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Home | Friday 26th June 2009 | Issue 681

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BORDERLINE INSANITY

The No Borders Camp in Calais is now in full swing despite scare-scaremongering from both the press and the authorities who the camp have condemned for attempting to “paint the camp participants as violent criminals and (refusing) to engage in the real issues we campaign on”. Sam Davis, a UK No Borders activist commented that “The only violence we see is the daily and constant attacks on individuals by the French police. The rest comes from the vivid imagination of journalists keen to silence any debate on these issues.”

Four hundred activists from around Europe have already arrived and have invited local residents and migrants alike to join them - in a relaxed atmosphere - to attend workshops, share experiences and construct the camp which will remain until this Sunday.

Actions have already begun. Activists from Lille blockaded a detention centre this morning to prevent the removal of migrants by the French authorities. Twenty nine were arrested after locking the gates of the Lesquin detention centre using arm tubes.

The Camp continues to insist that the demonstrations planned for Saturday (27th) are intended to be peaceful and have agreed to alter the route of the march in order to limit the inconvenience to local people.

Migrants attending the camp report that they suffer from regular attacks from police who destroy their camps and arbitrarily arrest and beat them. In recent days there have been reports of the eviction and beating of Eriteans living in a squatted building in Calais town centre and the destruction of migrant camps along the coast.

As the press continue to blame the influx of migrants to Calais on the UK benefit system, it is clear from those there - many of whom have spent their life savings to make the journey - that the reality is very different: “I just want to be free to go where I choose. I don’t care about money, I just want to be safe,” one Iraqi refugee told us.

“Some of the migrants we have met here are as young as twelve years old. To suggest that such young people take such a dangerous journey because they want money is not only ridiculous, it’s insulting” said another activist.

* See http://calaisnoborder.eu.org

* Read the Twitters from South Wales No Borders at www.lasthours.org.uk



 

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