Calais: Squatters turn the table on authorities

In theory, there are laws which protect squatters in France, but these are shirked everyday in Calais. It is apparent that the police and the City do not feel that they have to respect the law when it comes to squats in Calais, both because of their racist politics and the fact so far they have not had any negative/legal consequences for the illegal evictions they have performed in the past.

Squatters, who occupied a house in Route de St. Omer, Calais last week and had been evicted illegally, decided to challenge the cop’s reckless behaviour, authorized by the prefect. He and representatives of OPH will have to face justice/retribution already on 22nd of January.

Would be great, a lot of you show up to support the people, who try to dissuade the cops from evicting squats in the future.

Court case will take place at 9 am, in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Regional court at Place de la Resistance.

See you there!

Donations are welcome and needed!

Mark the payment for “CALAID”

For sending cheques:
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From: en.squat.net

Calais: CMS callout to come and crack buildings

Winter is coming, shelter is a priority in Calais. The police have evicted and destroyed almost our shelter – buildings, camps, tents – in the past weeks.

There are empty buildings all over Calais town. We need people to come and open and secure them! We need people with skills and energy to join and support our resistance to this border.

Calais Migrant Solidarity have squatted a social centre, as it gets colder, more and more people are trying to sleep in it. Whilst we try to keep it a safe space for vulnerable people and people working on the ground, it’s getting over filled.

If you have a few days, a week or a month come to Calais. We recommend to come with friends, your affinity group, or make contact with people on the ground and find out when others will be around. Tools and resources are available in the Calais Migrant Solidarity/No Border space. Legal information about French law in relation to opening buildings is also available.

Pfffffffff…… The police also broke into our store of blankets/sleeping bags and sprayed them with gas making them unusable. We need supplies, if you are able to arrange a drop off or start collecting tat contact us.

CALAIS MIGRANT SOLIDARITY
Email: calaisolidairty [at] gmail [dot] com Email UK: calaistraining [at] riseup [dot] net (we can arrange for people in London to meet you to discuss ideas and logistics for Calais)
Communications phone: 0033645465986 Blog for all Info: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
Source: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/10/513190.html

Calais: 65 Syrians blockade entrance to the port

 From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

65 Syrian refugees have been staging a blockade of the Calais ferry terminal for over ten hours now, demanding to speak to a representative of the UK Home Office.

The blockaders are taking direct action to have their voices heard. They are refusing to leave until their demands are met.  Some of them are hunger striking.

Families, including small children have set up a camp on the pedestrian bridge, in the entrance to the terminal. Friends of the group, including Calais Migrant Solidarity and other groups based in France have been joining their protest in solidarity.

The group have been subject to severe police harassment during their time in Calais. They have been constantly moved on from sleeping spaces, had their belongings destroyed and arrested many times.

In a town where the police act with considerable impunity on a daily basis, it is important that the blockaders receive solidarity from beyond Calais in publicising their demands.

The group ask for people across Europe to take action in support of their protest.

Letters of support, pictures of actions etc. would be welcomed, please send to calaisolidarity@gmail.com and they will be passed on to the group.

For up to date info on the situation or if you would like to come to Calais to support the group contact the CMS communications phone: 0033 645465986.

See also:

UK Press release: Calais: Syrian refugees stage blockade of ferry terminal

Campaign for Syrian refugees blockading the entrance of the port of Calais

Syrian refugees threaten to jump off roof of port’s departure lounge in protest

Calais: Beer house and other squats evicted this month so far + people needed in solidarity

So far the month of September has seen:

Eviction of the Beer House squat where around one to two-hundreed Africans and Syrians had been living for the last year.

Three immediate evictions of the big squats where those people had been seeking shelter in the nights following the eviction.

Complete destruction of the Sudanese jungle with around twenty arrests.

Police and city workers destroyed all the tents they could find, while taking the blankets and personal things to the to city dump. There they were mixed together with what rotting materials were left inside the Beer House. Everything would have been immediately destroyed if it weren’t for people going to the dump to take them back that day.Tents have been destroyed by the police in the Afghan jungle during their frequent morning raids. Police come every two days, check IDs, arrest people, around 8-11 people most of the time. They also kick in the tents, and one of them was cut down by PAF border police.

Some people who have fingerprints in another European country, mostly Italy, are transferred to the Coquelle immigration prison and some have been deported to Italy after these raids. The situation in Coquelle is getting much more worse, with a lot of racist behaviours from police.

The CRS riot police are controlling people a lot in the city, parks and also stations, but also in the streets near Salam at night, ID control and arrest the people they find in their way.

An illegal eviction of a new squat that would have been able to house everyone during the cold winter months based upon falsified testimonies.

We are now only halfway through the month and police have promised another planned closure/destruction of a large sleeping space for the next two weeks, most likely forcing another one-hundred people on to the streets.

This will be in addition to the spontaneous evictions that occur as people moved-on continue to try and find shelter in the city. As more people have to take to the street, police controls and harassment are increasing as well.

As the temperature drops again and the rains come there have also been a series of attacks by Police on the garage rented by Calais Migrant Solidarity, from where we distribute the blankets, tents, and clothes that we have. Today, eight Police Nationale appeared at the garage as CMS were distributing clothes and violently pushed those out-front away from the garage, smacking people across the face and kicking them from behind. This was before taking out their pepper spray and spraying everything inside, making the clothes and blankets inside impossible to use. This is the latest attack; however, last week the garage had already been peppered sprayed, and in the mean time the locks on the garage door have been forced and broken with people’s things going missing from inside.

People desperately need:

-Blankets
-Sleeping Bags
-Tents (make sure poles are included)
-Waterproof Clothes
-Shoes
-Socks
-money to buy food as they are living off of the one meal a day provided by SALAM

and most importantly people who are able to support them and defend their spaces!

Calais: Call out for active solidarity

From Squat.net:

Urgent Call out for Calais!

A big squat in Calais was emptied of its occupants Thursday.

Today they tried to occupy the old hospital that has been empty for some years:
They were expelled in this afternoon, and twenty people were arrested.

Many migrants are in the street and looking for a place to shelter.

Many evictions of living spaces are planned in the coming days.

The people of Calais are making a desperate appeal to activists reinforcements quickly.
The tension is high!

-Need people willing to open groups and/or hold squats.
-Need teams to monitor the police and collect the evidence.
-Need of tents and sleeping bags.

A legal No Border squat can accommodate activists, but it is usually a place which the project is to shelter women and vulnerable people.

The daily meeting place where you get someone who is sure to meet with a member of the network is the location of food distribution associations, after Moscow street. Between 18:00 and 19:30 throughout the week and the week-end between 12:30 and 14:00.

Another meeting place, but not regular: the soccer practice at the Citadel (Coubertin Avenue entrance facing the police station) on Saturday from 15:00 to 17:00 and and at the football game on Sunday from 15:00 to 17:00.

No Border

Calais: Illegal eviction of rue des Soupirants

From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

Everything was well prepared for this new attempt of legal squat.

A large building of l’OPH, abandoned, occupied for more than 24 hours. Evidence had been accumulated, with written and signed testimonies of visitors. The case was referred to a lawyer.

The people sought a bailiff to come and see the occupation.

But no bailiff was willing to come.

The police intervened in the afternoon, when our lawyer went to the prosecutor of Boulogne to demonstrate that the occupation was more than 48 hours and request a legal procedure.

Two people found in the house were taken to police headquarters. They left after about 5 hours, with just a “reminder of the law”.

For once an article in the local press questioned the legality of the expulsion. : Nouvelle évacuation de squat de migrants à Calais : a-t-elle été réalisée dans la légalité?

Calais: Communique from CMS on illegal eviction

From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

The former home of the association Le Toit, at 64 rue Auber, 62100 Calais was evacuated 29 August at 14:30 by Police Nationale and Police Aux Frontières. However the people who lived there since Sunday, August 25 at 23h (and over 48 hours) were there legally and had established their principal residence. A letter received to the home with postmarked dated Monday shows they fulfilled the legal obligations.

In addition, the names of the inhabitants were posted at the entrance, and a clear notice on the exterior with the article of law, Penal Code 432-8 modified by Order No. 2000-916 of 19 September 2000 – art. 3 (V) Official Gazette of September 2000 in force 1 January 2002 22: “The fact of a person holding public authority or discharging a mission public service, acting in the course of or in connection with the exercise of its functions or mission, to break or attempt to break into the home others against the wishes of it except as provided by law is punishable by two years imprisonment and a fine of € 30,000.”

In addition, eyewitnesses can confirm that people occupied this property for more than 48 hours.

Despite this, the police did not hesitate to break the law again in carrying out the evacuation of the home and the arrest of its inhabitants placed in custody for 21h. Custody abuse where nothing was communicated to people concerned. This evacuation is illegal, and by order of Mr. Mignonet, deputy managing the environment and transport for the mayor of Calais, based on an inaccurate statement by the town hall : the inhabitants have entered the house only Wednesday and therefore could not justify an occupancy of more than 48 hours. This is despite the clear evidence of their presence since Sunday 23h .

Why have the authorities deliberately circumvented the law by ignoring the evidence? Why engage in a breaking into a home followed by an illegal evictions under patterns that are openly lying? Would it be to bypass the mandatory transition to a decision by the district court as provided by law?

Occupants with their lawyer have the right to file a complaint against the illegal actions of the mayor, but also against Mr. Mignonet and about false information he held in newspapers, on the day of the move people inside the house. This is not the first time that the town hall and its accomplices violate the law and we should not allow them to act with impunity.

Remember also that the advocate has recently released a critical report regarding compliance with laws in Calais by the different institutions, and that continues to monitor the situation very carefully.

Calais migrant solidarity

Calais: Squat illegally evicted by PAF

From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

On Wednesday morning banners were dropped from a disused building belonging to the State on Rue de Quatre Coins reading ‘A Roof is a Right’ and ‘This is a legal squat’. The building had been occupied for many days beforehand, although clandestinely, and being safely past the 48 hour point, after which the police cannot enter or evict without a court order by French law, the occupants decided to make their occupation public. Police Nationale arrived shortly after but then left again to return with more police, but did not try to enter seemingly understanding their legal position and respecting the rights of those inside. A representative from the town hall also showed up, as well as a police forensics technician, who both took pictures of the door (and the legal notice that had been taped to it) but did not find anything to have been damaged and left again.

However, the next day at 7:30 AM around thirty PAF arrived and forced entry into the building by breaking the front door and climbing in an upper story window. Three people who were inside were arrested and taken to Coquelle, where they were held without food for ten hours, but then released without any charge or summons despite refusing to cooperate with police or identify themselves.

Police apparently also returned on Friday morning and went inside again as a banner reading ‘Ceci Reste un Squat Legal’ had been hung during the night.

*The door after police had broken it in with the legal notice still there; an indication of how much the PAF respect the law.

This occupation was intended to secure the building and force a legal procedure, so that it could later be opened up as a secure social center and sleeping place for people free from police raids and ID controls.

This occupation came just days after the Mayor of Calais was received by the French Minister of the Interior to explain the situation with migrants in the city and to plead with him for more police in Calais and to designate the city a ‘zones de sécurité prioritaire’. In their meeting she directly discussed the case of Rue Caillette and lamented her inability to get her papers in order before going to court, resulting in the court being unable to receive the complaint. But rather than understand that it is the city’s own incompetency which was responsible for this outcome, she blamed the law which is protecting the inhabitants of the squats that she considers a blight on the city’s image. She then cynically referred to the terrible living conditions inside the squats as further reason to evict them immediately, but without mentioning the complete lack of support or accommodation that the city provides which may allow people to live in more dignified conditions.

In any case, what is apparent after this eviction is that the city does not want any more legal squats, and is happier to continue breaking the law and keeping people on the street than see them exist in self-organized and autonomous spaces. For too long now though squats in Calais have been raided and evicted with impunity. This eviction presents a good opportunity to make a formal complaint and take the police and city to court for the actions.

Calais: Squat on Victor Hugo served papers by bailiffs

From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

Occupied now for a month and a half, the squat on Boulevard Victor Hugo was visited by the city bailiff and a vanload of CRS yesterday so that they could take the name on the house and begin legal proceedings.

One week after the beginning of the occupation, the Assistant Mayor Phillippe Mignonet showed up with police and used obvious demagogy to try and convince us of our illegitimacy, but without actually being able to do anything. The politician (who holds extremely right wing views and celebrates repression against migrants in general) told us, “I will make your life hell. It’s not a threat, it’s a promise!”

Although this may be his intention, he is in fact completely impotent in the face of our occupation. This was acknowledged by the article in the Nord Littoral newspaper entitled ‘Un groupe de No Borders indélogeable’, which stated that despite the passage of the police and the municipality it’s impossible to dislodge the squatters after 48 hours of occupation without going through a legal process.

This is the second ‘legal’ squat in Calais after Rue Caillette that the police cannot enter or evict imminently, which gives people here a bit more stability.

At the moment the space has started to flourish and many actions gravitate around it. Many neighbors have shown their support and are happy about our presence, while during the day, curious people from the street stop by and talk with us.

So far this space has been used as a work space for the kitchen and a safe space for vulnerable people in Calais, and we are looking forward to seeing how it will continue to evolve in the future.

Calais: Global No Border squat on Rue Caillette safe for now

From Calais Migrant Solidarity:

Today the court in Calais declared the municipality’s request for the eviction of the squat on Rue Caillette “unreceivable” for procedural reasons. This means that the city will have to resubmit and argue their case all over again before being able to evict, giving those living there more valuable time before being forced back onto Calais’ streets.

The ineptitude of the municipality in how they handled this case has been surprising although very welcome. Apparently, when forced to respect the law and abide by procedure the city does not know what to do, having gotten so accustomed to breaking down doors and throwing people out over the years (old habits die hard).

It has been amazing to watch the evolution of this squat over time as people from many different parts of the world have made it their home together and organized autonomously within it, proving once again what is possible if people have just a bit of security and control in their living space.

In the meantime another property on Boulevard Victor Hugo has been occupied and legal procedure forced, although is not yet in process. For the past weeks this building has been used by a mobile kitchen to cook food which is being distributed at the squats and jungles at night for those observing Ramadan and to help alleviate the general hunger that comes from living off of just one meal a day at Salam. Longterm, this space is intended to be used as a safe house for particularly vulnerable people such as women, children, and those who are ill or in an especially difficult situation. Despite the Adjoint Mayor Phillippe Mignonet’s statement that he will make life hell for us here (something which he added was not a threat but a promise for as much as a politician’s promises are worth) the space has been receiving much support from the neighbors and will hopefully continue to function as well as Rue Caillette in the future.