<p>Created by: maqui.</p>
<p>maqui: featured</p>
User 'anonymous' did: report at Fri Aug 21 18:21:04 +0000 2009.<br/>
User 'anonymous' did: report at Sat Aug 22 12:20:20 +0000 2009.<br/>truetrue
<p><strong>Extract from 'Calais Witnesses' statement:</strong><br /><br />According to humanitarian groups in Calais, up to 2000 individuals in the Calais region of northern France are under imminent threat of gross violations of human rights because of their status as migrants. Following the announcement on 6th July, 2009 of a joint <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8136059.stm">Anglo-French agreement for £15 million</a> to strengthen the French UK border, humanitarian groups in France have been notified that an official date, Monday 20th July, 2009, has been set by French authorities to clear and destroy the makeshift camps that migrants have been forced to live in in already <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/433478.html">appalling conditions</a>. <br /><br />This will fundamentally affect these people's right to safety and will undoubtedly traumatize them and destroy the few possessions that they have. Official plans for people once their dwellings have been destroyed are still unclear, but the Calais-based humanitarian organization <a href="http://associationsalam.org/">Association Salam</a> has informed that proceedings have begun by the French government as part of the Franco-British Agreement to charter mass deportation flights to Kabul and Iraq. <br /><br />While UK immigration Minister Phil Woolas boasts of a <i>"ring of steel that protects Britain"</i> there are many individuals in Calais who are simply seeking safety and are trapped by a European immigration policy that is denying basic human rights. Without urgent intervention there is very real threat of mass deportations of asylum seekers back to countries of origin from which they have fled and where they could face torture, imprisonment and in some cases death. <br /><br />Read <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434507.html">full statement</a>.</p>
2009-07-20T18:03:17+00:001788featuredmaqui-pxfalse<p>Following a <a href="http://london.indymedia.org.uk/events/1779">call</a> from <a href="http://www.noborders.org.uk/">No Borders</a> groups in <a href="http://london.noborders.org.uk/">London</a> and <a href="http://nobordersbrighton.blogspot.com/">Brighton</a> a group of people demonstrated outside London's French Embassy on Monday 20th to protest the <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434647.html">repression and planned mass deportations</a> of migrants <a href="http://london.indymedia.org.uk/system/file_upload/2009/07/16/78/the_law_of_the_jungles_summary_report_09_08.pdf">living around Calais</a>, France. See <a href="http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1788">full article</a> for pics and background information. More reports <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434724.html">1</a> and <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434786.html">2</a>.</p>
<p><strong>More Info:</strong> <a href="http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/">Calais Migrant Solidarity</a> | <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/433154.html">Calais No Border Camp June 2009</a> | <a href="http://current.com/items/88967594_after-sangatte-europes-untold-refugee-crisis.htm">Video: After Sangatte, Europe's Untold Refugee Crisis</a>.</p>Protest Against Destruction of Calais 'Jungles'2009-08-22T12:20:20+00:009