Sans Papiers - illegalized people
(Ostojic/ Rych)
14' min, 2004

Everybody is Equal. Some people are more equal than others.
Since the public attention in the European Union is being systematically oriented away from the issue of immigration policy, and the European political agenda is drawing clear lines between the advantaged few and unprivileged others, a clear need has now emerged to make these mechanisms transparent. A major task lies ahead for Europeans as the design of an EU “Supra-State” becomes a fait-accompli.
One of the most problematic issues in the EU is the body of restrictive asylum laws. EU State governments do everything to give as few asylums as possible. Refugees are deported and removed, pushed over EU borders to fend for themselves.
The "Sans Papiers” video portrays an illegalized people in one of the major deportation jails in Germany, Berlin – Koepenick. Interviews with detainees give testimony to the dissimilarity of “Sans Papiers” and shed light on the conditions and treatment whilst caught in bureaucratic circles of control structures.
A mere five percent of imprisoned people receive “political refugee” status, the only possible kind of asylum . Some 45 percent remain in Germany in limbo, without any rights. The rest is deported - continually. Germany alone expels around 30.000 people per year. Most rejected asylum-seekers cannot be expelled due to civil wars raging in their home countries, or complicated cases of “non confirmed” identity… but are still kept in prison for one to six months with a maximum of 18 months, while being billed for their stay - an average of 65 Euros per day. Upon release, the absolute majority is without resources and work permission, forced into the black labor market to pay off their debts, and are now targets for more stringent police tactics. Yes, they are tolerated by the German authorities for a while, but like a spring cleaning, fear and anger - its own prison - provide the occasion for a seasonal sweep, and being illegalized they find themselves imprisoned again.