Home | Monday 27th July 2009 | Issue 685
CALAIS ABOUTS
The clampdown on the migrants in Calais by French Authorities (see SchNEWS 684, 682) is underway with migrants being stopped and detained on the streets with intensified police raids on migrant camps and squats - complete with tear gas, beatings and detentions. Although there is no sign yet of flights chartered for deportations, the situation remains tense.
Activists from France, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium have been arriving all week to show solidarity with the migrants and act as legal observers.
Raids on the jungles and squats have intensified: on Wednesday (22nd July) a Sudanese squat was raided four times, with tear gas and two people taken. The Pashtun jungle was also raided in the early hours of the morning, and while nobody was taken the police photographed and counted all the migrants they found there – mostly minors as many of the adults who are more at risk of being deported have been hiding elsewhere. Similarly there have also been raids on Eritrean and Somali squats.
With police operations building, activists on the ground have put a call out for more people to get down there and show their support.
* See www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
