At 9.30am this morning (02/05/12) around 70 sans-papiers occupied a UMP office in Lille, reports La Voix du Nord . They were protesting against “the stigmatisation of sans-papiers and immigration in the discourse of Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign”, and demanded “the regularisation of the sans-papiers who were arrested during the previous occupation of the UMP offices in Lille”. Following negotiations with the police, the occupiers left the offices at 11am, and marched towards the city centre. There were no arrests.

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.

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.

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

On Friday 30th March 2012, the Comité des Sans-Papiers 59 occupied the UMP offices in Lille. The occupation lasted a few hours before police arrested 7 sans-papiers, releasing one later in the evening but taking the others to Lesquin where they risk being deported.

During the night of 13th/14th February, around 140  Roma including young children who were squatting in an abandoned factory were awoken by a fire in a suspected arson attack which destroyed their entire squat.  Happily there were no injuries or fatalities. The Roma have been placed in emergency accommodation in a gym by the mairie de Vaulx en Velin.

On 4th December 2004 a young Malian man, Abou Bakari Tandia, who had been in France for 13 years but was sans papiers, fell into a coma whilst in police custody. Six weeks later, on 24th January 2005, Abou died.

Since Abou’s death there has been a campaign for police to be brought to justice . This Saturday, 11th February, there will be a demo in Paris to maintain pressure on the authorities to take action. The demo is supported by Amnesty International.

For the last few days, as temperatures have stayed below freezing for the entire day, the authorities in Pas-de-Calais have activated “grand plan froid”, offering night shelter to all those (including sans papiers) on the streets

In Norrent-Fontes, the authorities used the temporary absence of the migrants yesterday morning to destroy the migrants camp.

On Saturday 14th January around 100 demonstrators were arrested outside Vincennes CRA (detention centre) to the east of Paris.

Sophie Dianoko, 30 years old, has worked as an auxillary nurse for the last three years at CHU university hospital in Toulouse.  She has lived in France since 2000 and has not been in Mali, her country of birth,  since the age of 13, when she left for Russia with her father who was an ambassador there. She has been given an order to leave France (OQFT) on 19/12/11 because her French husband, who has been both violent and unfaithful in their marriage, has refused to meet with the prefecture to prove that they live together. They need to be married for four years before Sophie can claim French nationality, but they have been married less than two.

In mid October, friends and colleagues of Sophie formed a collective called “Urgence Pour Sophie” to support her fight to stay in France.