Archive for calais
2. Updates from Calais. Callout for support in Calais for migrants on hunger strike. Also, 10 activists arrested and help whilst Harare jungle cleared
Hunger Strike
Following a demonstration yesterday by No Borders activists, including migrants from places such as Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan, a hunger strike is being planned in protest about the situation here in Calais.
This action is one of migrant solidaity as they demand better treatment for all. Activists can help in 2 ways.
1. Go to calais – really easy, if you have a passport! Takes only 1/2 day and even short visits are useful see http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/ for the contact number and to keep up to date.
2. Through solidarity actions in the UK. Watch this space
Harare Jungle Clearance
10 No Borders activist have been arrested and interviewed at the commissionariat for having held a forbidden demonstration on Sunday. A summons has arrived at the No Border premises, as well as to an activist personnally. The complaint was deposited yesterday, by the Mayor UMP of Calais. They are now being released without charge.
It appears that the authorities in Calais are using the 4 hour detaining law to keep activists away from future large scale jungle clearances. This means that we are having an impact both through our resistance and also our protesting. The bad news is that this latest clearance reinforces that the police are targeting Afghans and it looks like they are being pushed further out of town where they are more out of reach of the humanitarian agencies and the noborders activists. 1 afghan reported late on sunday night that they have to sleep in places where there is no access to water now as the police are too big a problem otherwise. Once again, anybody reading this can be in calais within 1/2 a day max to resist, to help and to be in solidarity with the migrants. As the hunger strike action displays, the situation with the police harassment, the continuing destruction of already inadequate homes, the living conditions and the worrying targetting of Afghans is intollerable
Update from the Calais Camp
Approximately 20 members of No Borders North East are in Calais as part of the first transnational camp aimed at highlighting the situation of migrants stranded in Calais, most of whom are trying to reach the UK and claim asylum. The camp is made up of about 1000 people, some of them activists, some of them migrants, whilst others are simply local people concerned with the escalating humanitarian situation. Members of No Borders North East have been distributing food to local migrants, as well as protecting a squat used by a number of Eritrean migrants against police eviction. Although the squat eviction was successfully resisted, the police later tear gassed the premises preventing the migrants from getting back in.
Some of the migrants in Calais are as young as thirteen years old, and come from places such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Africa. We have witnessed extensive police harassment of both migrants and activists, and have heard numerous reports of migrants being emotionally and physically abused and brutalized by the local police. The police response to the camp has been huge, with over 2000 officers drafted in to the city. The attitude of the police is quite intrusive and is often one of confrontation and intimidation. Last night the police unsuccessfully attempted to gain access to the site of the camp in order to make further arrests of migrants but they were prevented as people woke up. It appears that the police are trying to find ways to distort the message of the camp through stimulating aggression and confrontation.
In contrast to this, the response of many locals has been positive and supportive. This is especially true of the younger generation who helped with the construction of the camp and who have been a constant presence throughout the week, joining in with migrants and activists. Everyone is gathering momentum for the planned march tomorrow. Up to 2000 people are expected to attend to protest racist border controls, show solidarity with all migrants and to call for an end to the system that denies dignity to people who are fleeing some of the world’s worst violence and criminalises the whole process of migration.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL! NO BORDERS. NO NATIONS. NOBODY IS ILLEGAL!
