Monthly Archives: April 2012

Passengers prevent deportation of student to the DRC

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A 19 year old student from Poitiers who due to be deported to Kinshasa on 21/04/12 had his deportation halted after fellow passengers protested.
 
An activist from RESF  told La Nouvelle Republique that six people went to Roissy airport before the flight to leaflet the passengers about Kevin’s deportation. Having boarded the flight, several passengers refused to sit down, whilst Kevin, at the back of the plane, shouted and protested. Police were called and Kevin was taken off the flight, and one of the protesting passengers was arrested for rebellion.
 
 

Flemish far-right party calls for people to report ‘illegal immigrants’

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Le Monde reports that yesterday, 10th April 2012, the Flemish seperatist far-right party Vlaams Belang published a website calling on people to inform the authorities about the ‘tens of thousands’ of undocumented people who they say are working on the black market, are involved in criminality and who fradulently claim state benefits.

The Director of the Centre pour l’égalité des chances et de lutte contre le racisme, Jozef De Witte, reacted strongly to this move on Radio 1, saying that this campaign is similar to those led by the Nazis and the Stasi. The European Commission also condemned the website, saying that such initiatives “do not correspond to the values which we defend“.

Day four of hunger strike for detainee in Coquelles

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On 4th April a person from Iran began a hunger strike, refusing any food, in Coquelles detention centre, Calais. He is facing deportation to Hungary – a country he has never been to – under the Dublin II regulation, and is refusing to eat until his release or death.

Officers in Coquelles deny that the hunger strike is a political act and have labelled him crazy. They have also refused
visitors to see him together with his English-speaking friend.

He has been in detention for 22 days and under French law can be held for up to 45 days without charge.

For more info see Calais Migrant Solidarity website.

March in support of the VUB hunger strikers, Brussels, 11/04/12

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On Wednesday 11th April at 4pm there will be a march to the office of Prime Minister Di Rupo’s Socialist Party in  Brussels  in solidarity with 23 sans-papiers from Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Côte-d’Ivoire who have been on hunger strike for 85 days. 

The hunger strikers, who are staying at VUB (Vrije Universiteit van Brussel), are in very poor health, very weak and unable to fight off infection, but they are determined to continue their action until they get papers to live and work in Belgium.

The demonstrators are calling on Di Rupo to discuss the situation urgently in government and give the hunger strikers at work and residence papers for a minimum 12 months. They are also calling for people to write and e-mail the Prime Minister and deputy ministers to demand that they take action.

Hunger strikes in Merkplas and Vottem migrant prisons

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Getting the Voice Out reports that on 4th April a hunger strike begun in a wing of Merkplas migrant prison. Within hours the poiice had transferred the hunger strikers to other migrant prisons or had put them in segregation,

Meanwhile a Kurdish male had been on hunger strike for the past week in Vottem migrant prison. CRACPE (Collectif de Résistance Aux Centres Pour Etrangers) and a Kurdish community group have called for a demo outside the centre at 4pm tomorrow, 07/04/12, to show solidarity.

Roma camp evicted in Essonne, 05/04/12

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A Roma camp in Massy, in the department of Essonne south of Paris, was evicted by police at 6am yesterday ( Thursday 5th April), Liberation reports.

A number of the inhabitants had already left in the previous week, following a fire on 26th March which partially destroyed the camp. The cause of the fire remains unknown.

According to ASEFRR (Association de Solidarité en Essonne aux Familles Roms et Roumaines), 147 adults and 53 children lived on the site.