London NoBorders

If you have been to the Noborder Camp in Calais and like to feedback positive or negative experience, you are welcome to come to our next London Noborders Meeting on Thursday July 9th, 7pm at LARC (London Action Resource Centre), 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel )

We will dedicate the first hour of our meeting for a debrief of the camp.
If you cannot come to this meeting but feel like writing some feedback, please email London NoBorders.

The following "Camp Statement" was agreed at a meeting of the camp on Sunday 28th June.

Camp Statement

People who want to travel to the UK from Calais live under inhuman conditions and constant harrassment. This area is a space confiscated by police and smugglers and where groups and individuals supporting migrants are criminalised. This repression is created by the externalisation of UK border controls to France, widespread hysteria about migration and the Dublin Convention. We support freedom of movement, oppose borders and racist discrimination. As first steps, we demand:

1) Unconditional entry into the UK for all
2) The places where migrants are living must not be raided or destroyed, and access to healthcare must be guaranteed
3) Freedom of movement for all around Calais: the ability to travel to all parts without restriction, harrassment or fear of arrest
4) No repeat arrests
5) Freedom of expression for all, including migrants: the right to protest and the right to make complaints to the authorities, individually or collectively
6) No deportations (whether by charter flight or not)
7) End repression of associations/individuals who support migrants, including by transporting them
8) Free and impartial legal advice on UK and other asylum and immigration systems
9) Britain's policy of arbitrary immigration detention without time limit must not be exported to Calais. There must be no new detention centre and especially no Guantanamo style facility.

A demonstration was held today (30th June) at WH Tours bus company in Crawley, in protest at its involvement in the deportation of dozens of migrants to Nigeria via a charter flight.

Demonstrators entered the car park at the premises carrying banners, but WH Tours employees claimed that the bus carrying those to be deported had just left.

Employees at WH Tours confirmed that the company is indeed involved with the UK Borders agency in assisting with mass expulsions.

In solidarity with the detainees on hunger strike since Tuesday in Yarls Wood immigration prison in Bedford, a protest has been called this Friday 19th June, from midday-2pm at the offices of Serco (the company that runs Yarls Wood).

Please bring banners and instruments!

Address: Serco Institute, 22 Hand Court, off High Holborn, WC1V 6JF

More info about the hunger strike:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432512.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432528.html

Experiences from over a decade of action camps and mobilisations have
shown that when we come together for mass action it is important to
collectively organise the capacity to deal with medical emergencies. It
has also shown that when we take to the streets to protest against police
and state brutality and social control, we are often putting ourselves at
considerable risk. The French police in particular are known for their
excessive use of tear gas and concussion grenades. It is therefore
important to be prepared to deal with possible injuries.

The Calais Noborder Camp will take place from‭ ‬June‭ ‬23‭ ‬-‭ ‬29th‭ ‬2009,‭ ‬with a transnational demonstration on Saturday June‭ ‬27th.‭ ‬For people who want to come to the camp for the weekend,‭ ‬London NoBorders organises a coach to get to Calais.‭ ‬