I heard that your country hosted an African Summit on migration on the 23rd of November. I am keenly interested in the proceedings of this conference, knowing that Africans are currently leaders in the world league of migration. We Europeans are well informed about the many Africans that try to come to Europe in search of a bewtter life, in pursuit of happiness. Many Europeans feel uncomfortable at the sight of Africans dying in their effort to reach the "promised land" in ramshackle fishing boats. Even more Europeans are afraid that this flow of poor migrants is too big a challenge for their societies, because our labour markets and welfare states may not be able to absorb all these aliens. That is why governments are under popular pressure to take drastic measures to keep them out or send them home.

Little do they know about the price you Africans pay in terms of human suffering and money paid to corrupt officails and traffickers alike. Most of these migrants try to come to Europe to make a living, not only for themselves but also for the family and village they leave behind. Often the community invests a lot of resources in the voyage of their sons and daughters. The truth is that the succesful migrants, through their remittances bring more money to Africa than all the money spent vby the West on development aid. That is a reason why many African governments have no serious problem with waving their freedom loving subjects goodbye. But African nations are losing so many of thier best educated, enterprising and creative children. They are young people that could contribute to the prosperity of Africa itself, if only they had better opportunities to create a better life at home. We have to be honest and call this short sighted politics. Why would so many young people give up being with their loved ones and leave to a hostile Europe, that time and again proves to be just another lawless jungle rather than paradise.

A month ago, on the 26th of October, a coalition of activists in solidarity with the survivors, commemorated the Schiphol Fire that killed eleven and seriously wounded some 40 (?) others. And deeply traumatized many of the approximately 298 detainees (nobody knows exactly how many there were that night!). We staged the ceremony in a church in the heart of Amsterdam and afterwards in front of the fences of the (still operative!) detention center itself. And the survivors spoke out. Babak from Afghanistan told about his anger: "I would rather die than be humiliated any longer. I refuse to beg any longer." Babak was referring to the fact that the survivors were forced by their guards, even at gunpoint, to let their fellow cell mates die behind doors that would not open; to the fact that they had to stand or lie for hours in the cold night, waiting for medical care; to the fact that they were transported to equally dangerous prisons elsewhere and some times put away in isolation, bereft of their personal belongings; to the fact that they were denied their human right to receive proper treatment of their traumas, the right to choose where to live, the right to be treated as a human being. Even the 39 direct survivors, those who had been in the blocks K and J that were destroyed by the fire, who after almost a year were granted residence permits in order to (finally!) obtain proper treatment, are still living off 40 Euro's a week. Most of them are still in a reception center for asylum seekers, without the right to work or study, or otherwise regain their dignity. Seven others were not granted a residence permit since they are suspected of minor criminal offenses. All the other 231 survivors of the fire in the other blocks have disappeared alltogether. Existence denied. Look away, please.

Let me tell you, mister President, about Cheilkh Papa Sakho. he is a painter from Senegal. He came to Europe to sell his work and exchange ideas and inspiration with fellow artists. Papa Sakho came barefoot to the church because the shoes that he had bought for the occasion were too tight. In the church he was hardly able to speak, but he cried his heart out to the mother of Robert Arah, one of the boys from Suriname that died in the fire. All Sakho could say was sorry, because he had changed his cell with Robert a couple of hours before the fire. And then Robert died in stead of him.

Papa Sakho, who is now the informal leader of the group of survivors residing in an outpost called Musselkanaal, is a wonderful person and respected by anybody who gets a chance to meet him. He is not afraid to show his sorrow and able to share his spirit with children and adults alike. "I am respected, because I respect myself", he said to me. And then we laughed about his shoes. I can't think of a better show of civil courage than walking barefoot to the service of truth and justice and bowing in compassion with the mother of a dead brother.

Papa Sakho, Babak and other survivors have thus rendered an incredible service to Dutch society. They have shown us who they really are, the people we lock up for not being properly documented. None of them were accused of any crime or violation, not even of trespassing. Being declared "illegal" does not constitute a criminal offense according to Dutch law. Yet they are being treated worse than criminals. They usually suffer the same restrictions as suspects of common crimes, or worse even when they are housed in temporary facilities like boats, hangars or containers. You know the Dutch prefer cheap solutions. And they have less possibilities to appeal to the courts, because they immigration service IND resorts to administrative law, with only marginal checks and balances provided on the decisions produced by this ill famed agency. In Holland about 22.000 non-western foreigners are detained every year, some are expelled within weeks, many waste away for many months.

The power of the survivors fighting for freedom, justice and dignity shows us something else as well: they are not poor and helpless asylum seekers. They are real humans who are made helpless by a system that denies their rights as equal human beings in pursuit of happiness, endeavouring to bridge the gap between rich and poor in their own special way, just like anybody else.

We can no longer look away. The Schiphol Fire is to become a turning point in Dutch migration politics, a wake-up call for all who refuse to look away. For all those who are willing to face the truth and are not afraid to look with these migrants, not just watch them on TV. And then, if we want to live to our proclaimed standards of human and civil rights we must change this system: put a stop to detaining undocumented African, Asian, Arab or Latin migrants. And let's finally start to think hard about the reasons and causes of migration and ask ourselves why a banana or a credit card can travel more freely than the average world citizen. Our leaders can't convince me that free trade and open markets are good for mankind, as long as people have to die in their attempt to take part in free trade and enter these markets. Migrants deliver the message that there is no excuse to deny anybody the right to live and move. As long as our governments let people drown and burn, they burn their own credibility and lose their right to judge others.

Ahmed Isa Al-Jabali smoked a last cigarette in his cell before he fell asleep. He did not properly extinguish it and the paper sheets caught fire, probably helped by the stream of fresh air that came in from the airco. The fire woke him up, his feet were burning. He tried to stop the fire and yelled to alarm the guards, that weren't there. All systems failed as was proven by the Security Board in a report that forced two ministers to resign, toppled the government and brought about early elections. So last wednesday the Dutch could vote for a new parliament, but not one party is prepared to really change the system. Left and right endorse locking up innocent migrants, in order to keep the nation clean and comfortable. Only a minority of Dutch society feels ashamed and powerless against these odds. Protest comes from those who really know the man or woman that is to be thrown out of the country or thrown in detention, including children, the sick and the old.

Ahmed Isa is to be judged some day for causing the Schiphol Fire. I wonder how he could be convicted for criminal or suicidal intent, when it happened in his sleep. I know who built these prisons, who neglected all safety regulations and who are responsible for putting people in there. On October 8th the High Court of Amsterdam ordered his immediate release from custody and to await his trial in the Netherlands. When I visited Ahmed Isa last Tuesday he told me that his only wish is to prove his innocence in a Dutch court. But Minister Verdonk of Migration and Intimidation prevented his release and moved him to the Expulsion Center at Rotterdam Airport for being an "illegal alien". Last Wednesday, voting day, another judge again ordered his immediate release. But the Minister refused to bend and appealed to the administrative State Court and still keeps him locked away. This government is just not able to face the the demise of their miserable migration politics. The Dutch are not to be confronted with the face of Ahmed Isa.

He told me he is drawing portraits of the dead in his head and only talking with himself.

Therefore we feel obliged to call on you, Mister President, and on the international community, to look into this matter and relieve us of this burden of shame.

Jo van der Spek