URGENT CALL OUT for activists, legal observers, journalists and video activists to support migrants in Calais, France against imminent police attack and deportation!
Information from activists on the ground in Calais points to the police preparing to destroy some or many of the ‘jungles’ housing around 1,800 migrants in Calais, sometime this week beginning Monday 20th July. These ‘jungles’ are where people who have travelled across Europe wait in makeshift shelters, with little food or medical assistance, for their nightly attempts to get onto lorries making the crossing to the UK. Many of the migrants will be unaware of this threat. Reports from Calais say the French authorities are preparing for the destruction of the make-shift camps next Tuesday, 21st July, with a mass deportation flight to Afghanistan planned on Friday, 24th July.
More news is emerging of just how dehumanising and brutal have been the effects of the immigration raids at SOAS organised by external contractor ISS shortly after the cleaners won union recognition and pay rises to the level of the London living wage.
One of the UNISON members picked up, who was traumatised by the clandestine nature of the raid and the appearance of around 40 officers in full body armour, arrived back in Bogota, 48 hours after the raid, wearing the same clothes she was arrested in and with 75pence in her pocket. Others were deported or are detained at Yarl’s Wood.
Amdani Juma has been refused the Right to Remain in a manner breaching the Home Office’s own regulations, not to mention through a disgracefully botched and irregular process that no human being should be subjected to. A torture survivor and pro-democracy activist, Amdani escaped death more than once. He has no family in Burundi; his cousin, brother and sister are all permanently resident in the UK or the Netherlands. Human Rights groups and the UN report ongoing human rights abuses and torture in Burundi.
The next Tuesday Night Project barbecue is on Tuesday 21st July from 6pm at Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum (Square Centre). This month we have a Zimbabwean theme to the night as our friends from Nottingham Zimbabwean Community Network are helping to prepare and cook the food. There will be plenty of good food and music and lots to do. Any donations of cash, food or refreshments are welcome.
The barbecue is followed by a meeting organised by members of the Tuesday Night Project and No Borders Nottingham. The meeting will give a report back from Calais No Borders Camp and give an opportunity for members of the Zimbabwean community to talk about the current situation in Zimbabwe. Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you there.
Amidst a great deal of negative news reporting, the No Borders Camp in Calais has begun. The camp is producing a daily newspaper Nomade in French and English so you can find out what’s really going on!
To kick off Refugee Week a Public Debate ‘Speak up for refugees in Nottingham’ will take place at Speakers Corner in the Old Market Square (next to Brian Clough statue). A range of speakers from both refugee and host communities will be making their contributions to the debate. Come and join in. Venue: Speakers Corner, Old Market Square. Time: 10.30am
No Borders opposes the Britain state’s policy of removing asylum seekers to DR Congo which they are now doing again with charter flights such as the one last Thursday carrying 24 people to Kinshasa. As usual, the UK Border Agency trots out it’s usual story about “ensuring that removals are carried out in the most sensitive way possible, treating those being removed with courtesy and dignity”. Yeah, right: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/british-guards-assault-and-racially-abuse-deportees-396034.html
The Calais No Border camp (23-29 June 2009) is a joint venture between French and Belgian activists and migrant support groups and the UK No Borders Network. It aims to highlight the realities of the situation in Calais and Northern France; to build links with the migrant communities; to help build links between migrants support groups; and lastly, but not least, to challenge the authorities on the ground, to protest against increased repression of migrants and local activists alike. For more info, click on Read More and check out these links: http://calaisnoborder.eu.org/ http://london.noborders.org.uk/calais2009 Continue reading Calais No Border Camp 23-29 June 2009→
Latest news, 20th May, 2009: We have just heard that Sima Valand’s removal directions have been cancelled!
Sima now has a decent solicitor working on her case and the solicitor’s intervention stopped today’s removal. She has submitted fresh evidence which the Home Office are considering so hopefully, Sima won’t be at risk of removal now and can apply for bail. But if you’re poised over the fax machine about to send an appeal on Sima’s behalf to Smith, don’t let this stop you from carrying on! Sima Valand is desperately fighting to stop the Home Office sending her to India where she is at risk of murder at the hands of her in-laws. She was not flown on Fri 8th May or Wed 20th May. She remains in an immigration prison until she is bailed, to fight and hopefully win her case. More info: http://www.nottsrefugeeforum.org.uk/
For freedom of movement, Against nationhood and prevention of migration by nation states, Welcoming asylum seekers and migrant workers, Against capitalist exploitation
