On Sunday 1st of March, M2M joined the vigil of the Studenten Ekklesia Amsterdam at the fence of the detention complex.

The guys of Block L saw us from the cage and we waved at eachother. Then the guards pushed them inside and even shut the blinds of the windows, so eye contact was interrupted. Then we used our voice:

The people of he vigil were angry. The vigil proceeded as usual, in Dutch. Here’s an impression.

Then M2M walked along the fence and restored eye contact with some of the guys locked behind windows. We wrote the telephone numer of M2M on a piece of paper and held it through the bars for the guys to read.
And soon it was Mohamed Ali from Somalia who called us! “We are on hungerstrike” We talked, we gave him telephone credit (Cobra) to call again the next day.

We are not many, but we are strong. And you give us hope.

On Monday we had a long conversation with several brothers in struggle.
here’s Faisal, from Sudan, 4 months in prison. He was seeking asylum.

Mohamed Ali, from Somalia. Doing now 2 months. He came to Holland in 2004.

Ibrahim Hassan, from Sudan. “We are dying here.”

Hakim Sola, from Mali: “We really need your help, because our situation here is very bad. The way they are treating us. We are not criminals. We are asylum seekers. They should let us go. Because we have a lot of problem here. We need to go out of this place. How they can keep us inside without nothing. We are looking for someone that can fight for us and give us our freedom.”
Also Qasim Yaya, from Ghana and Alik, 4 months: “We are fightning for our Freedom.”

The leader of the vigil, Geeske Hovingh, gave us a few wise words of Emmanuel Levinas“Stand still, thare is another man next to you. Meeting another man is the biggest event. Look into his eyes and you come closer to God. You should take responsibility for him. That is the way.”

A report on the solidarity action of Saturday 7th is at http://www.vertrokkengezichten.net (in Dutch)