Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

solidarity protest at French consulate - Besson, don't evict the jungle

Manchester No Borders | 18.09.2009 14:05

Manchester No Borders held an emergency protest at the French
consulate today, after French riot police have begun mass evictions
and arrests of refugees hoping to join the UK via the French port town of
Calais.

On Wednesday, French immigration minister, Eric Besson, announced that the
Calais area will be a ‘migrant-free zone’ by the end of next week. Large
areas of woodland, known locally as the ‘jungle’, where young men, many
still children, have set up temporary shelters are to be cleared and
bulldozed.




Flyers were handed out to passers-by making them aware of the situation. Also BBC Manchester came down to do an interview for its evening news programme tonight.

Some more people from Manchester are planning to join the No Borders presence in Calais in the next weeks.

Manchester No Borders
- e-mail: manchesternoborders@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://manchesternoborders.org.uk

Additions

updates

18.09.2009 14:17

twitterer


Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

So what?

18.09.2009 17:28

Why should we accept them all? As a refugee they are supposed to accept asylum in the first safe country. If they've come from Afghanistan there are plenty of safe countries in between us and there.

That they ignore this, is evidence enough that they're merely economic migrants not genuine asylum seekers. If they genuinely wanted asylum they'd queue up at a British embassy or consulate and apply legally for asylum like a normal person would. Rather than damaging the property and goods of lorry drivers using the ports and tunnels.

Knock the camps down, France can do as it pleases within it's own borders regardless of what a few out of touch with reality pasty faced British teenagers say. About time France did something to control these hoodlums.

Reality check


@ Reality check

19.09.2009 09:38

How about a basic fact check? "Queue up at a Bristish Consulate.."?!!! You clearly have NO idea at all about how anyone gets to claim asylum in the UK. You can only claim asylum from within the UK and the only way to get in is with a visa (impossible to obtain due to border controls) or 'illegally' (hiding in lorries, etc).
You're like those idiots banging on about 'asylum seekers stealing our jobs' when no asylum seekers have the right to work, desperate as they are to do so. Or those dicks that go on about 'them' taking up limited healthcare resources when most asylum seekers can't even access a GP, let alone medical care, dental care etc. Or those shits that lie about asylum seekers living in luxury when most are living on vouchers worth £5/day to cover everything from food, clothing, shoes, travel, hygiene etc, and only able to use those vouchers in limited shops, regardless of how far away they may be.

Why do these migrants want to come to the UK? Many have family here or lived here themselves before the Home Office decided Afghanistan, Iraq etc was a safe place to send people to...they merely want to come home again. Some worked as translators for the allied forces and are now fleeing the Taliban or (as for some children I've spoken to) have had parents killed by the Taliban. You talk from the completely random chance of having (probably) been born in this country instead of Palestine or Somalia or Afghanistan. These migrants had no choice about their place of birth or the violence inflicted upon them by foreign forces (usually us, or with UK complicity and arms) but they are doing something about that in trying to make a new life - being proactive and courageous in a way rarely seen among the placid population in the UK.

Many anti-migrant comments seem to stem from a nationalistic stance, worrying (I'm being generous) about limited resources. We need to challenge inequalities in society rather than turn on people needing support. We need to stop spending billions of pounds on 'the war on terror' (forget what the cost is that I read - but just incredible) and put that money into healthcare and education instead of skimping on this and then blaming immigrants for a shortfall.

anon


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech