CALLOO, CALAIS

After a quiet Easter weekend, the CRS in Calais have resumed their assault on migrant camps and squats. Early on Tuesday morning (5th), police raided the Africa House squat. As three vans of filth rolled up, No Borders activists who had been on the scene all night were able to warn migrants, allowing a few to slip away. Eight police then scaled the outside wall and began rounding up activists before removing the barricade to allow their the main force to enter the compound. Around 25 police poured in and started arresting migrants and escorting activists off the premises.

When CRS vans left the back wall unattended, activists and a photo journalist mounted a pallet to monitor the CRS loading up arrest buses inside the compound. The police didn’t take kindly to being watched going about their dirty work and attacked the group, beating the photographer with a baton and punching an activist who was clinging onto the wall. They then launched a bizarre anarcho-style assault, hurling shoes, rocks and a plastic road block section.

Later on in the day, No Borders activists spied police on their way to the Hazara camp. The activists slipped into the camp to warn the migrants before hiding in the bushes and yelling “Police!” as the CRS approached. The dozy coppers then followed the calls of the activists, allowing the migrants to escape arrest.

* See www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com