On Wednesday 1 July, after a pause of one month, the state evicted several living places of people on the move in Calais near the hospital center.
The next day, Thursday 2 July, around 10 vans of police – along with officials from the prefecture and outsourced “cleaning” and demolition companies (Delbende) – returned. Whilst two excavators were destroying one of the living site, some people surrounded and climbed onto one of them to try to stop it / slow it down.
Despite attempts to block it, the driver of the excavators tried to continue its job, trying to make the people on the roof fall down, to hit them with the mecanic arm, and to roll over the people doing the sit-in. Although a cover was placed over the windshield in an attempt to stop it, it continued to drive without any visibility.
Quickly, dozens of people, including people on the move and people in solidarity, gathered around the excavator. Several things were thrown by the crowd, one rock smashed through the window of the excavator. Then the 2 excavators retreat towards the large group of police.
A short time later, 9 people were arrested on a roundabout near the camp. A spontaneous protest of around 50 people arrived in solidarity, and the cops arrested 2 of the protestors.
The 11 people spent the day in custody, accused of vandalism, but at the end of the day everyone got released without charges, all remaining silent and for many without giving any fingerprints and having no documents with them. It seems that none of the people arrested where on the move.
Fire to deportation centers, to every borders, and bricks to the excavators!
Update: Friday 3 July, the cops and the excavators didn’t come back to evict the camp.
[Calais Migrant Solidarity, July 3rd, 2026.]
