General

The Network No One is Illegal in Uppsala


by Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik. In the following a short presentation of the network No One is Illegal in Uppsala, where we talked to Amanda. Indeed, no human can be called ILLEGAL.


The network of No One is Illegal in Sweden
consists of many groups that help and support people living underground. The
groups share the ideological platform and have the common aim to fight for a
world without borders. The groups sometimes cooperate but mostly work within
their local community. In Uppsala the network’s primary focus is to find
housing and raising money in support of people living underground. Since people
are in need of assistance before, during and after the asylum process, we
support our contacts by giving advice of whom to contact for legal assistance.
Mostly people get to know about us via internet or friends and then contacts us
on our email or through their friends.
As previously mentioned our aim is to live in a
world where people can live where they want to, regardless of who they are and
where they come from. The border regulations today are built upon race, gender
and class oppression and hence are a obstruction against an equal society on a
local and global level. The awareness of our goal and the reality of those who
suffer from the system as it operates today is something we spread by our fund
raising activities, by arranging and joining demonstrations and by writing
debate articles and participate in interviews in media. The fund raising
activities, such as poetry nights, concerts and vegan cafées have drawn between
30-150 persons each event. Among those, a few people get active within the
network by proving room for refugees, being a contact person or by helping out
at fund raising activities while others contribute regularly with money.
Regarding the response after being heard on the news it’s difficult to tell,
but we believe that the more we’re being heard, the bigger chance that people
will get active in one way or another for a world without borders.
           
On a national level we participate in bigger
campaigns, such as the campaign last spring against the restrictions of
residence permit, family reunion and living standards of refugees in Sweden. We
are part of FARR, an organisation for refugees rights and hence benefit from
their knowledge and in our turn spread that knowledge to our contacts, in
interviews with media and so on. There are also plans on creating a website
with gathered information about the movement for asylum and migration rights
and the network has been involved in that planning process as well. Hopefully
the website will generate a lot of attention and in that way make an impact on
the asylum and migration regulation in the longer run.
           
Our cooperation mainly consists of participating
in demonstrations arranged by other organisations with similar goals as us in
Uppsala. We also cooperate with another group who helps refugees living underground
and in specific cases we contact the church, organisations with legal knowledge
and the Red Cross for legal and social support. We have not cooperated with the
municipality so far but are right now involved in a project that will contact
the social services of the community to spread awareness of the rights and
needs of people living underground.