Some thirty individuals traveled 600 kilometers by foot, crossing Catalonia, Aragon and Castilla, in order to explain their demands to people. “We are immigrants, men and women of all colors, nationalities and creeds and we are walking for the closure of Internment Centers, for the updating and renewal of cards without a job contract, for family reunification without limitations and work visas for those who are reunified, for the depenalization of solidarity, and for all immigrant rights including the right to vote,” they explained.
One of the coordinators of the campaign and a participant in the march, Hugo Colacho, told Pressenza that “the tightening of immigration law in Europe shows the hypocrisy of leaders who allow the free movement of capital, of companies and of everything, but not the free movement of people. A democratic society in peace and liberty cannot be built if the rights of part of this society are sanctioned.”
“The reform project”, explained the activist, “treats people who have emigrated just as tools for producing, not as human beings with full rights, and it criminalizes immigrants and those who help them. This March is a march carried out by a diverse group; we are immigrants with distinct cultures and creeds, and we have lived together like a family and we have shown the strength of an associative movement and we have learnt a lot as human beings.”
In the protest in Madrid, they were joined by hundreds of people and numerous organizations, including Convergence of Cultures, the Humanist Party and the Community for Human Development, all of which have taken part for years in actions in favor of equal rights and opportunities for all human beings, and which are presently the drive behind the World March for Peace and Non Violence, which will be in Barcelona on November 13, in Madrid on the 14th, and will arrive in Malaga on November 15.
*(Translation provided by Jaimie Boyd Guevara)*
