On Thursday 27th September, around 7.30pm, about 50 local residents in Créneaux in Marsailles forcibly evicted a Roma camp which had been set up nearby 4 days earlier. After the Roma had left, the vigilante group torched the camp.
nu.nl reports that in the first half of 2012 there 4600 asylum seekers came to the Netherlands. This is 1100 fewer than in the same period last year.
Meanwhile the number of people ‘voluntarily returning’ to their country has increased from 2050 in the first six months of 2011 to 2450 from January to July 2012.
Migrants from a number of countries have relocated the protest camp, “Camp against the cold”, from the centre of Amsterdam to a park in the north-west of the city.
According to today’s edtion of Het Parool (28/09/12) there are currently 20 migrants at the camp, including a woman who is 4 montbs pregnant. More people are expected tomorrow.
The camp is organised by “Refugees on the Street” (Vluchtelingen op Straat). You can see pictures of the camp, and read backround information, here (website in English and Dutch).
Yesterday morning 25/09/12 the food distribution point in Calais was closed by the local authorities. Last night at 6pm 100 migrants, associations and supporters gathered outside to protest.
Several squats where migrants have been living have also been evicted in the last 24 hours.
Since 19/09/12 a group of migrants have been camping in the centre of The Hague, demanding that the government gives them the right to stay in the Netherlands. The camp has coincided with the opening of the parliament for 2012-13.
Tomorrow 22/09/12 there will be a march in the city under the slogan “Geen mens is illegaal” “(“No one is illegal”).
On Sunday 16th September 16th there will be a noise protest at Rotterdam/The Hague Airport detention centre in solidarity with the 608 migrants imprisoned there. the refugees who are imprisoned simply because they don’t have the right papers.
The protest is being called by AFA Den Haag (Anti Fascist Action The Hague).
Yesterday activists protested at Zaventum airport near Brussels against the deportation of Fouad, a member of the Collectif Sans Papiers à Bruxelles. Thanks to this and Fouad’s resistance, the deportation attempt was unsucessful. Fouad remains in detention however.
On 1st September there was a fire at Canet CRA (detention centre) in Marsailles.Tension had been high for a few days with detainees complaining about the food and several detainees resisting deportation. Around 9pm, mattresses were set on fire on the first floor and the CCTV cameras blew up. Detainees from other floors started to join in but the protest was quickly quashed by the police.
On 4th September. one of the detainees who was identified as being involved in the distrubance was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment and given a €1600 fine. Another detainee who was put in segregation after the fire and who has since been released has signs of being beaten on his body.
There will be a solidarity demonstration outside the CRA today (8th September) at 6pm.
Today Thursday 6th September about 40 ‘failed’ asylum seekers from Iraq and Iran marched from an authorised protest camp in Sellingen, in the east of the Netherlands, to the offices of the IND (Immigration and Nationality Directorate) in Ter Apel. The protesters say that they cannot be returned to their countries of origin and they are demanding that the government help them.
Meanwhile another protest camp of ‘failed’ asylum seekers has been set up in the grounds of a church in central Amsterdam.