Dr. Rhetta Moran
Yes this morning around about 30 people have been forced to leave their homes in the Cali jungle following extensive police in "persuasion in some instances lasting over an hour while and then sat on top of the houses refusing to move and eventually having been subjected to that level of psychological persuasion eventually moved off the large number of volunteers and a large number of local residents of the camps around in the areas where the police are mounted on guarding different areas to stop solidarity moving around the houses that are being demolished. According to the eviction notice they are not allowed to dismantle any habitation where somebody is inside it but what they are doing in practiceis telling people that they must leave in ways that appear from the outside to be intimidator E. They are surrounded by by rightly sinful riot gear with teargas Shields and baton is telling the people that they must leave the houses. There are a large number of volunteers and other residents of the camp with cameras and phones monitoring the situation Channel 4 News are now on their way and the The MEP Julie Ward is seeking to come to the camp en route to the UK.
Dr. Rhetta Moran
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The hearing has completed. Court sat for around 1hr 45 minutes.
The judge did not rule. We do not have a confirmed time for the verdict but it is believed likely to be tomorrow. Defence confirmed they only have 1156 alternative accommodation places currently available in Calais and throughout France. (details below) The Associations census data shows need to accommodate 3455 people from Southern section of camp imminently- and a further 2042 in the Northern section which Prefecture have stated they will clear next. Judge greatly concerned about differing numbers. Said the Prefecture figures were ‘a big problem’. Demanded an explanation for how numbers arrived at. Prefecture admitted flaws in their methods for assessing numbers, particularly of children, currently in camp. But said they believed entire camp (north and south) to be around 3000 people. Associations explained census methodology including a tally with water consumption and waste production on site as well as food distribution numbers. Defence failed to refute the claim that the CAO’s (Centres of Accommodation) would only be available until 31st March. Defence stated essential services will not be destroyed. We understand these to include the church, the school, the women and children’s centre, the youth centre and the library. The lawyer for the associations, Julie Bonnier, called for the French authorities to stop the traumatisation of vulnerable people by bulldozing their homes in midst of winter. She also reminded the Judge not to commit the same humanitarian mistake that was made with Sangatte where it was razed, only to leave smaller slums and squats in its place. Julie Bonnier also reminded the judge that in 2015 the refugees were invited to occupy this space and assured there was no chance of expulsion. And Bonnier reminded the court that if Centres of Accommodation only available until 31st March, people will simply return to Calais – she asked for a consistency in the services and solutions on offer. Accommodation places available include: 300 in Jules Ferry and the shipping containers – with 48 places within containers for children (adult supervision to be provided). 56 places in specialised accommodation in Calais and surrounds for children 200 places in ‘heated tents’ for children in Calais camp 200 places in ‘heated tents’ for adults 400 places in centres of accommodation around France A note from the Associations (not raised in court) – 400 of the 480 places in the ‘heated tents’ are currently uninhabitable. They are flooded, not heated, prone to collapsing in heavy winds (causing one man to have his leg broken) and have no facilities or services for vulnerable children. We await the verdict with interest. - See more at: http://www.helprefugees.org.uk/2016/02/23/calais-updates-updates-throughout-the-day-on-the-calais-camp-court-case/#sthash.1kXChLzP.dpuf Calais NGOs take legal action to stop the bulldozing of the Calais Jungle
Friday, 19 February, 2016 with images The NGOs and Associations working in the Calais Jungle have taken legal action alongside the refugees living there to stop the evictions and bulldozing of the southern half of the camp. The hearing will take place at the court in Lille on Tuesday 23 February ay 2pm. The action does not support the ‘Jungle’ as being a good solution; rather it states that viable alternatives should be on offer if the refuges are going to be evicted. The NGOs do not believe that either the container camp or the respite centres (CAOs) are suitable or adequate. Detail The NGOs have applied for and interim suspension order to stop the Calais prefecture issuing an eviction order on the southern half of the camp. This approach was taken because of fears that a 48 hour eviction notice would be issued on Friday night, when the courts would be shut for following 48 hours, so there would be no possibility of a legal challenge. The lawyer taking the case on behalf of the NGOs and the refugees is Julie Bonnier who has extensive experience of working on evictions in Roma slums. The bases of the claim are that: 1) When the current camp was set up in March 2015, this was done following eviction orders on various small camps around the Calais area. At that time the then Calais prefecture promised the refugees that if they moved to this land they would be able to stay there with no threat of eviction. 2) When discussing the current proposed eviction the prefecture said there are approximately 800 to 1,000 people in the southern part of the Jungle. However based on a population survey carried out by L’Auberge (a French charity working in the Jungle) the figure is actually over 3400. The census was done very rigorously and corroborated by other figures (distributed food, water consumed etc). This means that the French authorities suggestion of accommodating displaced people in the container camp and winter respite centres will be highly inadequate. 3) There have been various problems with the containers and respite centres which have been proposed by the French Authorities as alternative accommodation. 4) The claim also testimonials from thirty volunteers and NGOs that act on the camp (library, school, health center etc) that explain what they do and what facilities will be lost if the camp is destroyed. The NGOs acting in the claim alongside the refugees are: Care4Calais / L’Auberge des Migrants / Help Refugees / utopia 56 / Secours Catholique / Emmaus / Appel de Calais / Réveil voyageur --------------------------------------- Separately, in an open letter to Bernard Cazeneuve, the French Minister of the Interior, eight French charities including Emmaus, Medicines Du Monde and Secours Catholique, have condemned the decision by the French Authorities to bulldoze the southern half of the refugee camp in Calais known as the ‘Jungle’. The letter acknowledges that this action by the Authorities will probably also include the destruction of the other half of the camp over the coming weeks. The charities point out that no viable alternative accommodation options have been offered for the refugees to move to, so they will effectively be rendered homeless. It is also points out that, when the current camp was established in March 2015, the refugees moving there from various small camps around the area were promised that, if they settled there, they would not be evicted. This promise is now being broken less than a year after it was made. The letter notes that the 1500 places in the new container camp are severely insufficient for current numbers in the camp, and the container camp also lacks basic privacy and provides for little quality of life, being nothing more than a dormitory. Although the government has suggested making extra space available in the winter respite centres (CAOs), the French charities note that these have to date been poorly implemented with no attention to health or social concerns, and there has been poor provision of information resulting in refugees returning from the centres to Calais. The charities recommend a renegotiation of the way that the UK and France jointly manage the reception of refugees, in particular with regard to vulnerable persons. The letter ends by saying that the demolition of the Jungle will only lead to further abuses of human rights and ask that, due to the lack of viable alternatives, the eviction is postponed. Founder of UK charity Care4Calais, Clare Moseley, commented: “The evictions make no sense. Refugees will not stop coming to Calais – their living conditions will just be so much more inhumane. In the last six months UK citizens have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds and hundreds of thousands of man-hours building shelters, schools and community centers, setting up medical facilities, community welfare and art services. If the eviction goes ahead all this will be destroyed and this incredible investment will wasted.” For more information please contact Clare Moseley, Care4Calais, on +44 (0) 7968 399159, or email [email protected] Care4Calais is a UK charity set up to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees in Calais and Dunkirk. www.care4calais.org Hush - a - bye, baby, don’t you cry!
“I want to ask the UK and USA governments: what do human's rights really mean? what do women's rights mean?!!!” Fatima goes on to explain: “I did not have a chance pursue my ambition to go to university, but you, Mr Cameron and Mr Obama, I know you are educated. I want to know: does human rights just mean sending soldiers to Afghanistan? Why doesn’t human rights mean helping Afghan refugees when they are out of Aghanistan?! “ “When refugee children in the Calais jungle grow up, they will remember the meaning of Human's Rights in the cold winter of 2016: instead of sleeping in a warm bed after a long journey they have to be woken up all night until morning because they are trying to cross to the UK. They have to smell tear gas instead of smelling the smell of tooth paste before going to bed. And instead of hearing lullabies they hear their parents crying in a dark tent on a cold winter’s night.” Labour MEP Julie Ward, one of the original signatories to the Pledge (launched in Calais on 13th December 2015 (https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/show-solidarity-with-refugees-uk-calais-and-europe), member of FEMM, the European Parliament’s Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and co-founder of the Children's European Parliament Inter Group on Children’s Rights (the equivalent of a Select Committee) reacted to Fatemah’s words: “I don't know how David Cameron sleeps at night.” A RAPAR spokesperson adds: “In January 2016 alone, the International Office of Migration described upwards of 60 children dying as they crossed into Europe from Turkey. The children in the Calais camp are among the survivors – so far. Every day that passes where these refugee people are denied their right to claim asylum where they want to be, deepens the mockery of the claim that Britain safeguards children, at home or abroad.” ENDS Background (http://www.rapar.org.uk/calais.html) For RAPAR’s previous press releases about Calais https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/show-solidarity-with-refugees-uk-calais-and-europe) For Pledge launched on 13th December 2015 (http://www.juliewardmep.eu/julie_ward_visits_refugees_at_the_camp_in_calais) For Julie Ward’s posts on Calais For more information contact: Dr Rhetta Moran, RAPAR, 07776264646/ [email protected] Press release: Rubber bullets fired on people in Calais
Last Thursday, the day after Holocaust Memorial Day, one of the Prime Minister’s “bunch of migrants” in Calais, Mohamed, an Afghan father of a toddler girl, sent RAPAR photographs (attached) of rubber bullet wounds that he described as sustained by Calais Refugee Camp residents, AKA “the bunch”. Mohamed had already signed the Stand Up To Racism Pledge, for the Refugee Voice of the camp, http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/2015/12/843/, alongside Julie Ward Labour MEP for the NW England, Ali from the European Lampadusa Network and Islington Councillor Micheline, https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/show-solidarity-with-refugees-uk-calais-and-europe. Then, the Greek Migration Minister, Yiannis Mouzalas reminded us all (20.41 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06z8fm6/newsnight-26012016) “400,000 prisoners in camps, period of Nazism... no other period in all of history…the refugees are not prisoners, they have rights.” On Sunday, RAPAR received more photographs (attached), this time of a rubber bullet case picked up by Mohamed near the motorway bridge entrance to the Camp between 2-3 pm, and the hand of an 18 year old, injured during that shooting spree. This now forms part of the ‘squalid and dangerous conditions’ described on the Pledge, that are being endured by 6000 children and adult refugees living in this white-asbestos riddled, open sewer, bordering Britain. Cllr. Obaid Khan, 41, London Borough of Newham, who added his signature to the pledge on 23rd January, the same day as opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott MP visited Calais, explains: "I spoke to many young refugees aged between 10 to 15 who were unaccompanied, exhausted and terrified. They said that they wanted to live, go to school to learn… just like any young children. They also told me that they had no access to doctors, dentists or hospitals, very limited access to food… shocking for me to see all this in 21st century Europe.” Developing her commitment as a Pledge signatory - to redouble her efforts in calling for the British Government to intervene, to stop further camp deaths, and allow the people there to make their refugee claims in the country where they want to be - is an example of An anti-racist campaigner who, as a NW England Labour candidate, replaced Nazi Nick Griffin in the European elections in May 2014, Julie is now the European Parliamentary Labour Party's spokesperson on Culture, Education, Arts, Sport and Citizenship. During Stand Up To Racism’s visit to meet refugees in December 2015, Julie was physically prevented from leaving the Calais camp by armed riot police. The incident is now being referred to the French authorities. Julie says: "If a democratically elected official - such as myself - receives such appalling treatment at the hands of the riot police, what are they prepared to do to the camp inhabitants? The refugees should be protected from the extreme right wing who lurk on the fringes of the camp, and vulnerable camp inhabitants should be given the humanitarian assistance they need. The use of tear gas, rubber bullets and physical force, such as I experienced, is insupportable when dealing with people who are dispossessed." Trade Union delegate from the original Pledge launch at the camp’s “Dome” on 13th December 2015, Umjum Mirza, ASLEF, Assistant Branch Secretary, Victoria Line, London Underground, reacted as follows: “We need to learn the lessons of history and let the Refugees into Britain immediately.” Political scientist and Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg, traced that the phrase 'Never Again' first appeared on handmade signs put up by inmates at Buchenwald in April 1945, shortly after its liberation by US forces. We must all honour their slogan. See follow up news articles here: http://quaysnews.net/index.php/2016/02/03/rubber-bullet-attacks-calais-refugees/ http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b0e5-French-cops-use-rubber-bullets-on-Calais-refugees#.VrN0yPmLTIU Sign the petition here - for updates, more information and to make home secretary Theresa May aware read here
In the first week of June 2015, Faisal, who's turned 18 in October, and his Father (who, for his safety, cannot be named in this campaign), were forced to flee from bombings and air force strikes by the Syrian Assad Army in their home town of Dairezzour. In a bid to secure their own safety and that of the rest of their family (5 children and mum) who could not travel at that time, they headed for the UK. The UK was their destination because Faisal’s Father speaks very good English: for 11 years he has been a worker in a British school in Syria and has been drawn to the UK due to his trust and care for the British people. Faisal and his Dad have described being forced to claim asylum in Hungary: they were hit and racially abused by the Hungarian Police. However, instead of signing the application for asylum in Hungary he wrote, ‘I do not want to stay in Hungary and I am being forced to sign.’ in Arabic. Now the UK Home Office are threatening to deport them back to Hungary and, at this moment in time, are demanding that Dad reports to them at Dallas Court in Salford on 3rd February, 2016. We have all seen how dangerous Syria has become: that is why so many people from this country are now refugees. If returned, Faisal’s conscription into the army would mean confronting the horror of the choice, Kill or Be Killed, in a war he does not wish to fight. Contact us to invite Faisal and his Father to address any meetings of support and to put pressure on the Home Office to allow them to claim safety in the UK, where their family will be kept safe from the increasingly dangerous conditions in Syria. Sign the petition here |
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