Calais Migrant Solidarity
Resisting the border regime since 2009 ***
ألشعب يريد إسقاط الحدود
The start of a massive police operation in Calais
Around 50 people were arrested in the Channel Tunnel on Tuesday night, mostly from Syria. Today they were transferred to a detention centre in Nimes.Tomorrow, people are expected to be taken to Toulouse. The next day Paris. They are targetting people from all communities, Sudan, Eritrean, Syrian, Iraqi…It is likely that they plan to carry on making mass arrests in the Channel Tunnel.
This news comes from the association La Cimade, who work in detention centres in different places across France. The full announcement can be read here in French. They say this is the beginning of a massive police operation in Calais. Most of these arrests will not lead to deportation, but they will lead to a massive and repeated dispersement of people across France. People will have to make a long journey back to Calais to try again.
When inside the detention centres, people are receiving threats of deportation and face serious violence from the police trying to make them give their fingerprints in France.
There was a high police presence around the jungle, more than is usual. For the last 2 weeks, the police have been making patrols of the jungle (normally mostly around the area that has just been announced for the place of the new camp). And police have always been present around the Jules Ferry Centre, but today they were parked in many places around the jungle for most of the day.
For many, it seems like they stepping up intimidation to make sure that the people who need to move, will do so without resistance. And as ever, to pressure people to give up on their journey to the UK and make their asylum claim in France.
This all comes the day after Cazneuve promised 460 more police for Calais.