Home » » Calais eviction updates . Protest at Downing Street on Monday 22nd. Far right protest in Calais forbidden. No to evictions, no to camps! Everybody deserves a safe home!‏

Calais eviction updates . Protest at Downing Street on Monday 22nd. Far right protest in Calais forbidden. No to evictions, no to camps! Everybody deserves a safe home!‏

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Calais eviction updates 
Protest at Downing Street on Monday 22nd
Far right protest in Calais forbidden
No to evictions, no to camps! Everybody deserves a safe home!

Don’t bulldoze Calais refugees homes, let them into Britain protest

6pm Downing St 
22nd February
 
The eviction is on hold after an appeal made by solicitors, associations and some camp residents against the eviction, until the judge will examine the case. 
The case will be heard at Lille tribunal the 23rd February, 14.00 Main argument is that the people in the part of the camp to be evicted are 4 (four) times more numerous than the 800 - 1000 people in the government estimate, including hundreds of children. There are no solutions for the accommodation of all these people, and in particular there are no solutions for the numerous unaccompanied minors.The associations and volunteers on the ground (L'auberge des migrants, Help Refugees) did a count and came up with the conservative estimate of  3451 people living in the expulsion zone, that is without counting people who cannot be seen or do not want to be counted, or who sleep in the containers but kept their houses. Of the people who took part in the census, 132 are families, 438 minors, of which 291 unaccompanied, that is they do not have any adult family member with them;  88 of the minors have family in UK and could be already there legally, if it was not for the obstruction by UK authorities.  A new count and a count of the children has been requested. It is still treve hivernale, a time in the cold months when people cannot be evicted in French law, unless in special circumstances. It is still very cold, it has been snowing and sub-zero temperatures at night. Recent storms and bad weather caused flooding in Calais and Grande Synthe (Dunkirk) jungles, and strong winds took down 2/3 of the tents in the new humanitarian camp Medicins Sans Frontieres are building at Grande Synthe. Alternative accommodation solutions have been requested such as the maisons des migrants, small / medium houses spread around the coast - the associations have been requesting this type of solution long before the refugee crisis in Calais reached the present point.

Sign the petition! Arrêtez la destruction de la Jungle de Calais over 11.000 signatures already, more needed!



The protest by far-right this Saturday has been officially forbidden, it was to support General Piquemal, a former general of the Foreign Legion who was arrested with 20 others during the Calais Pegida demonstration on the 6th February. Police stopped Pegida and friends from marching with great use of pepper spray. Some of the arrested have been in front of the judge already, Gen. Piquemal did not appear following a sudden illness and will be tried . It is however probable that the far-right will be gathering anyway on Saturday, and we need to be extra vigilant of nazi activity in the town, in the streets near the jungle and near the Eurostar.
On Monday 22nd trial of the 8 people who occupied the ferry 'Spirit of Britain' after the demonstration the 23rd January. The case will be heard at the tribunal of Boulogne at 13.30 pm. The people who are to stand trial are 4 Afghans, one Syrian, one Sudanese and two French activists, they are accused of breaching a transport by law, not a serious offence, and the two French activists are accused of facilitating entry. Support needed, please come if you can! People are coming from as far as Paris. Freedom for the occupiers of the  'Spirit of Britain' !

The state of emergency is to be extended for another three (3) months. This is the greatest attack on France's democratic institutions since Vichy.

All demonstrations in Calais have been forbidden without exception.

It is cold but the weather is sunny, I hope we are going to have a great week end in the jungle, that could be the last, but everything is still there for now: the Afghan restaurants, the beautiful church, the clubs, the schools, the Ecole Laique de Chemin de Dunes, the Good Chance Theatre, the Jungle Books library with their internet point, the women independent centre and the newly opened new minors youth centre, all facing imminent eviction, and everybody is resisting the eviction in any way they think fit. The vast majority of the people living in the jungle have said they do not want to move, nobody want to be in the jungle but nobody want to leave until alternative accommodation is provided; some have moved ahead of the eviction to other camps on the coast, particularly Grande Synthe near Dunkirk, Norrent Fontes, Hazebrouk , that are already overcrowded far over their capacity and where living conditions are worst than in Calais: new arrivals are going to cause more pressure and deepen the crisis on these camps. Some people have moved in the containers, where there is not even a kitchen, not even water yet and 6 or 12 bunk beds per container, the size smaller than any prison cell. Is that a place for people? Is that a place for families? Many people sleep in the containers and in the day they return to the jungle because in the containers they have no life, and no support from their communities, no spaces for social life there. 

Chiara Lauvergnac


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