Ausstellung „Flucht nach Europa“

Hier findet ihr unsere Quellen zur Ausstellung/Here you can find our sources for our exhibition „Escape towards Europe“:

Quellen

Hier findet ihr den Text der einzelnen Ausstellungsfolien aufgenommen auf Deutsch/Here you can find the audio in german of the whole exhibition:

Einführung:

Menschen flüchten:

über das Mittelmeer:

122,6 Millionen Geschichten:

Interaktive Folie: Was würdest du tun/mitnehmen?

Kriminalisierung der Seenotrettung:

Rettungsweste:

Entmenschlichende Rhetorik:

Kein Mensch flüchtet freiwillig:

3427 Papierboote:

Here you can find the exhibition in English:

Escape to Europe: An exhibition by Seebrücke Passau

People flee:

122.6 million people were displaced in mid-2024 refugees around the world – both within their country and internationally. They are forced to leave their place of origin because of war, poverty or persecution. But natural disasters and the increasingly severe consequences of climate change are also forcing people to flee, leaving everything behind without knowing whether they will ever come back. The number has been rising for 12 years. For
Europe, the crises in Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Sudan are of particular importance.
143 countries around the world have signed the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
Among other things, this regulates the rights of refugees. But these rights are often
disregarded. Especially at the European external border across the Mediterranean
over 200,000 people reached Europe in 2024 – 3,427 people died or are still missing at the time of our research. These people would not have to die. The EU could do something about it, but instead civilian sea rescue are being criminalized and the Bundestag rushes
against refugees. Instead of talking about the causes of flight, we are discussing pull factors and deportations. “We talk about people like folding chairs,” says the journalist Isabel
Schayani, and that’s true. Very few of us can imagine what it means what it means to have to flee. But it is important, especially in times of right-wing populist ideologies, to understand this. That flight is a reaction and that we in Europe are not only responsible, but
are obliged to help these people. Both legally and morally. This exhibition takes a general look at the causes and dangers of of flight, but focuses on the flight across the Mediterranean. How thousands of people die every year, right-wing symbolic politics are now being adopted by the “middle class center”, the EU uses means that violate human rights to defend its external border, and how we can do something about it.

Internally displaced persons
They do not cross national borders, but flee within their own country. Their status and protection is not clear under international law, or not regulated. The number of internally displaced persons worldwide reached an all-time high in 2023 at almost 76 million. Around
90% are displaced due to conflicts and violence and only 10% due to environmental disasters.

International refugees
Persons who are outside the country of which they have a nationality because they cannot or do not wish to avail themselves of its protection. Refugees have the right to be expelled only under strictly defined conditions, to housing, education, work, public assistance and much more. 69% of international refugees were in neighboring countries in mid-2024.

The numbers are rising

The 122.6 million refugees worldwide are divided into four groups: On the one hand, 37.9 million international refugees, around 68.3 million internally displaced persons, 8 million asylum seekers and 5.8 million people in need of international protection. Asylum seekers are peoplewho are currently still in the asylum procedure.

Across the mediterranean sea:

For most people from North Africa and the Middle East escape across the Mediterranean is the only possibility to reach Europe without an entry permit, and this is intentional. The European Union is building fences at its external borders and so many people are forced to use smugglers for a journey across the sea. Many of the boats are not seaworthy, engines fail or have too little fuel, the boats leak or capsize in high waves. Too many people, with too few life jackets and drinking water and so there are arguments between the occupants.
Most people are aware of this danger, but nevertheless decide to risk it. This shows how much desperation drives these people to flee, especially across the Mediterranean. How afraid they are, to return to the place from which they have fled.

207,422 people arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in 2024.
Most of them are people from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

3,427 people drowned in 2024 while fleeing across the Mediterranean and to the Canary Islands or are still missing.

Probably twice as many people die fleeing before they even reach the Mediterranean Sea.

Pushbacks

They are breaking the principle of non-refoulement. This is a principle enshrined in international law, which prohibits the return of refugees to a country in which they face persecution. The Greek coast guard has pushed refugee boats away, towed them back or damaged their engines. In 2021, refugees are brought back to sea on life rafts by hooded civilian officers. In 2023, refugees from Lesbos were abducted and left at sea at the sea border to turkey in a life raft by a Greek coast guard boat .

Pullbacks

They describe the measures used to try to prevent refugees from leaving their country of origin. Examples include the violent pushing back of refugees at the Bulgarian-Turkish border and the Libyan Coast Guard’s attempts to intercept refugees: Libya
has a central role in the EU’s isolation policy. Despite numerous reports of human rights violations, Libya continues to receive financial and and logistical support from the EU to intercept refugees on the high seas and return them to detention camps where they are
exposed to torture and abuse. The Libyan coastguard often operates aggressively towards civilian rescue ships, threatening their crews or even firing warning shots.

122,6 million stories:

Every person on the run has their own story. We can’t tell every one, but with those of two young women we can draw attention to them. They are strongly summarized,
hence the QR codes for more information about these two people. Flight begins in one’s own country and does not end with arrival. People who have often experienced violence, death and psychological stress and are often children. Very few of us can imagine that. No one should have to go through these experiences. But by creating awareness, there is also created understanding, respect and what is most often missing: compassion. For people who are here because they simply want a better life.

Why Mia from Ethiopia is now in Switzerland/I don’t want to talk about what happened in Libya.

Experiences of sexual violence, also within her family, and the lack of perspective as life as a woman are the main reasons for Mia’s escape. First by land within Ethiopia: from her village to a nearby town and from there to the capital Addis Abeba. But the conditions there are no better. She flees to Dubai and tries to start a new life there, but returns to Ethiopia a year later. The same lack of prospects prevails there. And then she decides to do a second escape attempt and this time it was to be forever. Her goal: to start a new life in Europe and finally escape the constraints of her home country. To achieve this goal, it is worth embarking on the dangerous journey through Libya and across the Mediterranean to Europe. She crosses the desert of Sudan on the back of a car with 25 others. All around her people die, fall to the heat and the lack of water. It goes through Libya: the traces it leaves behind are severe mental illnesses, HIV and AIDS. She does not want to talk about this time. From Libya, she takes a boat across the Mediterranean. After the arduous and dangerous two-day crossing, Mia reaches Italy, where she stays for two months. Even though she has reached Europe, Mia has not yet arrived. She lands in Switzerland. Out of fear and desperation of being sent back again, she lies and says that she came with her sister from Eritrea, and she changes her surname. This would raise
her chances with the Swiss migration authorities. But after the examination and years in a reception camp, she is to be sent back home. Desperation. She confesses to the lie, gives her real name and origin, but the decision by the migration authorities remains in place.
Only after years of bureaucratic processes, transfers and a new passport from Ethiopia is Mia’s asylum application finally approved.

How Doaa fled from Syria to Sweden/The change of power made Egypt too dangerous

Dara’a in south-west Syria: this is where Doaa Al Zamel is born. She is six when
the first demonstrations against the Assad regime in Damascus take place, two hours away by car. When her father’s barbershop is destroyed and the women are insulted, the family flees to Egypt. Without a work permit they live there on the margins of society. Despite this, Doaa is hopeful, she is in love with Bassem, who asks her to marry him. But after a change of power, things become too dangerous. So she finally decides with her fiancé to flee across the Mediterranean. Bassem cannot swim. In September 2014, with around 500 other refugees they enter a boat that will never reach Europe. When it capsizes, Doaa and Bassem
are still together. People are drowning around them. After two days on the open sea
Bassem loses his strength. He drowns. She herself clings to a swimming ring for children. Others entrust her two little girls, one of whom is just nine months old. On the fourth day
they are rescued by the crew of a cargo ship. Two and a half years later, Doaa lives in
Sweden, eagerly learning Swedish and describing the people around her as open and friendly. She still hopes to return to Syria.

What would you take with you? What are your thoughts? What would you do?

Millions of people are forced to leave their homes and often this decision has to be made at very short notice. Be it a natural disaster or a sudden war. Put yourself in this situation: what would you take with you or do if you perhaps only had minutes to make this decision
and have no more than one bag to carry? Write your thoughts on a piece of paper and stick it with the others.

A lifejacket:

Imagine she is your only protection from drowning, often the only thing between life and death.
Not even all the people fleeing across the Mediterranean have this protection.
Thanks to the water rescue Passau Ilzstadt-Salzweg for providing the lifejacket.

Quellen/Sources:

Dead and Missing | Displacement Tracking Matrix

Europe Arrivals | Displacement Tracking Matrix

Flucht und Migration einfach erklärt

Flüchtlingszahlen: Flüchtlinge weltweit – Global Trends

Statistics | Eurostat

Abkommen über die Rechtsstellung der Flüchtlinge – Wikipedia

Refugee Data Finder – Key Indicators

Mittelmeer: Die tödlichste Fluchtroute der Welt | ZEIT ONLINE

2024 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) | IDMC – Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

DIW Berlin: Geflüchtete kommen auf gefährlichen Wegen nach Deutschland

Pushback (Grenze) – Wikipedia