Sans Papiers

14:00, Color, Stereo, DE, 2004
Tanja Ostojić, David Rych: Sans Papiers

Ostojić, Rych: Sans Papiers

The 'Sans Papiers' video portrays an illegalized people in one of the major deportation jails in Germany. Interviews with detainees gives 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 provide the occasion for a seasonal sweep, and being illegalized they find themselves imprisoned again.

at videomedeja in: 2004screening