5 Afghans were arrested on Tuesday 23rd April in a car park in the Transmarck zone of Calais, charged with aiding ‘clandestins’ and violence against a minor.

The 5, some of whom are under 18, appeared before a judge after their arrest and will be held in custody until 31st May, when their trial will begin.

The police say that they have conducted a 2 month investigation into the 5 and that they charge €700 for passage to the UK. According to the police, the men beat up a migrant in order to take money from him, and also beat up a French minor who was watching them.

A 26 year old Algerian has been sentenced to two years imprisonment 4 men escaped from Palaiseau CRA on 16/12/12. He has been charged with attempting to escape and assaulting police officers. He has also been ordered to pay €1200 to the police in damages.

Yesterday Sunday 13th January the 37 sanspapiers on hunger strike in Lille since 02/11/12 decided to suspend their strike following promises from the préfecture to look at their cases.

The hunger strikers have been sheltering in the courtyard of Saint-Maurice church after they were evicted from inside the building.

Last Wednesday the préfecture met with a delegation from the hunger strikers. In a press release sent out on Thursday, the préfecture stated that it would look at the asylum cases of the hunger strikers and will try to process the most urgent cases within 14 days.

On Saturday there were numerous demonstrations across France in support of the hunger strikers.

4 sans-papiers who were detained at Paiaiseau CRA (detention centre), south west of Paris, escaped last night (16/12/12), reports Le Point.

According to sources, around 7pm on Sunday an officer was called by a detainee to the common room to sort out the TV reception. When he arrived, he was surrounded and knocked to the floor by 5 detainees. They took his magnetic badge which is used to access different parts of the CRA. While the officer was held down by one detainee, the 4 others went to the delivery area of the centre, climbed the fence and escaped.

The detainee who had helped the escape of the four has been placed into custody. Police and the gendarmarie are still searching for the four escapees  – an Algerian, a Romanian and 2 Tunisians.

The CRA of Palaiseau is a male-only centre with a  capacity of 40 places. In 2011 750 foreigners in ‘irregular situations’ were detained there, mostly Romanians, Tunisiens and Moroccans. It was renovated in 2011 and is surrounded by a 4.5m high fence with movement detectors and surveillance cameras.

7 sans-papiers  – 5 men and 2 women – are currently on hunger strike in Calais. 2 of them are vomiting repeatedly but have refused to hospital. They are being supported by Comite de Sans Papiers (CSP) 59.

On Saturday 10 November passengers on a Tunisair flight from Lyon to Tunis witnessed a deportee being assualted by two guards. After 15 minutes, following vociferous protests from the passengers, the would-be-deportee was taken off the flight.

On Monday 15th October a Roma camp of about 200 residents in Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris was evicted by police.

The prefecture told Le Parisien that the eviction was ‘a judge’s decision’ about private land and that the eviction ‘went well’. At the end of September EERC, a European NGO, demanded that the French government suspend its programme of eviction for Romanian Roma camps.

According to a report in Liberation, the evictees have still not been housed by the local council. Mothers with infants have been put up in the home of an activist, and others are camping in the garden of another activist, in tents provided by Medicins du Monde.

This Saturday at 10am there will be a protest in Calais. This is a protest against police harassment of migrants, to support the intercultural Zetkin space which the town hall recently forced to close. and to support La Belle Etoile, a local migrant-supporting association which the town hall is also threatening. The protest is being supported by a number of different local organisations.

In the last 24 hours, police have closed two migrant squats and destroyed a camp. They have said that anyone returning to try to collect their belongings faces 6 months imprisonment.

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.