Seebrücke International seeks solidarity with supporters of migrants

Seebrücke International has called for solidarity from organisations supporting migrants.

“Put an end to powerlessness!,” it said as it calls on others to “Stand with us in solidarity with all those who support people on the move. Because the criminalisation of some affects us all. At the beginning of November, the Ministry of the Interior presented a planned amendment to the Residence Act.

“This provides the legal basis for further restricting humanitarian work and criminalising humanitarian aid workers.”

According to the new draft of Section 96 of the Residence Act, aiding and abetting unauthorised entry is also to be made a punishable offence if it is done “repeatedly or in favour of several foreigners”.

Due to strong protests, the proposal was amended again and the phrase “by land” was added to prevent the criminalisation of civil sea rescue.

However, this phrase does little to change the explosive nature of the paragraph, as other human rights defenders, humanitarian organisations and refugees themselves are still affected.

This amendment is an empty gesture and a further step towards the criminalisation of humanitarian aid.

“With the Protest-o-Mat you can create your own SharePics for social media or protest posters and show with us that humanitarian aid must not be criminalised and obstructed in and by Germany! Say no to paragraph 96 with us! #DefendSolidarity

“For the Protest-O-Mat, we have teamed up with

@seawatch_intl, @soshumanity_en, @United4Rescue, @lnob2020, ROSA e.V., @blindspots_ev, @mvi_org and @frachcollective.”