PRESS RELEASE
for immediate release
Friday 14 November 2008
Activists protest at the French Tourist Board in Holborn, London.
Activists from London NoBorders and other initiatives protested the
repression of refugees in the Calais area today with a picket at the
French Tourist Board in Holborn this afternoon.
In the last few weeks there has been an increasingly brutal repression
of migrants in Calais and the surrounding areas. Since the closure of
the Sangatte refugee camp in 2002, more then 1000 refugees are sleeping
rough in the woods and houses around the port of Calais with no chance
to get housing or anywhere to go.
On Wednesday 22nd October police and 250 armed riot squad officers
smashed a camp that was home to 350 Eritreans. There were hundreds
of arrests and around 80 of the migrants were imprisoned in a detention
centre.
Then on Thursday 6th November police conducted a manhunt of Afghans in
the area. Journalists and activists on the scene were encircled by
police for a number of hours to prevent them from documenting what
was happening, and intervening. During a solidarity demo the following
evening a prominent local activist was arrested.
We understand that the arrest of Afghans is in preparation for a charter
flight to Kabul in the next weeks that is being organised jointly by the
French and British authorities.
These deportations - to a country in which both the United Kingdom and
France have troups involved in war - are now planned only days after the
newly elected US President Barack Obama announced that Afghanistan will
soon become the most important focus for military action.
The protestors at the French Tourist Board demanded an immediate stop
to the repression against the refugees in Calais, a stop of the planned
deportations to Afghanistan, and the relaese of all refugees from
immigration detention!
About London NoBorders
London NoBorders support all those in struggle against borders, against
their incarceration in detention centres, against their deportation,
against their super-exploitation as ‘illegal’ workers. London NoBorders
campaigns for freedom of movement and the right to remain for all.
contact: noborderslondon@riseup.net
web: http://noborderslondon.blogspot.com