‘Using the term “CommemorAction”, we make a double promise: not to forget those who have lost their lives, and to fight against the borders that killed them. It is a space for building a collective memory out of our pain. We are not alone, and we will not give up. We will continue to fight every day for the freedom of movement of all, demanding truth, justice, and compensation for the victims of migration and their families.
We are relatives and friends of the deceased, the missing, and the victims of enforced disappearances along land or sea borders, in Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and all over the world. We are people who have survived border crossings in search of a better future. Citizens who accompany and rescue people who find themselves in difficult situations. We are fishers, activists, migrants, academics. We are one big family.’
(Call for decentralised CommemorActions on 6 February 2022)
CommemorAction – a combination of grief and anger – was developed by relatives, survivors, and supporters as an outcry against the ongoing racist murders at the borders. CommemorAction is about remembrance via actions that combine political messages and artistic performances. But above all, it is about connecting grieving relatives with as many people as possible to create collective initiatives and to publicise their stories and demands. Days of CommemorAction are moments of remembrance for these victims. They entail building collective means of supporting families in their demands for truth and justice for their loved ones.
The tens of thousands of victims of the border regime translate to hundreds of thousands or even millions of relatives and friends, parents and children in the global South who are still missing or searching for their loved ones. Of course, there are a great diversity of ways of practicing grief. The majority of those affected are likely to process their respective ‘tragedies’ in their own networks.
Activists and civil society actors working in solidarity with people on the move have long been confronted with the deaths and disappearances of people at Europe’s external borders. As a result, they have not only developed networks of solidarity to counteract this deadly violence, but have also found ways to commemorate those who have been killed, disappeared, or become victims of forced displacement. Over several years, these CommemorActions have grown into regular cross-border events, creating a community of mourners who will not give up their fight against the violence which has killed or disappeared people on the move.
The 6th of February was chosen as a shared day of commemoration, one which takes place in a decentralised way in many places at the same time. On 6 February 2014, the Spanish border police killed at least 15 people trying to cross the border to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta near Tarajal. After years of legal proceedings, Spanish courts acquitted the Guardia Civil officers, ruling that no criminal offence had been committed. The Tarajal massacre symbolises the violence that has been happening every day for more than 20 years: victims without justice, graves without names, borders without rights.
On 6 February 2020, groups of families of the deceased, missing, and/or victims of enforced disappearance met in Oujda, Morocco, to denounce border violence in the first CommemorAction. This action brought together families from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Cameroon. We decided to continue the CommemorAction every year on 6 February to transform our pain into collective action.
The platform www.missingattheBorders.org collects and uplifts families’ voices, giving them back their dignity and an opportunity to express their grief to their families and the world under the banner of ‘People, not numbers’.
It is clear that the families engaged and organised transnationally in these CommemorActions are one face of a broader political and social issue affecting hundreds of thousands. These families are a remarkable force from the Global South denouncing the Global North for its deadly border violence. We understand the fight against borders as central to the struggle for equal social rights. We must therefore view the families involved in CommemorActions as decisive actors in the fight for global justice.
