Mass evictions of over 600 people across Calais!

At 6am this morning riot and border cops accompanied by gendarmes evicted three squats housing over 70 people, as well as SALAM, a food distribution point, where over 500 people had been sleeping outside since their camps were destroyed a month ago:

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/camp-evictions-met-with-occupations-and-resistance

All exits of the gated concrete yard of SALAM were blocked by the police and tear gas was used to prevent people from escaping.

Over 20 women and 10 children were sleeping at SALAM this morning when the cops came, and another 100+ minors were swept up in the police operation during the day.

All of people’s means of shelter were destroyed.

'Activists', associations and journalists were quickly separated to stop people intervening or bearing witness, so the eviction could happen out of sight.

Over 300 people were rounded up and taken away by coaches to detention centres in Coquelles (in Calais), Lille–Lesquin and le Mesnil–Amelot (near Paris). It seems many transfers of detainees across France had already been made to open up space in detention centres nearer Calais in preparation for today’s eviction.

Minors (including 50 from Sudan and Eritrea) were taken to a camp in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

People fear these evictions will be followed by mass deportations to areas within and outside of Europe.

Big operations like this are often accompanied by targeted deportations as a method to clear Calais of migrants and refugees and incite fear into wider communities; so that more people leave and to 'deter' more people from coming; like the charter flights arranged for mass deportations of Afghans in 2009:

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/franco-british-charter-flight-to-kabul/
...or the attempted deportations of Sudanese during large eviction sweeps in 2012 and 2013:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/03/493031.html

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/stop-deportations-to-sudan/

Last month over thirty people occupying SALAM spent weeks on hunger-strike:

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/the-demands-of-the-exiles/
...in protest against the constant police harassment and repeated evictions. Many people moved to sleeping outside at SALAM in response to a large police operation on 28th May that saw hundreds of people evicted across 3 make-shift camps built up around the French port.

The latest eviction was authorized by a court order in Lille only days ago on June 27th. The Town Hall, under the direction of right-wing Mayor Natasha Bouchart who has spent many years hell-bent on trying to rid migrants from Calais, took the opportunity to move quickly to destroy the new camp.

At least 3 people were arrested for 'rebellion' during the eviction; the president of SALAM, a member of the Auberge des Migrants and a person associated with No Borders.

TO EXIST IS TO RESIST

From the Sahara to the Mediterranean through to Calais, people who are not privileged with a legal way to pass have to risk their lives to cross borders. This year there have been at least 8 known deaths as a result of the conditions of the Calais border:

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/deaths-at-the-calais-border/

PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT!

Lets be creative and in solidarity with the people in Calais, from wherever you are. If you cannot go to Calais, inform people, make flyers and banners, collect tents and send them with your friends to Calais!

...and continue the daily fight againt these racist controls wherever you find them!
Free movement for all – the border regimes must fall!

Some reports on the eviction:

http://passeursdhospitalites.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/expulsions-a-calais-nouvelles-infos/

http://fr.squat.net/2014/07/02/calais-un-matin-quatre-expulsions/#more-29042

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28123261

http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2014/07/02/la-police-demantele-le-plus-grand-camp-de-refugies-de-calais_1055403

anonymous
Homepage: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

Comments

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bus companies involved

03.07.2014 15:41

From various pictures taken during the evictions, it is clear that the following bus companies were complicit in this mass eviction and detention:

- Travel Mariot

http://www.mariotvoyages.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mariot-Voyages/773225112689478

https://twitter.com/MariotVoyages

- Travel Inglard

http://www.inglard.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Inglard/159867470786780

https://twitter.com/VoyagesInglard

Feel free to let them know what you think about this, by email, FB, twitter particularly in places where the comments might also reach others and damage their brand image.

anonymous

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Good work French authorities

03.07.2014 20:33

These people need to claim asylum in France. If they are not prepared to do this, or if their application is rejected, or if applications in other EU countries have previously been rejected, they need to be sent home immediately. Appeals can be lodged from their home countries.

Reality Check

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The always avoided question

04.07.2014 12:23

Any answer yet on why these 'asylum seekers' are not claiming asylum in France ?

No thought not

Camps destroyed, thousands on the streets

09.07.2014 16:19

Salam and the other camps have now been complteley destroyed and bulldozed to the ground. Thousands of people in need (some with major medical conditions) are reduced to walking the streets and sleeping any place they can find room. The French and British authorities are refusing to meet with community spokespeople and discuss what is going to be done, legal observers were told this week their notes were "irrelevant and inadmisable" by the local French police.

Meanwhile French authorities from the Centre d'Accueil pour Demandeurs d'Asile (Immigration office) are interviewing all migrants and demanding they either apply for asylum in France or face deportation within seven days. Those who have refused to do so or have stated their wish to apply for asylum in the UK have been arrested and are being held at the Arras detention centre. Local activists have noticed that British officials have been seen and heard working directly with French authorities to identify those who have been seen as 'leaders' of resistance or British activists who have traveled to help in the region over the summer.

One individual called "Al' who is fleeing the fighting in Iraq said today,
"Brothers are being treated like animals, we only want to escape the wars in Iraq and make a new life in England, why is that such a bad thing?"

We couldn't think of an answer.

one of No Borders

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An answer

09.07.2014 17:42

As you seem unable to provide an answer let me help:

"The European Union divides people into true asylum seekers and economic migrants. If a person fails to claim asylum within the first point of entry country of the EU it is assumed they are not true asylum seekers unless they have an exceptional explanation" Between Iraq and the streets of Calais there are seven EU countries.

Ask him why he didn't claim asylum in one of those.
Ask him why he seeks asylum in the UK

Answer giver

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