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Calais: monitoring police activity in the jungle

one of no borders | 26.07.2009 09:36 | Anti-racism | Migration | Repression

NEW INFO LINES If you are coming to Calais to show solidarity and want information: call (from UK) 00 33 6 34 81 07 10 (from France) 06 34 81 07 10

Morning 26th July

-We arrived at the Pashtun jungle just after the police raided it, they were there between 8am and 8. 45 with three police vans and a bus they filled with Afghans, they won't tell us how many but one cop said they will get out in few hours.
-Before (7am) we were at the Sudanese ex-squat; the police was there and checked our IDs.
-We also checked the Eritren squat but no visible police activity there.

Footnotes:
The police were rather talkative and told us they know some of their colleagues are using tear gas and beating people. They also said they know politicians are using them for nonsense.


Night 25th July

-Between 9 and 10pm we were at the Palestinan camp, no visible police activity but they said they are being raided up to three times a day. Two Palestinians were taken three days ago, one was released, the other, who has a wound in his head, has not been seen since. Also an Eritrean friend of theirs was there, the cops took him and he has not been seen since.
-Shortly after 10 pm, we drove to the Eritrean squat: it had just been raided with gas, people were still in shock. They said on Friday the police raided the squat 5 times and took 11 people. Many Eritreans are no longer there cos they can't take these raids any more and have moved out somewhere else.
-We went back to the Palestinian camp thinking the police may be going that way but no police activity there.
-Than we drove to the Sudanese squat they were all out shivering with the cold cos they said the squat and also their blankets are full of gas and they cannot use them any more.
-Around 11 pm we drove past the Hazara jungle ( no sign of police activity) and past the Pashtun jungle, few streets from the Pashtun jungle we saw two police vans parked and another coming, so we drove back and alerted the Afghans. Two of us stopped near the jungle with a camera, two drove around and were stopped by cops, IDs taken and bags checked.After that we drove back, picked up our friends and continued following the cops.
We saw a big group of Afghans, including many minors, who run before the police. Later three boys (12 to 15 apparent age) told us the police took 6 children, they releasd three of them, three were still missing. They were trying to go to a concert and were told by police to go back to the jungle.

Footnote:
One of the Palestinians told us the police have used batons that give an electro shock on him.

COMMENT:
We strongly feel monitoring police activity could be very useful if there were more people doing it: with 5 people and one car we can do little more than observe the disaster and write reports on the abuses we witness.

one of no borders
- Homepage: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/