Monday night saw dozens of anti-racist campaigners gather at the French embassy to protest the eviction of Calais refugee camp. France is heading into an election and the eviction which will see thousands of people taken out of the camp is seen as an election stunt by President Hollande seeking to win right wing votes.
Thousands of people gathered in central Dublin Saturday 12 Sept to take part in an emergency refugees are welcome march in response to the ongoing crisis of hundreds of thousands of people being trapped on the European borders and over 2,500 drowned this summer alone
The inscription on the memorial to the Irish 'Famine' in Boston serves to remind us of much we should not have forgotten and how shameful some of our words today must sound to the millions who suffered then.
How many could we house, educate and care for with 19 billion? The Irish government is currently furiously fighting the European Union to prevent Apple paying us back taxes it owes us. There has been a lot of ‘concern’ about government plans to spend 48 million looking after 4000 people fleeing warfare in Syria and Iraq. The government and the media defend there ‘our own’ is first - the super rich in Ireland and elsewhere!
A disturbing feature of the prison rebellion in Cloverhill yesterday (30-7-2015) was that, if the prison is to be believed, a large group of prisoners took a fellow prisoner as a hostage seemingly because he was a migrant.
The Dublin anarchist bookfair panel on migration, state racism and anti-racist, migrant self organising.
Dublin was one of many cities that saw a protest today (29 March 2015) called by the local Australians and Allies Overseas against Mandatory Detention as part of an international day of action involving 28 cities across 6 continents. The protest also drew attention to the terrible Direct Provision centres Asylum Seekers in Ireland are subjected to.
It took place outside the Australian embassy where those gathered demanded
Shut down Manus Stenton Centre for asylum seekers!
Shut down Nauru detention centre!
Yesterday police in Greece batoned and tear gassed protesters outside one of the migrant detention camps now being run by Syriza. Militant protests both inside and outside the camp resumed last weekend after the suicide of a Pakistani migrant, Nadim Mohammed who had been held for 18 months, released and then returned to the Amygdaleza camp. The news of the suicide broke on February 14th along with the news that another migrant had killed themselves in Thessaloniki police station.
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) revealed yesterday (16 Dec 2014) that over the last 12 months alone they have seen 26 asylum seekers or women with travel restrictions who indicated they wanted an abortion but were unable to travel abroad. At least 5 of those women were forced to continue the pregnancy to term.
Reports are emerging that up to 500 migrants may have drowned off Malta as the boat they were trying to reach Europe in was sunk. The death toll through drowning in the Mediterranean as a result of the racist policies of Fortress Europe reached a horrific new peak over the summer with 2,200 people drowning since June according to the UNHCR. For comparison in the entire 28 year period of its existence some 136-245 people were killed by another migration barrier, the Berlin wall.