On the night of 17th-18th October red paint was thrown onto the back wall of Dutch Immigration Minister Gerd Leers’ house. The action was carried out by a group called ‘No Blood On My Hands’ who said in a press release that they were protesting aganst Dutch immigration policy. See photos and the press release (in Dutch) here.
“Right To Exist” group announce four days of protest in The Hague
The group “Right To Exist” (“Recht Op Bestaan”), who have had a protest camp in The Hague since 19/09/12, have announced four days of action. On Wednesday there will be a demo at the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs. on Thursday a demo at the CDA head office, on Friday an infostand on Spuiplein and on Saturday there will be a march under the banner “No one is illegal”.
Growing demands for tentcamp protesters in Amsterdam to be housed
The clamour to house Somalians, Sudanese, Ethiopians and other so-called “failed”asylum seekers currently camping in the Nieuw-West district of Amsterdam, is growing ever louder, reports Het Parool.
Around 800 people have signed an online petition calling on mayor Eberhard van der Laan and Nieuw-West council leader Achmed Baâdoud to take action.
Tomorrow the camp enters its third week and every day it gets colder and wetter. There is enough money to buy a generator to provide heat but the fire bridage are refusing permission for this.
A mayoral spokesperson Bartho Boer told Het Parool: ‘Experts from the GGD [local health authority] believe that people can still stay in the tentcamp. The campers have camp beds and sleeping bags available to them and they are not seriously sick”.
Another Roma camp evicted in France
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.
Updates from migrant protest camps in Amsterdam and The Hague
The migrant protest camps at the Koekamp in The Hague and Osdorp/Nieuw West in Amsterdam continue. Both are receving support from local residents and organisations.
Today (Tuesday 8th October) the IND delivered a letter to the Koekamp saying that only those migrants that agree to return to their home countries will be accommodated. The migrants have said that they cannot go back and they have vowed to stay on.
Amsterdam’s mayor Van der Laan has said that the camp can stay for the time being. A survey last week in Amsterdam daily Het Parool showed that a majority of the city’s residents want the city council to support the migrants who are camping.
Protest in Calais 13/10/12
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.
Vigilante attack on Roma camp in Marsailles, 27/09/12
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.
Fall in number of asylum seekers in the Netherlands
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.
”Camp against the cold” moves to north-west Amsterdam
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).
Evictions and protests in Calais
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.