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solidarity protest at French consulate - Besson, don't evict the jungle

Manchester No Borders | 18.09.2009 14:05

Manchester No Borders held an emergency protest at the French
consulate today, after French riot police have begun mass evictions
and arrests of refugees hoping to join the UK via the French port town of
Calais.

On Wednesday, French immigration minister, Eric Besson, announced that the
Calais area will be a ‘migrant-free zone’ by the end of next week. Large
areas of woodland, known locally as the ‘jungle’, where young men, many
still children, have set up temporary shelters are to be cleared and
bulldozed.




Flyers were handed out to passers-by making them aware of the situation. Also BBC Manchester came down to do an interview for its evening news programme tonight.

Some more people from Manchester are planning to join the No Borders presence in Calais in the next weeks.

Manchester No Borders
- e-mail: manchesternoborders@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://manchesternoborders.org.uk

Additions

updates

18.09.2009 14:17

twitterer


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using twitter for regular updates?

18.09.2009 14:26

as these are all young men shouldnt we encourage them to go back and rebuild their country or can we organise a mass bumming session outside the french embassy im up for it if someone will give me a reach around

@twitterer


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Freedom

18.09.2009 15:51

The French are free to do as they like about these Calais camps. Let's just hope none of the evicted occupants end up in the UK claiming benefits and taking up valuable housing without paying rent.

Pete


So what?

18.09.2009 17:28

Why should we accept them all? As a refugee they are supposed to accept asylum in the first safe country. If they've come from Afghanistan there are plenty of safe countries in between us and there.

That they ignore this, is evidence enough that they're merely economic migrants not genuine asylum seekers. If they genuinely wanted asylum they'd queue up at a British embassy or consulate and apply legally for asylum like a normal person would. Rather than damaging the property and goods of lorry drivers using the ports and tunnels.

Knock the camps down, France can do as it pleases within it's own borders regardless of what a few out of touch with reality pasty faced British teenagers say. About time France did something to control these hoodlums.

Reality check


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@@twitterer &pete

18.09.2009 17:39

Shouldn't we encourage them to make their own choices? also it's really hard to rebuild places like Afghanistan while we continuously bomb them, even harder when you're under threat of death!

pete: You heartless bastard!

it's all so easy to live of generations of stolen wealth and then blame the poor of the world the the poor social housing situation here, much harder to take responsibility and welcome the needy.

What's in a name!


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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

comments

18.09.2009 18:49

can someone please delete the above ccomments we cant have free speech on this website and these obviously go against everything we stand for lets only have comments that agree with us yes?

fred


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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

truth of the matter

19.09.2009 04:45

'What's in a name!' - this sort of person lives in perpetual guilt over every wrong-doing by the people of this great nation; this is the reason for their own self loathing, and the loathing of the British, white, race. It's the mentality that fuels the 'useful idiots' of the likes of the UAF. It's why they are happy to see Britain become a slum around them - their utopian dream of bringing everyone down to the lowest possible level of existence.

Here's news: I have no guilt over what we have done in centuries past! No one was ever asked if we want millions of immigrants here, and we certainly don't want this bloody lot coming here.

Steve


@ Reality check

19.09.2009 09:38

How about a basic fact check? "Queue up at a Bristish Consulate.."?!!! You clearly have NO idea at all about how anyone gets to claim asylum in the UK. You can only claim asylum from within the UK and the only way to get in is with a visa (impossible to obtain due to border controls) or 'illegally' (hiding in lorries, etc).
You're like those idiots banging on about 'asylum seekers stealing our jobs' when no asylum seekers have the right to work, desperate as they are to do so. Or those dicks that go on about 'them' taking up limited healthcare resources when most asylum seekers can't even access a GP, let alone medical care, dental care etc. Or those shits that lie about asylum seekers living in luxury when most are living on vouchers worth £5/day to cover everything from food, clothing, shoes, travel, hygiene etc, and only able to use those vouchers in limited shops, regardless of how far away they may be.

Why do these migrants want to come to the UK? Many have family here or lived here themselves before the Home Office decided Afghanistan, Iraq etc was a safe place to send people to...they merely want to come home again. Some worked as translators for the allied forces and are now fleeing the Taliban or (as for some children I've spoken to) have had parents killed by the Taliban. You talk from the completely random chance of having (probably) been born in this country instead of Palestine or Somalia or Afghanistan. These migrants had no choice about their place of birth or the violence inflicted upon them by foreign forces (usually us, or with UK complicity and arms) but they are doing something about that in trying to make a new life - being proactive and courageous in a way rarely seen among the placid population in the UK.

Many anti-migrant comments seem to stem from a nationalistic stance, worrying (I'm being generous) about limited resources. We need to challenge inequalities in society rather than turn on people needing support. We need to stop spending billions of pounds on 'the war on terror' (forget what the cost is that I read - but just incredible) and put that money into healthcare and education instead of skimping on this and then blaming immigrants for a shortfall.

anon


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