Protest against Detention in Postojna
22/1/2024
In August 2020, various anti-racist groups, together with local residents, organized a protest in front of the Foreigners Centre in Veliki Otok near Postojna. Although the Centre is situated near the entrance of the Postojna Cave—a site visited by large crowds every year—it remains largely invisible to most residents.
This, however, was not always the case. The predecessor of the current Foreigners Centre and the Asylum Centre was the Transit Centre for Foreigners, which, since 1991, was located in the central part of Ljubljana (at 166 Celovška Road in the Šiška district). Its central location allowed researchers, activists, and the media to closely monitor its operations. Under pressure from the European Union, the facility was split in 2000 into two separate institutions: a completely closed Foreigners Centre on the outskirts of Postojna, and a semi-open Asylum Centre on the outskirts of Ljubljana.
This spatial separation is not coincidental, but rather a reflection of European migration policy, which differentiates between “refugees” and “illegal migrants”—a distinction that provides governments with justification for the increased repression of the latter (Zorn 2006). It is also no coincidence that both institutions have been relegated to marginal, industrial zones in their respective cities, areas often associated with landfills and bulk waste disposal sites—spaces where, along with other forms of waste, “human waste” is discarded (Bauman 2003).
Foreigners Cente, Postojna. Photo: Luka Cjuha (Dnevnik, 14/10/2022.)
In these spaces of exclusion, anti-racist protests play a crucial role by exposing to the public the conditions in which people are detained and by expressing solidarity with them. The first major protest in front of the Foreigners Centre, demanding its closure, took place on July 22, 2006. It was organized in collaboration with activists from the No Border Camp. On that occasion, the police held four participants and slightly injured three journalists from Radio Marš.
In the years that followed, other protest actions took place, among them a notable protest concert by the multinational orchestra Etno HISTeRIA, which performed in front of the Centre on July 17, 2013. With music, the orchestra denounced the inhumane practice of detaining people and called for the Centre’s closure. As they stated in their public declaration:“Musicians from twenty countries around the world strongly oppose the treatment of migrants as inferior beings, as non-humans! No one in this world is illegal! We demand the immediate closure of the Foreigners Centre in Postojna!”
The protest on August 25, 2020 was held in support of detainees on hunger strike. Among those detained were many asylum seekers who opposed their incarceration and the illegalisation of their status, while also drawing attention to the inadequate living conditions within the Centre. They demanded treatment in accordance with international standards of protection.
When we, the protesters, attempted to approach the Centre in order to speak with the people held behind bars, the police did not allow us to do so. As a result, we had to shout our questions at the top of our lungs, and they shouted their responses back. Many words were lost or distorted in the chain of translation—from Arabic to English to Slovene and back again—but we managed to record some of them.
What follows are fragments of conversations with people at a distance, spoken through bars and across a police cordon. The dialogue is presented in the form in which it occurred—a mixture of cries, exclamations, and the participation of many voices. We first spoke with people housed in the rear wing of the Centre building, and later with a group staying in makeshift shelters in an abandoned warehouse.
Conversation with people housed in rooms in the rear wing of the Foreigners Centre:
– Is anyone sick?
– Yes, people are sick. Asthma, diabetes, kidney problems.
– Has a doctor come?
– No doctor has been here for a month. They give the same pill to everyone—painkillers, given by the police. There’s a man here who’s very ill; he’s been here for eight months. He’s very sick.
– Do the police give sleeping pills, sedatives?
– Yes, they regularly hand out sedatives. We don’t have shampoo, soap for washing, or cleaning supplies to clean the rooms. There are 13 of us in one room.
Conversation with people housed in two containers in an abandoned warehouse:
– There’s one room with 22 people in it. The other has 25. One toilet per room.
– Have you been to the Asylum Home in Ljubljana?
– Most of us applied for asylum; we were in the Asylum Centre in Ljubljana. Some have been here for three months. I’ve been here for two.
– Does anyone have health problems?
– Yes—there’s asthma, and some have attempted suicide.
– What’s the hardest thing for you?
– That they took our phones and we can’t call home, can’t call our families. Now the police are threatening us.
– What’s happening—are the police threatening you now?
– The police are in our room right now, threatening us, beating us. [Communication is interrupted, shouting is heard, then the voices return.] There are women and children here. One child is two years old, another is three. The women don’t have sanitary pads. This is not a camp—it’s a brutal prison. The food here is for dogs, not for people. The bread is a week old. All these people... this is not a life.
– What are the police doing?
– Beating us, threatening us.
– Even now?
– Yes, even now. Every now and then they beat us and threaten us. There are sick people here, but there’s no medicine, no doctor. A doctor came a month ago—exactly one month ago. They just give out painkillers. The same pills for everyone.
– What about sedatives?
– They put something in the food, so we get tired and sleep all day.
– What else do the police do?
– They beat us. Just now they told me to shut up. When I came here from Croatia, they beat me for an hour, set dogs on me. Now they want to deport me back to Croatia. Usually they deport after one month—I’ve been here for two. I’d rather go home. There are rats and insects in the room—they bite, and you itch all over. It’s very hard to be here.
– What else is difficult?
– Twenty-five people in one room—you wait 10, 20, even 30 minutes to use the toilet. The police refuse to speak English, they mock us, insult us, beat us. We want nothing more than freedom—حرية houria.
The word حرية – houria (freedom) gradually echoed among the protesters on both sides of the fence at the Foreigners Centre. In addition to chanting “Freedom for all,” we raised our voices and shouted: حرية houria, حرية houria.
Literature
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2003. Wasted Lives. Modernity and Its Outcasts. Oxford: Blackwell.
Zorn, Jelka. 2006. „Od izjeme do norme. Centri za tujce, pridrževanje in deportacije“. Časopis za kritiko znanosti, domišljijo in novo antropologijo 34/226: 54-73.