UNITED for Intercultural Action, 413, Postbus NL1000 AK Amsterdam

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UNITED for Intercultural Action, 413, Postbus
NL-1000 AK Amsterdam phone [phone], fax
31-20-683 45 82 info_at_unitedagainstracism.org,
www.unitedagainstracism.org
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UNITED
Since 1993, UNITED has been monitoring the deadly
results of Fortress Europe the policies
taken directly and indirectly against immigration
Europe-wide. The result of the monitoring is a
List of migrants who have died in their attempt
to reach Europe, that is to enter the Fortress.
Until now, the researches carried out by UNITED
have documented more than 10.000 deaths.

All these deaths are ultimately linked to
decisions taken at the highest political level,
such as the Schengen Treaty, the Dublin
Convention and EU border-control programs.
The deadly consequences of Europes political
answer to immigration, represented in numbers by
the UNITED list of deaths, prove all the above
mentioned decisions wrong by making legal
immigration and asylum nearly impossible, EU
countries are not discouraging asylum seekers and
migrants from entering Europe, they are leading
them to death.
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UNITED for Intercultural Action protests against
the building of a Fortress Europe and its policy,
which gambles with the life of desperate people.
For the governments, it is not important how many
people loose their lives in their attempt to
improve their life conditions. Isnt it a human
right to improve one's own life condition?
The same way governments are shutting down their
borders, they are as well trying to shut
people's eyes, manipulating their minds and
creating phobia around wrong concepts words like
illegal and criminal are associated with migrants
constantly. The existence of a human being on
this earth cannot be a crime itself.
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HOW DO WE WORK WITH THE LIST OF DEATHS?
We scan several newspapers daily and we read them
through. When we find a death case which falls
into the criteria selected to be part of the
death list, we translate it into English. Then,
we check if the case is already in the database.
If it is, we check if we have already listed this
source (the article), otherwise we add the
newspaper/magazine among the sources. If the case
is not already in the date base, we add it with
all possible details. We have a special entry
form for that.

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HOW DO WE WORK WITH THE LIST OF DEATHS?

• Each case published by UNITED is documented in
  the UNITED archives. Further information can be
  supplied on request. The Documentation on
  Refugee Deaths can be downloaded from the UNITED
  home page (www.unitedagainstracism.org).
  Researchers and journalists can also order the
  scientific part of the documentation, to be used
  for their own studies.

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How can the List of Deaths be used?
This map, published in le Monde Diplomatique
was based on UNITED research of 2006 and it
shows the concentration of death cases
geographically.
As we can see most of the documented refugee
deaths occur between Africa and Spain in the
Strait of Gibraltar, around Malta and on the way
to Italy.
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Many people drown before even reaching European
shores. The exact number of people who drown is
unknown it is estimated to be surely much
higher than the documented number
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• As a matter of fact, Spanish government officials
  reported that, only in 2006, about 6000 African
  migrants have died or gone missing during their
  sea journey to the Canary Islands. They estimated
  that only one corpse out of three dead migrants
  is found.

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Causes of Death

• As Alain Morice writes in Le Monde Diplomatique
  (3/2004), one of the reasons for refugees to
  enter a country illegally is that the
  governments want to shut down all legal options
  of migration for people who try to escape their
  unbearable living conditions.

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Deaths attributed to State-services

• This chart shows the number of persons whose
  death can be attributed to police or border guard
  action nearly 10 of the total number of deaths.
  These cases include deportation deaths or
  suicides in refugee centres, and cases of border
  guards shooting people who cross borders
  illegally,

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Deaths attributed to State-services

• as well as police chasing sans-papiers to their
  death. The number of these cases is alarming and
  it is to be feared, since it indicates an even
  higher occurrence of maltreatment of refugees in
  Europe.

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What we can do in order to prevent these
unnecessary deaths in the future?
All organisations, large and small, can
contribute to the fight against more deaths.

The UNITED European-wide campaign aims at raising
awareness in all relevant areas of society. The
main targets are the media and the general
public. With their help it is possible to force
European politicians to reconsider European
immigration policies. They can organise
activities such as lectures, multicultural
evenings, debates or preparation of a petition.
They should also consider lobbying, for example,
their local Member of the European Parliament.
If you want to give your event a special
significance, you can organise it on the
International Refugee Day, on 20 June.
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For UNITED's documentation of refugee deaths it
is necessary that we continue to receive good
information on deaths cases of refugees in
Europe. So please send us newspaper articles,
statistics and all other information you can
gather on this issue.
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Thank you for your attention!
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www.unitedagainstracism.org info_at_unitedagainstrac
ism.org