22 to 25 refugees and 15 other activists are occupying the roof of the former Gerhardt-Hauptmann-School in Berlin which the police is attempting to evict after nearly two years of occupation by the refugee protest.

All refugees on the roof are willing to either burn themselves alive or jump from the rooftop if the police evicts the school.

They demand the right to stay (Bleiberecht) for all the refugees of Oranienplatz and of the occupied school in Berlin through the application of § 23 of the German residence act (Aufenthaltsgesetz).

The police has already penetrated the ground floor of the building. It is threatening to evict the eviction within the next 48 hours. The first floor is barricaded by the resisting activists. All refugees which wanted to leave the building have done so already.

Many refugees of the protest movement of Oranienplatz and the occupied school in Berlin have taken part in the March For Freedom: They marched 500 km across borders from Strasbourg to Brussels which they successfully reached on Friday, 20 June 2014.

Today – while the eviction attempt was ongoing – around 400 demonstrators of the March For Freedom marched to the German embassy in Brussels and delivered the following letter to the Ambassasdor:

“We are the March For Freedom. We are now in Brussels. The German government is taking advantage of our absence to evict the refugee protest school in Berlin. In solidarity with our friends in Berlin we demand the immediate end of the eviction. Around 30 of our friends are on the rooftop and they will either jump down or burn themselves alive, if the police evicts the building. Stop killing refugees! The March For Freedom.”