As legislation on migration becomes more and more restrictive, resistance to an inhuman system is well and alive in the City of Calais, northern France. Continue reading to find out more about Dublin II, police repression, migrant-led struggles and how to provide practical support.

I hear voices from the borders

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood", states the first Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. The spaces where it is perhaps most strikingly visible that this does not apply in practice are the borders of nation states.

The history of the most well-off countries' border policy is a history of more and more enforcement of restrictions on the freedom of movement of those who are in need of help and safety. International agreements like Dublin I and Dublin II make this inequality tangible: once an asylum seeker who entered the European Union travelled from one state territory to another, just like a European citizen is granted the right to travel, s_he most certainly looses the chance to get asylum in the whole European area where the Dublin agreements apply.

Nation states engage in a bargaining in which migrants, displaced people and refugees who have often survived war and human rights violations become an exchange currency. In an attempt to share a grasp of the safety enjoyed by many European citizens those who are most in need of it are kept at distance in camps or institutionally assigned to places. Meanwhile the walls of Fortress Europe are getting thicker and thicker through new International agreements.

Authors, social movements and organisations came up with various responses to this development. They demand the right to come and stay for all, write about the right to a World Passport, organise No Border Camps, ... One could stay at home and reason about the common ownership of the earth that existed before nation states emerged, and the ethics of cosmopolitanism or one could get out there and engage with the borders of Fortress Europe and work towards these goals.

The city of Calais, northern France, has become a symbol for the struggle for Freedom of Movement. Migrants who are in Calais are often subject to police violence as the group Calais Migrant Solidarity reports in a recent dossiert:

repression in Calais is systematic, involving actors from bottom to top, from minor officials and frontline police to the highest authorities, whether they actively participate or merely look away in silence. Brutality and harassment in Calais are deliberate weapons used in the service of French, British and European immigration policy. The idea is a simple one; drive refugees away from the border by making their lives unbearable.

A group of people in Nottingham has come together to confront the situation at the border and show their support for migrants. The activists focus their work around setting up a mobile kitchen in order to provide food to migrants in a time period where most of the charities are on summer holidays. The aim is not only to provide practical help, but also to develop more links between similar existing organisations and individuals, to investigate and let other people know the situation of the migrants at the border between the continent and the UK, and the politics which cause the situation.
Let's not forget that, as the refugees currently on hunger strike put it:

The inviolable essence of freedom and equality, which build the foundation for our human co-existence, consists of the equal and inalienable human rights and the recognition of our innate dignity. However, there are places in the world today where the rulers in politics and the economy have created extremely inequal, inhuman and injust conditions for pursuing their economic, political and military interests while at the same time ignoring essential rights and needs of the population.

If you want to join the group or give your support by coming to the fundraiser on the 8th of June, click here for more information.