For the third time AEGEE-Tilburg organised the International Champions League. The ICL is a sports event where students and refugees spend a day together by attending a football tournament and several other sports and games like badminton, table tennis, chess and others. 

Why?

Refugees in the Netherlands all have one thing in common, which is the long wait for a permanent residence permit and an actual house and job to start building a new future. Even though refugees get shelter in asylum shelters they experience isolation and social limitations within.

By organising a sports event with students and refugees, AEGEE-Tilburg offers both the opportunity to informally meet new cultures and a day of relaxation and sports so they can have the time of their lives and forget the struggles they are facing.

Migration & Europe

A strong Europe is built upon the foundations of respect, tolerance and solidarity. By creating dialogue between people and communities with a sports event, AEGEE-Tilburg believes they can break stereotypes and prejudices. Among migration intentions there is the need to increase awareness about the situation of refugees in Europe and the challenges they are facing. The example from Tilburg shows that it is possible to build a better narrative towards them by bringing these people together and offering them the possibility to interact and exchange experiences personally.

Outcome of the event

In the afternoon of Saturday, the 20th of May, the ICL started. Beforehand, several student and refugee teams subscribed to attend the event and play against each other in the football tournament. Some teams consisted of solely students or refugees and others were mixed. The teams didn’t have age restrictions so there were from 11 years-old to 30 years-old participants trying to be the champion team of the day.

After playing some matches some teams could play other sports to relax and socialise with each other. Free snacks and drinks were provided during the event.

During the break the winners of the lottery were announced. Participants could buy lottery tickets before the event with which they could win prizes like tickets to the UEFA Women’s European Championship. The revenues of this lottery were used to buy sports equipment and food during the day for the refugees so as to keep this event free for them.

After several rounds it was time for the final in which the two resting teams played against each other for the fiercely desired trophy. After the final whistle all the teams congratulated the winning team.

In the evening everyone was resting from the tiredness of the day and anticipating their highlight of the day, pizza!

In the end participants were extremely satisfied of the event and organisers were frequently asked when the next event was going to be organised. During the event everyone got the opportunity to speak with each other but also become friends and teammates cheering for and supporting each other. Several students and refugees went on adding each other on Facebook to stay in contact.

The organisers from AEGEE-Tilburg are happy to be able to bring students and refugees together with an event they both enjoy. They would like to encourage other locals to organise similar events.

Migration Interest Group

Several interviews with refugees that were taken at this event are or will be published in the MIGR Facebook groups. If you’d like to see what the refugees thought of this event and hear what struggles they are facing currently, join the Facebook group of Migration Interest Group.

Written by Gökhan Sancak, AEGEE-Tilburg & Migration Interest Group

As February is getting closer, everyone is getting more and more excited for the upcoming European Planning Meeting (EPM)  2016 hosted by AEGEE-Leiden. With a very hot topic as the “Refugees in Europe – Europe vs. the Rest: Change of Perspective?” the Core-Team in Leiden is almost ready to present their participants with an unforgettable experience including some very important sessions and, as always, amazing parties. We had the chance to talk with Casper Renting the Vice-Organiser and PR & IT responsible of this EPM who gave us a bit of insight for the organisation and the city life.

The AEGEEan: AEGEE-Leiden has already hosted some great statutory events. Could you tell us a bit more about the history of your local?

Casper: We were founded on the 31st of October 1985, so we have been there since the very beginning. There has always been someone from Leiden in the Comité Directeur during the first 9 years of AEGEE, something we are quite proud of. We have also continuously organised Summer Universities since the early nineties. For most of its history, however, AEGEE-Leiden was a very small antenna, with only around 15 members, until the year 2000. Since then we have been steadily growing up to the around 300 members we currently have.

Why did you decide to organise an EPM?

We hosted EGEE-3 in 1987 and the 49th Agora in 2010, but we had never organised an EPM/EBM. What better reason could you have? Anyway, that is why, in 2014, some senior members of our antenna started thinking about the idea. After initially losing the 2015 bid to Burgos, we improved our application considerably and won the year after.

How is the organisation going so far? Is everything running as expected?

Haha, mostly! Jokes aprt, we are doing fine. We meet every Monday evening with the Core Team to update each other. We have just found our coordinators and we will soon select helpers. We have applied for various funds and are confident that we will get a positive response. All party locations and almost all meeting locations are definitive. As IJsbrand, our Logistics Responsible said: “If the EPM was tomorrow, it could go through. It would be very stressful for us as CT, but it could work.” Still being two and a half months away from the 25th of February, we are sure we will manage everything in time.

What is that thing that would make this EPM more special than the previous ones?

That is a difficult one. Every EPM or Agora is of course a unique experience and we do not want to sound like Burgos or Lublin were nothing special. But, to name a thing, as well as Bergamo could host the biggest Agora ever, we could host the biggest EPM ever. We can accommodate 350 people, if we will, that is up to whoever is reading this now.

Oh and the legendary European Night will be back on this EPM, so make sure to bring your national cuisine!

How did you come up with the postcard challenge? How is it going?

Every summer, members of AEGEE-Leiden send postcards to the AEGEE-office from wherever they are, and there is of course the Christmas-Postcrossing by AEGEE-Warszawa. AEGEE has some nice traditions involving postcards and we wanted to honour that tradition with this competition. We have now received only 5-10 cards, but as AEGEE people love being close to deadlines I am sure, more will arrive. Besides the big prize, there will be a small prize for every participant and of course we will display the cards during the EPM.

Any spoilers on how do you plan on delivering such a burning topic?

Well, as organisers we are only facilitating. How to deal with this interesting but difficult topic is up to the content managers. We can say, however, that we see the relevance of this topic every day. Our sleeping location was a temporary refugee shelter some time ago. AEGEE-Leiden people organised a day full of activities for the refugees at that time.

What is the one thing that participants must see or visit when they come to Leiden?

There is so much to see! We posted some inspiration on our website, but as an anthropologist I can reccommend the National Museum of Ethnology and the National Museum of Antiquities. A free tourist attraction is the Burcht, a 10th century fortified building in the middle of the city, from which you have a great view over the city.

Is there any advice you would give to antennas that plan on hosting a future European Planning Meeting?

Just go for it, it is a great experience for organizers personally and for the antenna as a whole. However, make sure you have full support from your university and/or local government. We would not have been able to do it without them and I think the same is true for Burgos and Lublin. Furthermore, do not abandon the local level, make sure there are still people organising and visiting local activities. Organising a statutory event, doing something for the network, is wonderful, but it is an (unnecessary) shame if it harms your antenna and the HR it heavily relies on.

What should the participants expect after their experience from the EPM and the city of Leiden?

Well, there is of course the common things. You will be drained from energy because of all the parties and discussions. You will have made new friends and reconnected with old ones. If you were smart you have seen a lot of Leiden and surrounding cities because you visited a Pre-Event in Amsterdam, Enschede or Heidelberg, or stayed a bit longer to see historical cities like The Hague, Delft or Utrecht. You will have found out that the Netherlands is quite affordable if you know the right places (and we do!) and that Leiden is rich in student traditions. Lastly, you will have many great memories that have one thing in common, they all start with: “Remember that time in Leiden…”

You can visit EPM Leiden 2016 here

You can apply here until the 17th of December 23.59 CET (Login Required).

Written by Theodora Giakoumelou, AEGEE-Athina

If you attended Autumn Agora Kyïv, for sure you didn’t miss the moment when Florian Hauger, a delegate from AEGEE-Heidelberg, stepped on stage presenting a position paper regarding the Refugee Crisis. Despite the fact that the Agora decided not to adopt the paper, citing the little time given to discuss it, Florian and the German local stuck up for their opinion. At his first Agora, Florian was very active in giving his contribution to our statutory event and that hasn’t passed unnoticed since he was one of the nominees for the Member of the Month.

The AEGEEan: Please introduce yourself!

Florian: I joined AEGEE about half a year ago and just became Secretary General of AEGEE-Heidelberg. Representing my antenna during Autumn Agora Kyiv 2015 as a delegate, I proposed our Position Paper “Facing the Challenge in Unity – Joint Solutions of Europe’s latest Refugee Crisis”

Why did you decide to present a statement regarding refugees?

Europe‘s latest refugee crisis and the wider migration are clearly very complex and they both require joint solutions; the unequal empathy among the Member States revealed a serious lack of cooperativeness in Europe.

In my opinion, AEGEE should consider the highest number of people fleeing since the end of World War II, as a challenge to be faced in unity. As one of the biggest and most influential European Youth Organisations, I consider it to be kind of embarrassing not to have an official opinion about the most important topic of our time yet.

Was it a statement or a position paper?

It was a position paper. After we failed the majority, Chair and Juridical Commission kindly agreed to accept it, at least, as an official statement of AEGEE-Heidelberg.

Why do you think people rejected it, but yet chose the same topic as European Planning Meeting (EPM) topic?

As we supported each other, I’m very happy about Romy Cartiere’s (AEGEE-Amsterdam) proposal getting adopted for Leiden 2016. She did a great job! Maybe the EPM will be the right forum to reorganise our supporters to prepare a viable position paper for Spring Agora Bergamo 2016.

What is the major point of your paper?

Revealing the unequal empathy for refugees among the Member States as a serious lack of cooperativeness in the European Union, the proposal demanded a general distribution of the Refugees in Europe among the Member States after taking into account both population and economic strength of these countries. Furthermore, we argued, that AEGEE needs to take action for the refugees. Honouring our humanitarian traditions, we have to do our best to help these people.

Would you present it again?

YES! Keeping our proposal as interactive as possible, we’re going to reorganise all supporters during the next months and open the document for external input of other antennae. AEGEE-Heidelberg is definitely going to retry getting “Facing the Challenge in Unity 2.0” to be adopted in Bergamo 2016. Everyone who is interested in joining us, please feel free to contact me at florian.hauger@aegee-heidelberg.de.

Why do you think AEGEE needs to speak about this topic?

Honouring our humanitarian values, AEGEE-Europe needs to realise the collective responsibility to embrace and protect people fleeing from religious or political persecution, war, dictatorship and oppression. It is our moral obligation to care about these people. I repeat that I consider it to be embarrassing not to have an official opinion on this yet.

In my opinion, the Comité Directeur should use its formal access to the European Institutions to promote joint solutions and the urgent need of reforms instead of focussing on statutory stuff that no one cares about. People are suffering and winter is coming! We need to enforce joint European solutions, and of course, we need to help.

What do you think our impact as an association on this topic could be?

I think the key to help the refugees will be the local work. After I failed to get our proposal ratified by the Agora, many participants mailed me asking about what to do now. Especially antennae focused on Erasmus work do have an ideal infrastructure, involving refugees in language cafés, workshops, parties or other events. Our local work provides with the perfect conditions for a successful integration.

To aquire long-term solutions at the European level, we need to send a strong message from EPM Leiden 2016. AEGEE-Europe could be far more influential by using its access to the decision makers in Brussels!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

In 2003, the EU launched a new “Asylum Seekers & Refugees” Policy: Dublin II Agreement. It stated that the first member state where the asylum application was lodged will be responsible for examining it (1). However, it means that you made your way to Germany, Belgium or other country in the EU where you can apply for asylum.You will always be send back to the first country you enter when you arrived on European soil to seek asylum. Now, think about how migrant people would try to “enter” Fortress Europe? Imagine you are fleeing Africa or the Middle East.Which way would you take? Obviously, you will be trying to go through the Turkish-Greek border by crossing the Evros river by boat on wild waters. You are left on your own with dozens migrants paying an outrageous price to smugglers. So you will be trying your luck crossing Gibraltar, or head to Malta or Italian coastal shores in an overloaded rowing boat. And next? If you are lucky enough you will make your way to European soil, but it doesn’t mean that your trip is over.  Your battle for rights would have just begun.

Due to a reinforcement of the European border controls, the migration has moved to the Greek-Turkish border which has become the main point of entry for migrants in Europe. With the Dublin II Agreement, however, the migrants that are trying to go to another EU country, are sent back to Greece, because it is the country through which they first entered the European Union.  In May 2012, an estimated number of one million illegal migrants where “living” in Greece (2). Yes, that’s a lot for a country facing its own economical and political issues.

Even though the situation of illegal migrants in Greece has been an issue for a long time, the living conditions of detainment centers are inhumane and the police treatment of illegal migrants are getting worse.Though it is not only happening in Greece but all over Europe. In the current Eurocrisis context, migrants are turned into “scapegoats”. This summer, the rise of xenophobia led to a point where unknown groups of men, as well as recent police operations, have been persecuting migrants on the basis on their “perceived ethnicity”. Besides the fact that it is leading to confusion between legal and illegal migrants residing in Greece, one cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their perceived ethnicity.Such actions fuel xenophobic sentiment (3).

Moreover, because of the recent rise of xenophobic acts in Greece, the Greek authorities have launched the “Zeus Xenios” initiative (Zeus, the protector of hosts) which is described as a “massive drive to reduce illegal immigration”. Early August, a number of police operations has led to 4,900 people being questioned and 1,130 being placed in detention centers.The Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection aims at 5,000 people in detention centres by December. With the financial support of the European Return Fund, the Greek government has already started to send some migrants from where they were coming from and intends to triple the number of border guards on the Greek-Turkish Evros river border, fearing an “upsurge of refugees arriving from Syria” (4).

Yes, you could tell me that Greece cannot face such a number of illegal migrants by itself, that Europe can not deal with all the miseries of the world, that all of Europe is facing a rise of xenophobia, that in time of crisis people try to blame others  for their problems, that maybe not all migrants are sweet and innocent even though they have been through a lot and that reality is the way it is and we should deal with it in a rational way. I would answer you that I would tend to agree with you and that, of course, it is a more complex issue, that the actual context is not helping, but firstly, that it is not a Greek issue, but a European one.

I am not an expert on EU Asylum Seeker Policy, neither on xenophobia. I have never been obliged to flee my country because of ethnic, political or social violence, wars or economic or ecologic dreadful situations. I never had to leave my friends and family behind to seek a better future in another place, no matter how big the financial and living expenses. I have never applied for asylum, I have never lived in the fear of a police arrest, nor of being sent back to a country where I don’t belong anymore. But should that make me less concerned about what happens to women and men who, just, like you and I have dreams and wishes to live life with all the rights that they are entitled to?

Sources:

1      Dublin II Agreement, EU Legislation

2      Europeans preparing to lock down borders with Greece, Der Standard (Austria), 30/04/2012

3      Greece must bring an end to racist & xenophobic attacks, Amnesty International, 15/08/2012

4      Clampdown on illegal immigrants, Ta Nea (Greece), 06/08/2012

To watch:

“Hellas Hell : Refugees’ hell in Greece” ,  Synergy Project,  March 2012

“For A Moment, Freedom” (“Ein Augenblick, Freiheit”), by  Arash T. Riahi, Austria, 2009

Written by Marine Betrancourt, AEGEE-Lyon