On Christmas eve 24th December we did an action, setting up a ' jungle' in front of the Town Hall. We displayed a banner reading 'Christmas has no borders /Jesus had no papers '. A few broken tents were symbolically put up in the midst of the Christmas trees. The right-wing local mayor spent hundreds of thousands of euros to plant a huge garden in front of the Town Hall. So huge, it's almost like a labyrinth. Sumptuous Christmas lightings have invaded the well-off part of the town. It is unclear whether anyone believes this is a good use of public money.
We also put hats and scarves previously used by migrants on the heads of the Six Bourgeois, the famous statue by Rodin that is the symbol of Calais. The police intervened and confiscated the tents as they usually do in the real jungles. They forgot to confiscate the scarves and hats. No arrests were made, and we went marching and chanting no borders slogans down the main boulevard and in the shopping centre.
In Calais and the North West coast of France there are hundreds of homeless refugees and migrants who, though they have done nothing except trying to save their lives, are not allowed to be in France or go to Britain by usurping bureaucratic authorities in London and Paris. After the closure of the Red Cross accommodation centre of Sangatte, in 2002, migrants have been forced to camp out in woods they have ironically re-named jungles, or in derelict buildings. In the last year also these makeshift shelters have been under attack by the UK and French authorities, with police destroying jungles and squats and a sharp increase in repeated, pointless arrests of people who sleep there. Most people cannot be deported because the countries they come from are too dangerous- unlike the UK, France does not deport to countries at war- but they can be deported to the first European country where they been fingerprinted. Most refugees in the Calais area are from Sudan (mainly from Darfur, where there is a genocide), Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine, , Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iran and Vietnam.
In the evening 10 migrants from Palestine and Africa were arrested, and had to spend Christmas in a police cell.

A number of stencils depicting the holy family running from police have appeared on many walls in Calais.


On Christmas day (25th December) we had a big party. We cooked a big meal together with the migrants and with the help of some volunteers from local associations. It was a really good party though improvised – the association that originally was to do the meal spoilt the broth, 80 kg of meat and about 500 euros gone to waste. Some of us patched it up. The party was a huge success. There was good food, drinks both alcoholic and not, world music from a little sound system, singing and drumming around the fires, everybody happy, everybody dancing, migrant communities mixing and a great atmosphere.  Only pity only about 150 people attended, we did not manage to tell everybody and we should have been at least 200... Hope to do better for the New Year!


Police repression has resumed, after a short lived holiday break. Today (28th December) the police have arrested dozens in the streets and in the park, they have been to all the jungles and squats in Calais, arresting 16 Palestinians in a big operation...


More activists are coming to Calais and more things are being planned.