WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #334 - Sans Frontières 334 - Pass through England, but no longer necessarily through Calais (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

The holding of a new No Border camp in September in the north of France

offers us the opportunity to take a quick look at the situation endured
by those who are still trying to cross the Channel to reach England. The
previous editions had the town of Calais as their gathering place, on
the outskirts of which makeshift camps were concentrated in which
thousands of candidates for the crossing gathered. In recent years, if
the scenery has not changed, the situation has profoundly evolved.
Calais remains a city surrounded by 70 kilometers of gates topped with
barbed wire; a town that looks like an entrenched camp, crisscrossed day
and night by dozens of CRS trucks.

But, as the opportunities for passage have reduced, Calais has lost its
centrality. The "migrants," as the media call them, gradually dispersed
along the coast while the surveillance and repression system in turn
tried to adapt. From now on, several vessels: tugboats, Maritime
Affairs, etc., anchor a few hundred meters from the shore in order to
intervene and ward off any attempt to leave from the beaches, and
sometimes to rescue survivors. For the past year, a plane and drones
have been constantly flying over the area at low altitude; gendarmerie
all-terrain vehicles wander on the beaches among walkers; CRS trucks
park on the cliffs at night; gendarmes hike in the dunes...
Despite this, in good weather and in a single day in July, more than 800
people managed to reach the English coasts aboard around fifteen boats.
For this year 2023 alone, the total number of arrivals by boat across
the Channel stands at 20,973. The year 2022 recorded a record with
45,000 successful crossings. The most common passage technique consists
of launching boats from point A on the coast to point B, where potential
passengers await them. These points change constantly and boarding takes
place at sea, several tens of meters from the shore. As one can easily
imagine, the conditions are hazardous and dangerous, and disasters
follow one another...
In recent days, several departure attempts bringing together nearly 150
people have taken place from the beaches of Quend, below Le Touquet, in
the Somme. To avoid surveillance patrols, the starting zones move
further and further south. In Normandy too, around Ouistreham, more and
more migrants are trying their luck via ferry.
Source: La Mouette enragee,
Boulogne-sur-Mer, 06/09/2023

Calais: continuation of the occupation actions of February 2022
We talked about it in these columns, more than a year ago, activists
close to No Border and gathered in the collective "Calais, logement pour
tous.tes" had launched a campaign to open squats for migrants, in a
context where the State is pursuing a scorched earth policy by
systematically eliminating all the beginnings of encampments. The
collective's demands are as follows: "a stop to expulsions from migrant
camps every 48 hours", "an end to the harassment of people blocked at
the border by the police", "the regularization of all squats in the
city», "the immediate requisition of all empty buildings". To this day,
an occupied location still stands at rue Frédérique-Sauvage. A second
occupation also attracted attention: that of an empty building tower in
the public housing project of Fort-Nieulay. The tower was doomed to
destruction, activists took the opportunity to begin an occupation which
only lasted a few days, but which allowed a great convergence of the
ground between the inhabitants of this district abandoned by the State
and solidarity with migrants. There had been mutual aid and de facto
support when the cops showed up to remove everything. Police resources
were disproportionate, as is often the case: helicopters, lots of CRS
and even the intervention of the RAID to evict the last occupants. The
tower had been besieged, no one could get out or in. There were clashes
and arrests. Around fifteen people in all, with 4 people placed in
police custody and prosecuted for "violence against a person holding
public authority". At first instance in court, the proceedings were
canceled for invalidity, but the prosecutor's office appealed the
decision. Last June, the hearing took place at the Douai Court of Appeal
and, this time, there were convictions: 2 people were sentenced to 10
months in prison and EUR500 in damages. per cop (3 cops each); another
receives a two-month suspended sentence and EUR500 in damages, and the
last is sentenced to 200 day fines of EUR1 and again EUR500 in damages.
Added to this are the legal costs and the joint payment of the police
officers' lawyer. To challenge the decision, an appeal was launched. To
be continued.
Source: Press release from those arrested and their supporters

The fight continues at the Branly home in Montreuil
We informed you, in the penultimate Courant alternative, of the
destruction-renovation project of the Branly home, and in particular of
the sending of security guards. Since then, the struggle has continued
and resistance has been organized. When the company arrived to begin the
demolition work, it had to have a bailiff declare that it was prevented
from doing so - twice. All summer, the supporters took turns to ensure a
presence every morning in case she returned. However, blocks block the
car park, preventing firefighters from responding, and some superb trees
have been marked for felling. The town hall of Montreuil continued its
communication campaign on the theme of "living together" (that is to say
without too many homes, obviously!), but it was very hampered by the
information work of the committee of support and residents: not an event
without a leaflet from Branly! She therefore had to make a gesture, and
promised to support the presence of residents at the next steering
committee - residents who were received by some town hall colleagues in
June. The communication campaign continues: we learned through the press
that residents were invited to the steering committee and that dialogue
had been re-established. But since then, this steering committee has
been canceled and no one knows the date of its next meeting. A
demonstration took place on August 11, and brought together more than
500 people, which is not so bad for a weekday on that date and in
Montreuil. Of course, the city and in particular the associations are
teeming with rumors about the home being a vector of polygamy (in a
dwelling of single men with several per room!), of excision (I thought
that concerned women?), of trafficking ( for the trafficking of corn
cobs, I confirm), prostitution, patriarchal gravity... What does this
have to do with the right to decent housing? What is the name of the
political doctrine which justifies that a supposedly unassimilable
population is treated as a pariah, without rights and subjected to
arbitrariness? While waiting for serious matters, namely negotiations or
destruction of force, the arguments are becoming clearer and the
residents are fleshing out their demands. A collective of undocumented
immigrants was created. As of today, October 19, work has not yet
started. More in a future issue.
Source: Collective press release + activist presence

Olympic Games / undocumented immigrants: victorious strike!
On October 17, a major strike movement was coordinated on the Olympic
Games construction sites but also those of Grand-Paris (which are
linked) as well as on other logistics, waste collection or cleaning
sites in Ile- of France. There were more than 200 strikers and lots of
support. In several places, there were pickets, such as in front of the
Adidas Arena near the Porte de la Chapelle. The workers, often of
African origin, all work for temporary agencies for larger groups like
Bouygues - which in the process abdicates responsibilities. They work
using "aliases", which involves borrowing the identity of another
person, in good standing. The practice is common and suits employers
well, but there is no promise of regularization. Thanks to this
spectacular strike and cooperation between several unions and
collectives (CSP75, Droits avant, Gilets noirs, CSPM, CSP20, CNT-SO),
negotiations took place immediately, and Cerfa forms were provided to
allow the request for regularization. The road is still long but, as
major sporting events approach, the balance of power has changed. Faced
with the urgency of the work - everything must be ready by July 26 - it
is the right time to fight. In addition to Cerfa, several undocumented
workers were rehired by 3 subcontractors who wanted to remove them
because they were too demanding. In their victory, the people mobilized
recalled other regularization struggles which are often very long and
tiring: Chronopost, DPD, or more recently Emmaüs in
Saint-André-lez-Lille. While waiting for the next immigration law
desired by Darmanin, it is the Valls circular of 2012 which applies and
which conditions the regularization of undocumented workers on 24 pay
slips, a promise of employment and proof of three years of employment.
presence on French territory.
Source: The March of Solidarity + press release from the strikers

Evacuations and construction of new CRAs
On October 19, 2,000 people were evacuated from land belonging to the
port of Dunkirk. There were many families (at least 50) and
unaccompanied minors (more than 200). Only 5 buses were chartered to
provide accommodation centers - the CAES (Reception and Situation
Examination Centers). In the region, by the authorities' own admission,
they are all full, which means that the evicted people have no respite
and find themselves deprived of their belongings (tent, etc.) in weather
conditions which deteriorate with the arrival of autumn. Other large
evacuations took place elsewhere, such as in Calais (300 people) and in
Paris.
In addition to this on-the-ground repression, Darmanin plans, with his
immigration bill, a sharp increase in detention places in the CRAs. By
2027, the goal is to double them to 3,000! The locations of these new
prisons for undocumented immigrants have been revealed, there are 11 in:
Dijon, Oissel, Nantes, Béziers, Aix-en-Provence, Goussainville, Nice,
Olivet, Mérignac, in Dunkirk and in Mayotte. On the public procurement
site, calls for tenders for project management have been submitted... As
a reminder, 15,922 people were selected last year in mainland France,
and 27,643 overseas, according to the annual report migrant defense
associations. Since 2012, Paris has notably been condemned 11 times by
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for having detained children
in the CRA.
Source: Infomigrants

Legal battle over food distributions in Paris
On October 10, a prefectural decree prohibited the distribution of food
in specific and demarcated areas of the 10th and 19th arrondissements
for a period of 1 month. The motivations put forward are that this
"stimulates the formation of camps" and causes "gatherings and possible
overflows". In the process, an appeal to the administrative court was
filed by several collectives - Utopia56, LDH, the federation of
solidarity actors. The Paris TA suspended the order. But, behind this
lame move by the prefecture, the associations fear an increase in this
type of ban in connection with the future Olympics. Orders of the same
type existed in Calais between 2020 and 2022.
Source: Infomigrants

Reopening of 4 border crossings in the Basque Country
After three years of closure by the prefecture, 4 crossing points on the
French-Spanish border will be reopened on October 30. These are the Pont
de Marchandises and des Aldudes in Hendaye, the Col d'Ispéguy and the
Pont de Larrau in Saint-Etienne-de-Baïgorry. These are the dross of a
2021 measure where around fifteen crossing points were closed due to
lack of means for surveillance (police, gendarmerie, customs, Sentinel
mission). Since then, 8 have remained closed: 4 in the Basque Country
and 4 in the Pyrénées-Orientales, an area not affected by the reopening.
Following the Barcelona summit nine months ago, between the Spanish and
French states, mixed Franco-Spanish brigades were created. The reopening
of these crossings is therefore not necessarily good news, because the
militarization of the border is increasing. As a reminder, the hunt for
undocumented immigrants has caused several tragedies at this border: at
least 12 people died there between January 1, 2021 and December 31,
2022, particularly at the Bidasoa river, the natural border between the
Spain and France.
Source: Infomigrants

Call for donations for Alarmphone
It is an international network of emergency telephone lines manned by
volunteers to assist people who find themselves in distress situations,
such as during a crossing. It operates 24 hours a day, all year round.
Volunteers operate not only in Europe, but also in North and West
Africa, and they also work to document human rights violations to
denounce border policies. Alarmphone has been around since 2014 and has
already assisted 7,000 boats. This costs a lot of money, because the
communications - which migrants make, for example, with satellite phones
- are financially supported by Alarmphone. In 2022, the bill amounted to
143,800 euros and, in 2023, the minute of communication with a satellite
phone is around 8 euros. On average, this represents a sum of 500 euros
per day to be managed with donations. To support them, go to:
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/alarmphone-solidarite/

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