Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the activism of two migrant women organisations following the death of a female asylum-seeker. The groups criticised Germany's refugee accommodation system, police negligence and the lack of media foucs. I also discuss aspects of Rita's funeral ritual after months of actions.

Paper long abstract:

The racialization of asylum-seekers at refugee camps and the failings of the German migration regime with respect to their housing allocation system became apparent when Rita, an asylum seeker from Kenya disappeared on April 7, 2019. It took the police three months to find her remains in a forest near the secluded camp in Hohenleipisch, in the state of Brandenburg, where she had been residing with her family. Activist groups such as Women in Exile and International Women's Space heavily criticised Gremany's mass refugee accommodation system, police negligence, and the lack of attention about her disappearance and death in the mainstream media. Following, six months of actions and activism, Rita's ashes were buried in Berlin and members of the Kenyan diaspora and a few activists attended the funeral.

This paper drawing on an ethnographic methodology traces the forms of resistance that anti-racist, feminist and migrant groups in Berlin and Brandenburg, adopted in response to Rita's death. Much scholarship on refugee activism has focused on struggles for citizenship (e.g.: Ataç, Rygeil, and Stier 2016) rather than resistance countering racialized exclusion of refugees from the state. This paper examines the ways in which initiatives adopted anti-racist and feminist perspectives, which enabled them to publicise and politicise Rita's untimely death. I also comment on how members of the Kenyan diaspora in Berlin came together at her burial to lend support to her family and children.