We want to live in a united Europe where justice and safety are thriving values and where every human life counts. Everyone has the right to be seen and heard. We want a Europe where everyone – refugees included – can count on protection and a welcome worthy of a human being.
Seventy-five years ago, we promised each other ‘This never again’. But nowadays borders are closed off again and walls are built to keep refugees out. Violence and humanitarian tragedies which take place at these borders, are being looked away from.
The European project was born after the horrors of the Second World War. It is of the utmost urgency to redesign that promise! Now is the time, because we now not only know how vulnerable, but also how connected we are as human beings.
That is why we raise the alarm for Europe. We call for protection of refugees in the villages and cities we live in.
We join a city like Palermo that has been known for years as a city of refugees and Berlin, which recently announced that it can – and wants – to receive people from the camps on the Greek islands. We also join the citizens of Ghent, asking their municipality to do the same. We can do that too: from Palermo to Amsterdam because we are Amsterdam, we are Palermo, Berlin and Ghent.
‘We’ are people like you and me. We started a movement because we can no longer stand aside and watch what happens at the borders, in our name. We promise to stand for – and continue to build on – the solidarity once promised by the European project. We call all our cities to promise to create space and welcome refugees who are fleeing because of violence. We ask them to become refugee cities and villages, together with us.
1 juni 2020
Amsterdam, Haarlem, Arnhem, Rotterdam, Amstelveen, Breda, Echt, Utrecht, Purmerend, Almere, Wijchen, Landsmeer, Nijmegen, Groningen, Weidum, Boazum, Leeuwarden
