Calais, France: The Battle of Coulogne

By: dolph-l - February 19th, 2014  Filed under: News

Translation of article from fr.squat.net:

The spark launched by the Mayor of Calais with his call to denounce squats on facebook last October by the Save Calais page, and the handshake of two assistants to the mayor of Calais over their anti-migrant protesters in November, shows that this attack is invited to Coulogne.

Activists of Save Calais rallied in front of a recently opened Coulogne squat, a previously empty house. A banner  presenting themselves as residents, with ‘alarm bells’ sounding to the real residents – in an attempt to sow the seed of fear of an invasion of migrants. [Read More]

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Calais: Police evicts a Syrian squat. Another migrant killed, protests at the port

By: fawda - February 6th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

Police close and destroy Syrian squat – Since the big eviction wave in autumn 2013, most migrants in Calais are forced to sleep outside in tents. But weather and temperature are horrible at the moment. Wind and rain makes it very difficult or impossible to live like this.

On Sunday the police closed and destroyed one of last squats in Calais. Just five persons have found shelter in this house, which had been empty since months.
The Cops arrived in the afternoon, when some of the inhabitants were at home. Without any warning the Cops broke their door and entered the building. The persons living there explained to the police that they are sick and can not live outside. But they did not care about that fact. They forced the people to leave their home. The were not able to take all their personal belongings with them. [Read More]

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Calais: Report on the illegal expulsion of the squat in rue Saint-Omer, the petty maneouvres of the State

By: fawda - February 5th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
2014-01-10_Calais_eviction_221_route_de_Saint_Omer

Today February 5, 2014 there was scheduled for trial an injunction against the French State and the OPH due to the illegal eviction of the squat at 221 Rue de Saint-Omer. Originally scheduled on January 22nd, the trial was postponed until February 5th. ‘Coincidentally’, the prefect waited until the day before to instruct the trial lawyers to represent him, these latter requested an adjournment, granted despite the precarious situation of those evicted from Rue de Saint-Omer .

In contrast to the OPH, the representative of the State, the prefect in this case , had not sent any documents to the other party, the evicted, until the date of trial. It is therefore only today that the court of Boulogne-sur-Mer informed the applicants and their lawyer of the conclusions presented by counsel for the State. [Read More]

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France: Squatters turn the table on Calais’ authorities – Court case on 22nd of January

By: fawda - January 15th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
House evicted illegaly, 221 route de Saint-Omer, Calais

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.
[Read More]

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Calais: A new house occupied – illegal eviction after 5 days

By: fawda - January 12th, 2014  Filed under: News
Calais eviction squatted house on 221 Route de Saint Omer

On Monday the 6th of January 2014 a house in 221 Route de Saint Omer, Calais was squatted, which was left empty for more than 1 year.

5 days later, the house got evicted and all legal procedures have been ignored by the authorities. On Thursday, the cops and representatives of the owner, OPH (Office Public de l’Habitat) came to the house. The mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchard, actually ‘president d’honneur’ of the OPH, is for sure not amused about people claiming their need of a safe shelter.

On friday about 30 cops, together with the workers from OPH, arrived at the house. [Read More]

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Calais (France): The Eritrean Squat has been evicted

By: fawda - October 22nd, 2013  Filed under: News
Evicted squat, Rue Neuve, in Calais

The Eritrean squat in rue Neuve has been evicted, 70 + people newly in the street. Tents, sleeping bags, blankets are very much needed. Most of all we need activists to go to Calais and support!

Following lots of arrivals to Italy via Lampedusa there are now well over 100 Eritreans present in Calais. They are escaping a brutal dictatorship and a long war with Ethiopia. There are a record number of women from Eritrea and Ethiopia in Calais, most are in the safe space opened by No Borders. The ‘jungles’ where Eritreans and Ethiopians wait to go to England are full over the limit. Following the tragedy a shipwrecks south of Lampedusa, causing the death of over 350 people, mainly Eritreans, there have been protests in Italy and in many European cities.

After the Syrians went on hunger strike and occupied the pedestrian entrance to the ferry port, the camp of the Syrians in front of the place of food distribution was not disturbed by police for a while. About 50 people sleep there, including some minors. Today however a large number of police went around the place of food distribution. The Syrians in this camp are asking for support. [Read More]

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Calais (France): Summer of evictions reaps devastation

By: fawda - October 21st, 2013  Filed under: News
Calais_Beer_house_eviction

As we come towards the end of the summer no borders are counting there losses, every shelter has been raided, trashed, evicted on multiple occasions, leaving many of the migrants on the streets without tents or sleeping bags. Added to this, the rain and the cold are sapping any remaining energy, and many are sick.

The project no borders have been most involved with, that had become a shelter for the most venerable woman, children, elderly and injured people in small house called Victor Hugo or often by the migrants the woman’s house. This project has gone through many changes from being a social centre on the first floor enabling many migrants to cook their own meals to kitchen for activist groups round Europe.

Unfortunately with the massive pressure put on the space by the police evictions, the rules decided by the women of the house aren’t being respected, as there are many men coming with no other place to go leading to a desperate situation. [Read More]

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Calais: CMS callout to come and crack buildings

By: dolph-l - October 15th, 2013  Filed under: News
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.

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

By: dolph-l - September 21st, 2013  Filed under: News

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. [Read More]

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Calais (France): Call out for active solidarity

By: xxx - September 7th, 2013  Filed under: News

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! [Read More]

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Eviction of new “Legal” Squat in Calais.

By: midnight - July 27th, 2013  Filed under: News

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.

[Read More]

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Calais (France): Squat on Victor Hugo served papers

By: midnight - July 27th, 2013  Filed under: News

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. [Read More]

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