Tagged: arrests
Contre les rafles // Against racist raids
L’expulsion “humanitaire” est terminée. Il est maintenant l’heure des rafles systématiques. Tou-tes cell-eux mis-es de côté par la première partie du dispositif de l’État en sont maintenant à la deuxième étape, à la merci des hordes de policiers qui remplissent les rues calaisiennes.
Entre cell-eux qui n’ont pas pu accéder aux bus, les mineur-es que les services “sociaux” n’auront pas jugé comme tel-les, cell-eux qui veulent rester à Calais, etc… ils sont décidément nombreu-ses à avoir été oublié-es par les “diagnostics sociaux” des institutions (les associations humanitaires incluses). Les contrôles et arrestations au faciès se font à tous les coins de rue, les personnes sont emmenées directment dans des centres de rétention, parfois à l’autre bout de la france. C’est là qu’ils font face aux dangers des déportations dans des pays où ils risquent à coup sûr l’enfermement ou la mort.
C’est pour ces raisons que nous vous appelons à porter votre vigilance sur les centres de rétention et les CAO. Le harcèlement et la ségregation de cell-eux qui ne sont coupables que de leur couleur de peau ou de la validité de leurs papiers doivent faire face à notre colère. Ne laissons par leur fascisme envahir nos vies ! Guerre à leurs CRA, OQTF, rafles et à leur déportations !
Envoyez vos infos sur les centres de rétention et les déportations, vos rendez-vous et vos récits d’actions à calais_solidarity@riseup.net.
[EN]
The “humanitarian” evictions have finished. Now comes the time of systematic raids. All those left behind by the first phase of the government plan are now at the next phase: at the mercy of hordes of police who fill the streets of Calais.
Those who couldn’t access the buses, the minors whom the social services didn’t judge to be minors, and those who want to stay in Calais – there are many who have been forgotten and neglected by the “social diagnostics” carried out by the institutions (including humanitarian associations).
The controls and the arrests, based on racial profiling, are happening everywhere in the city. People are brought directly to deport centers, sometimes in other corners of France. It’s there that they frequently face the danger of deportation to countriers where they risk certain imprisonment or death.
It’s for this reason that we call on you to watch the deport centers and CAO (housing centers). Let’s get angry about the harassement and segregation of those who are guilty only of not being white or having “good” papers. Don’t let fascism ruin the lives of us all! Fight against their deport centers, their raids, and deportations!
Send info about deport centers and detentions, call-outs, and actions to calais_solidarity@riseup.net – for us to know and/or forward.
The storming of the tunnel last night/ La prise d’assaut du tunnel la nuit dernière
(UPDATE ON ARRESTS SUNDAY EVENING: Police held 23 of the people captured. At least 18 of them have now been released, we are awaiting news of the remaining five.)
Last night after midnight over 200 people without papers broke through the vicious razor wire fences and invaded the channel tunnel, trying to make it to England. According to the authorities, some made it 10 miles in before being stopped. Maybe some, unknown to the authorities, even made it through.
The tunnel was shut down all night, and this had a knock-on effect as freight traffic was redirected to the port, backing up the roads causing a major traffic jam which allowed others to get inside trucks. At about 8.30 this morning, there was a further traffic jam as people without papers made barricades across the dual carriageway above the jungle, stopping trucks and climbing inside. Strangely only two vans of gendarmes (French military police) were present, frantically driving back and forth for an hour gassing people and trying to run them over, but powerless to stop them.
Unfortunately, these daring actions came at a heavy price. Over 100 people were arrested in the tunnel last night. 7 were injured by cops, some maybe quite seriously. As of this evening, over 20 people were still being held. We don’t know as yet if they will be released, or sent to detention centres with a view to deportation, or charged with criminal offences. In either of the last two cases, we need to give our active solidarity.
That is what has been happening in the real world. Meanwhile, in a fantasy world, French police “trade union” representatives once again issued statements, lapped up by the right wing press on both sides of the channel, blaming “anarchists” for “coordinating” the offensive on the tunnel. We can say the following about this:
The collective actions last night and this morning, as other offensives in recent weeks, were self-organised by people without papers. People from Africa and Asia don’t need European anarchists to incite or organise them. These are people who have fought revolutions, lived through wars, undertaken perilous journeys, all of which may mean not just great individual courage, initiative and resilience but also collective solidarity and self-organisation. The “British anarchist” line from the cops and journalists is insulting and deeply racist. We “No Borders”, anarchists and others, are proud to stand in solidarity with our friends without papers. But these actions are theirs, they don’t need us to lead them or show them how to fight.
Why are the authorities and media spreading these allegations? Coordinated collective action against the borders by people without papers is very powerful. Across Europe, in recent months, such actions have been spreading and increasing in scale and intensity. This clearly scares those who want to maintain “Fortress Europe”. But action by migrants alone may not be enough to really shake the murderous border regime. Our power will be strongest when people with and without papers fight together. This seems to be what the authorities are trying to prevent above all: their aim is to isolate migrant struggles, make them invisible and alien, confine them in the ghetto miles out of town. Trying to demonise and criminalise our solidarity is a move in that game. It won’t succeed.
Al shab yurid iskat al-hudud. The people want to bring down the border.
PS: See also our earlier statement on similar allegations a few weeks ago
La prise d’assaut du tunnel la nuit dernière
(MISE À JOUR SUR LES ARRESTATIONS dimanche soir: la police a tenu 23 des personnes capturées. Au moins 18 d’entre eux ont été libérés, nous attendons des nouvelles des cinq autres.)
Hier soir (2 octobre 2015), après minuit plus de 200 personnes sans papiers ont franchi les barrières de barbelés aux lames de rasoir vicieuses et ont envahi le tunnel sous la Manche, en essayant de se rendre à l’Angleterre. Selon les autorités, certains ont parcouru 16 km (10 miles) en avant d’être arrêtés. Peut-être aussi que certains, à l’insu des autorités, ont réussi à traverser.
Le tunnel a été fermé toute la nuit, ce qui a eu comme conséquence la déviation du trafic du fret vers le port, provoquant un énorme embouteillage, ce qui a permis a d’autres de monter à l’intérieur des camions. À environ 8h30 ce matin (3 octobre), il y a eu un autre embouteillage car des personnes sans papiers ont érigé des barricades à travers la quatre voies au-dessus de la jungle, arrêtant les camions pour monter à l’intérieur. Étrangement, seulement deux camionnettes de gendarmes étaient présentes, conduisant frénétiquement dans les deux sens, gazant les gens et essayant de les écraser, mais impuissant à les arrêter.
Malheureusement, ces actions audacieuses ont eu un lourd prix. Plus de 100 personnes ont été arrêtées dans le tunnel la nuit dernière et 7 ont été blessées par les flics, certaines très sérieusement. Ce soir (3 octobre), plus de 20 personnes étaient toujours détenues. Nous ne savons pas encore si elles seront libérées, envoyées dans des centres de rétention en vue d’être expulsées, ou inculpés pour des infractions pénales. Dans chacun de ces deux derniers cas, nous devrons leur apporter notre solidarité active.
Voilà ce qui se passe dans le monde réel. Pendant ce temps, dans un monde imaginaire, les syndicats de police ont une fois de plus fait des déclarations, reprises avec empressement par la presse des deux côtés de la Manche, accusant les “anarchistes” d’avoir “coordonné” l’offensive sur le tunnel. Nous pouvons dire la chose suivante à ce sujet :
Les actions collectives de la nuit dernière et ce matin, comme d’autres offensives au cours des dernières semaines, ont été auto-organisés par des personnes sans papiers. Les gens de l’Afrique et l’Asie n’ont pas besoins des anarchistes européens pour les inciter ou les organiser. Ce sont des gens qui ont mené des révolutions, vécu des guerres, entrepris un voyage périlleux, et tout cela signifie faire preuve non seulement de courage, d’initiative et de résistance individuel, mais aussi de solidarité collective et d’auto-organisation. La ligne “anarchiste britannique” des flics et des journalistes est insultant et profondément raciste. Nous les “No Borders”, les anarchistes et les autres, sommes fiers d’exprimer notre solidarité avec nos amis sans papiers. Mais ces actions sont les leurs, ils n’ont pas besoin de nous pour les mener ou pour leur montrer comment se battre.
Voir également notre déclaration antérieure sur des allégations semblables il y a quelques semaines :
https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/against-the-states-lies/
Police hospitalise and charge deaf and mute migrant!
As has been widely reported in the media, between Sunday night and Monday morning a man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer in the Eurotunnel. What has not been reported is that this man is both deaf and mute!
We have heard from numerous people who saw what happened. The police arrived to disperse a group and when others fled he kept on walking straight because he could not hear the police commands. They took this as defiance and ran up behind him, violently grabbing him. In the end his friends told us that there were two full vans of CRS (about ten individual officers) that were involved in “arresting” him. As far as we can ascertain, this extraordinary level of police force can only suggest one thing. The police decided to take out their frustration and aggression on this one man.
The hospital in Calais told us that at 1AM on Monday someone matching his name and description was treated with stitches for a laceration to the head. It was not noted though that he was in police custody and they do not know where he was taken after treatment.
The police will not give any information either. We do not know where he is, if he has a lawyer, anyone with whom he can communicate, or if he even knows what is happening to him. We are extremely worried that, not being able to hear or speak and without a lawyer, he will not be able to defend himself in court.
The police were very quick to spread this story, or select elements from it, to create an image of the migrants here as violent and dangerous. In this way they hoped to victimize themselves and create the justification for the violence they use against people here on a daily basis; people who just want to get by them and cross the border. If this was the savage and unprovoked attack that police say, why have they not yet released any video evidence? Certainly, with all the money the British have been giving them for more security, the French should have had at least one camera able to see what actually happened. We suspect that the police have cynically manipulated this incident for their own gain. This seems to be their tactic for dealing with their own mistakes; targeting those attempting to cross the border and their allies, demonising them as violent and anti-social.
To remember: at least 12 people have been killed by the Calais border in the last 2 months. Innumerably more people have been beaten, gassed, injured, by police and border security. The violence here is coming exclusively from the state.
NOUVELLE ALERTE : RISQUE D’EXPULSIONS VERS LE SOUDAN / / NEW THREATH: RISK OF EVICTION TO SUDAN
Lundi soir, une quinzaine d’exilés soudanais ont été arrêtés entre le squat Galou et le campement du fort Nieulay. Une partie d’entre eux ont été relâchés dans la nuit, mais huit ont été placés en rétention au CRA (Centre de rétention administrative) de Coquelles, à côté de Calais, avec une décision d’expulsion vers le Soudan.
Ils passeront demain matin à 8h au tribunal administratif de Lille, qui se prononcera sur leur recours contre leur placement en rétention et leur expulsion. La présence de soutiens est souhaitée (Tribunal Administratif, 143 Rue Jacquemars Giélée, 59800 Lille https://goo.gl/maps/STR2Q).
Prenez contact avec Préfet du Pas-de-Calais, Denis Robin, pour exiger l’arrêt des procédures d’expulsion vers Soudan.
par téléphone : 03.21.21.20.00
par fax : 03.21.55.30.30
sur le formulaire de la préfecture : http://www.pas-de-calais.gouv.fr/Contactez-nous
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NEW THREATH: RISK OF EVICTION TO SUDAN
Monday night, fifteen Sudanese exiles were arrested between the squat Galou and the camp of Fort Nieulay. Some of them were released in the night, but eight were detained at the ARC (Administrative Detention Centre) in Coquelles, near Calais, with an expulsion order to Sudan.
Tomorrow morning at 8 am they have their courtcase at the Lille administrative court, which will decide on their appeal against their detention and deportation. The presence of support is desired (Administrative Court, 143 Rue Jacquemars Giélée, 59800 Lille https://goo.gl/maps/STR2Q).
Get in contact with Prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Denis Robin, to demand no deportations to Sudan:
Telephone: 03.21.21.20.00
Fax: 03.21.55.30.30
on the form of the Prefecture: http://www.pas-de-calais.gouv.fr/Contactez-nous
The 11 persons from Sudan, that had been arrested on the 28th of november were released yesterday morning!
The 11 persons that had been arrested on the 28th of november were released yesterday morning!
Small overview of what happened in the meantime:
After their tough arrestation in Calais in front of the sudanese jungle, where they had not even been given the chance to get their papers from their tents (some of them had for example proof that they were about to ask asylum in France) the arrested people were first brought to the detention center in Coquelles and then send to the detention center in Roissy close to Paris. They arrived in Roissy after 22 hours. Until their arrival there, during these 22 HOURS, THEY WERE NOT GIVEN WATER NOR MEDICATION INDESPENSABLE TO LIFE !! Another example that not even a tiny minimum of rights is respected in Calais.
Monday:
In the afternoon five of them were convocated, but send back to the detention center basically without a decision being made. They were released on monday after the maximum amount of 5 days of detention possible without prolongation ( neither the prefect had asked nor the judge had decided on an extension)
Tuesday:
During the courtcase of the six other persons, the maximum amount of 5 days of detention ( the prefect had not asked for an extension in their case either) had passed and technically all of them were already free before the judge took her decision. This was respected by the court and people decided by themselves whether they wanted to wait for the decision or leave. The judge repealed the request to leave french territory done by the prefecture.
The arrested persons were really disgusted about the brutality and unjustifiedness of their arrestment and the fact that they were brought away so far from Calais!! They felt treated like criminals and very threatened of being deported! This tactic of creating fear and sending people to prisons in other cities in order to get rid off them is not new at all, but shocks and scares everytime anew.
STOP ARRESTATIONS AND HARRASSMENT! BURN ALL DETENTION CENTERS! FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL!
***
Les 11 personnes originaires du Soudan, qui avaient été arrêtées le 28 novembre ont été relâchées hier matin !
petit aperçu de ce qui s’est passé entre-temps :
après leur violente arrestation à calais en face de la jungle soudanaise, où on ne leur a même pas laisser la possibilité de prendre leurs papiers qui étaient dans leurs tentes (certains d’entre eux possédaient par exemple la preuve qu’ils étaient sur le point de demander l’asile en France), les personnes arrêtées ont été d’abord conduites dans le centre de détention de Coquelles et ensuite dans celui de Roissy, à côté de Paris. Elles sont arrivées à Roissy 22 heures après leur arrestation. Jusqu’à leur arrivée là-bas, pendant ces 22 heures ON NE LEUR DONNE A BOIRE NI LES MEDICAMENTS INDISPENSABLES A LEUR SURVIE !! un autre exemple que même un minimum de droits n’est pas respecté à Calais.
Lundi :
dans l’après-midi cinq d’entre eux été convoqués, mais renvoyés en centre de détention, en fait sans qu’aucune décision ne soit prise. Ils ont été relâchés lundi après le temps de détention maximum sans prolongation, soit cinq jours (ni le préfet ni le juge n’ont demandé une prolongation)
Mardi :
pendant le jugement de 6 autres personnes, le temps de détention maximum de cinq jours (le préfet n’avait pas non plus demandé de prolongation) s’était déjà écoulé et techniquement ils étaient tous libres avant même que le juge ne prenne sa décision. cela a été respecté par le tribunal et les personnes ont décidées elles-mêmes si elles voulaient attendre la décision ou partir. le juge a répété la demande faite par la préfecture de quitter le territoire français.
Les personnes arrêtées étaient déjà dégoutées par la brutalité et le caractère injustifié de leur arrestation et le fait qu’elles avaient été emmenées loin de Calais ! Elles se sentaient traitées comme des criminels et très menacées d’être déportées ! Cette tactique de créer la peur et d’envoyer les personnes en prison dans d’autres villes pour se débarrasser d’elles n’est pas nouvelle. mais elles choque et effraye a chaque fois que quelqu’un doit la vivre.
STOPPONS LES ARRESTATION ET LE HARCELEMENT ! BRÛLONS TOUS LES CENTRES DE DETENTION ! LIBERTE DE MOUVEMENT POUR TOUS !
Mass arrest of Sudanese, now threatened with deportation! Act now!
Put pressure on Prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Denis Robin, to release the Sudanese! :
Telephone: 03.21.21.20.00
Fax: 03.21.55.30.30
on the form of the Prefecture: http://www.pas-de-calais.gouv.fr/Contactez-nous
Thirteen Sudanese were arrested during the night of 28th November and in the following morning and transferred to the Mesnil Amelot detention center near Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport and are being threatened with deportation to Sudan.
This comes a week after Sudanese in Calais held demonstrations in the centre of town to protest against the rape of two hundred women by soldiers of the Sudanese army in North Darfur.
Mass arrests and threats of deportation of Sudanese is a strategy that has been regularly used to send fear into the wider community, with people from Sudan making up a large population of people in Calais. In September there was a similar round up of Sudanese during a period of heavy evictions. And France successfully deported a Sudanese person to Sudan on September 17.
Sudan has seen decades of civil war, systematic persecutions of people, rape, aerial bombardments, destruction of means of living and mass killings at the hands of a brutal dictatorship and militias.
President, Omar al-Bashir, has several arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court out against him for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, yet states including France still continue to threaten and sometimes achieve forced returns of people despite well documented evidence of a real risk of immediate imprisonment, persecution, torture or death.
NO MORE DEPORTATIONS
Another illegal eviction in Calais
After Natasha Bouchart, Senator-Mayor of Calais, presented her new anti-squatting law in the senate last week, the illegal evictions continue in Calais.
A new house was opened in Calais on the weekend of May 31st to 1st June. After a week of going unnoticed (to avoid possible eviction without a trial in the first 48 hour), the occupation was made public on Sunday, June 8 (despite some confusing information announcing it as “the next opening” published on the website of La Voix du Nord on Saturday, June 7th ), and the first contact was made with passersby, neighbors and the bar newsagent opposite. Some of them considered the occupation of this house, which has been empty for three years, totally legitimate. Another house on the street about fifty yards away is already squatted.
That same day, at 11am, the police came by for the first time accompanied by a someone from the Calais OPH (Office of Public Housing), who tried to open the door. After a lot of reflection and many key turns in vain, they concluded that this house did not belong to them. The police then refused to take the evidence of the occupation that was presented to them (Attestation of Justice testimonies, photos, screen shots) kept together in a closed letter officially stamped the 2nd June and also a second copy of the same evidence provided separately. A journalist present at the time later interviewed the Mayor, who said she would file a complaint and send a safety inspection team there next Tuesday to see if the building might be suitable for public use.
On Monday 9th June, chairs, mattresses and other furniture were brought to 86 rue Massena to make the space more comfortable. But at 18:00, half a company of CRS police turned up with the owner. Using a battering ram, the CRS destroyed the door (on which the police had not found any traces of a break-in). The four people in the house were arrested, handcuffed and then taken away. The cops justified this operation with the testimony of a neighbor (a”friend of the owner,” in his own words) who stated that the building was empty Sunday 8th at 5 am. The inhabitants were asleep in the house at this time.
What is the point of certificates of justice and witness statements by other neighbors if the word of the owner’s friend alone is enough to say that a building is empty? … A perfect pretext for an eviction.
Thirty minutes after the evacuation, city services were already there to “secure” the house. The police said that people would be able to get their belongings back from inside, but were later prevented from doing so. The municipal services of Calais locked everything inside. In Calais, they throw you onto the street without so much as a blanket.
The occupants were only informed of the fact that they had been arrested after being locked up. One person was deprived of water and a blanket throughout their detention (20 hours) and another, who is asthmatic, had to wait several hours to retrieve their inhaler.
For anyone who needs a roof, Calais remains a lawless zone, or rather a zone where the law is manipulated and stretched according to the will of its political representatives.
Besides, if this legal system was ever respected for the sake of justice (a blinding illusion), how can it be that the offense of property damage in a group, which is often used to justify the arrests, then disappears and leaves, after release, only prosecutions for the refusal to submit DNA samples and fingerprints . Maybe we can see here a fertile ground for defense lawyers who’ve been broken down by the shitty politico-police maneuvers and whose actions in the past have brought their fruit in terms of dismissals and other abandoned cases.
This is hardly the worst abuse in Calais, but still it seems important to make this story known. As in other cases, we shouldn’t let ourselves get used to the bitter taste of an ever more impossible to swallow, failed democracy which has nothing more to offer than batons, arrogance and still other, less and less sustainable “legal frameworks”: there is still time to vomit.
All four of the arrestees, two under their own names, will appear on 22nd July at TGI Boulogne-sur-mer for refusal to provide DNA and fingerprints. The two others, registered as only as X, face the same charges.
Housing for all!
