pressure, has repeatedly spoken out against dropping them. [3]
We see the police operations, the criminal charges and the threat of deportation as clear violations of fundamental rights. Precedents are now to be set that can ultimately be used against all politically active students and will affect minorities in particular, who are already subject to constant discrimination. The imminent deportations of these people also represent a new escalation in the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement and other protests. It was only in January that the case of a Kurdish Jin Jiyan Azadî activist who was to be deported to Cyprus became public. He was facing chain deportation to Iran. Slide 6: In the end, the pilot refused to fly. Two days later, the deportation took place after all, even before a decision was made on the charge in the main proceedings. [4]
Numerous deportations are carried out unlawfully and they hit marginalized people the hardest anyway. There was no further hearing in the current cases either. The State Office for Immigration had initially rejected the application due to a lack of legal basis, but directly gave in to the overall social and specific political pressure from the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport. Resistance is not only legitimate right now, it is essential for survival. We see Germany's failure to fulfill its historical responsibility towards refugees, which hits Palestinians particularly hard.
The BAMF has already frozen asylum applications from refugees from Gaza since October 2023. Meanwhile, reports of repeated war crimes, settlements that violate international law and the Israeli government's genocidal warfare have been piling up. Said government continues to be supplied with German weapons, for which research is being carried out at German universities. The shift to the right has been progressing steadily in and outside of Germany for years. Fortress Europe is being expanded and armed using brutal and inhumane methods. Although the current events are deeply frightening and alarming, they are unfortunately not unexpected. Illegal and politically motivated deportations are by no means new territory for Germany.
Where is the right of students to protest against Germany's complicity in ethnic cleansing and apartheid in Palestine? Organizing on the premises of our universities and supporting each other is especially necessary when the university administration does not stand up for our rights. Who safeguards the rights and safety of immigrants?
Where is a university presidium that shows a clear edge to protect students, to protect their rights, to intervene in such a situation and to offer support? We demand a statement from the Presidential Board of the so-called Free University that explicitly speaks out in favor of the rights of those affected by deportation. Standing in solidarity and resisting together is more important than ever! Stay strong, don't be intimidated, stand up for each other and take part in protests against the impending deportations!
Let us stand together in solidarity with all those who are politically persecuted, threatened and criminalized and continue to appeal to all students to fight together against the shift to the right, discrimination and injustice. No one should be criminalized and deported in this way. This new wave of repression is an attack on us all, we must not let this happen!
Over 26 different groups and organizations are mobilizing for a protest on Monday, 7 April, from 8 AM on Stresemannstr. 115 near the House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus), where the Committee for Internal Affairs, Security and Order is meeting.
No border! No nation! Stop deportation!
AStA FU
Original Report: https://theintercept.com/2025/03/31/germany-gaza-protesters-deport/
[1] https://www.zeit.de/campus/2025-04/abschiebung-berlin-propaleastina-protest-usa
[3] https://astafu.de/node/603
[4] https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1188024.asylpolitik-drohende-abschiebung-in-den-iran.html