No one is illegal is a loosely connected international network that advocates for refugees and migrants present in a country unlawfully.[1] Activists in the network take initiatives in favor of undocumented migrants who stay in a country illegally and are at risk of deportation. The network has started a campaign and held rallies to bring wider attention to the situation of refugees. The campaign initially began in Germany as No Person Is Illegal (German: Kein Mensch ist illegal or kmii) and has spread to other countries, including Canada and Belgium.No one is illegal questions the idea of citizenship as a legal condition for access to and participation in the socio-political sphere.[2]
The first use of the phrase is attributed to Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in 1988, who used "No Human Being Is Illegal" on a flyer at the "National Campaign for the Civil and Human Rights of Salvadorans".[3]
No Person Is Illegal was founded in 1997 at the "documenta X" art exhibition in Kassel.[4] After a few weeks, thousands of individuals joined as well as the 200 groups and organisations that had joined them in appealing to "help immigrants begin and continue their journeys towards obtaining work and documentation, medical care, education and training, and to assure accommodation and physical survival" regardless of their immigration status. The founding followed the death of deportee Aamir Ageeb at the hands of the German Federal Police. In the wake of Ageeb's death, the "Deportation-Class" campaign set its aims towards airlines that took part in deportations. The campaign culminated in a 2001 online demonstration in conjunction with Libertad. No Person Is Illegal and "Deportation-Class" have drawn the attention of Germany's "Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution" due to purported connections with "left-wing extremism".[5]
Switzerland Bildung für Alle (Education for All) organization has its own specific task which is attempting to achieve permanent legal stay for immigrants. The organization founded the Autonomous School Zurich, a grassroots project that offers schooling for all, run by immigrants as well as Swiss locals.
A NOII collective of organizations has been established in a number of Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, Fredericton, Ottawa, Montreal (where Jaggi Singh has been associated), and London. Activist Harsha Walia is an organizer for the Vancouver chapter, while Yanisa Wu, Kelly Campbell, Sherry Viloria, Evan Macintosh, Jayelyn Rae, Hazim Ismail, and Mitchell van Ineveld organize for the Winnipeg chapter.[6]