OCTOBER 2024 IN CALAIS

THE CHANNEL : A CEMETERY

On 05/10/24, a 2 years old Somali boy died crushed in a boat while trying to cross off the coast of Audinghen.

The same day but during another shipwreck off the coast of Calais, two men and a woman died of suffocation and drowned at the bottom of a small boat.

The 17/10/24, a 40 days newborn, an Iraqi Kurd died during a shipwreck off the coast of Wissant.

The 23/10/24, two men and a woman died drowned off the coast of Sangatte. Many missing people have been reported.

The 27/10/24, an Indian man died drowned while he was trying to swim back after the shipwreck off the coast of Tardinghen.

The 30/10/24, four persons died. One person was found at sea of the coast of Hardelot and then during the day three new bodies were found on the beach between St Etienne-au-Mont and Equihen-Plage.

ALWAYS MORE COPS

Police unions are jubilant! It’s 15 cops at the retention centre in Coquelles, and 60 at the border that will show up in a few weeks (distributed across the ports of Calais/Dover, at the Tunnel and at Boulogne’s police station).

Biometrics with fingerprints capture and photo taking for passengers to the UK, not living in Schengen area is due to begin in November.

EVICTIONS 

– The 26/10, On the sideline of evictions every 48h, an eviction with obligation to get on the buses happened on Quai du Danube. 60 persons were forced to get on the bus to go to the CAES.

– The 28/10, an informal squat in Marcel Doret zone that was sheltering about 200 persons was expelled. 80 persons were rounded up on buses. All their belongings were stolen and dumped.

– For months, SNCF wants to evict Fontinettes living sites. A hearing took place on the 16/10. Places of survival in the area can be evicted at anytime.

SEGREGATION IN TRANSPORT

It is harder and harder for undocumented people to take the train and the bus, including after a shipwreck.

On the 05/10, day of a deadly shipwreck, about a hundred people were anable to leave Boulogne and occupied the theater steps with supporters waiting for a solution.  After being chased out of the theater by the cops, after sleeping outside and despite having a ticket, they were denied acces to the first bus of the morning. It had been instructed to leave empty.

The day before, in Wimereux, a group of about fifty people was denied to get on the train to go back to Calais.

FRONTEX

Frontex is celebrating 20 years of human rights violation in total impunity. To join the Abolish Frontex campaign,series of collages were organized in Calais.

A STRANGE VISION OF SOLIDARITY

A sculpture of the word “solidarity” was installed facing the town hall. This is really cynicism when we know what the mayor office is doing: putting rocks all over the city, organizing thefts of tents with municipal vehicles every 48h, defaming the associations, refusing to pick up trashes on the living sites, razing trees when they shelter exiles, fencing off parks, obstructing distributions, demanding the reinstatement of the offence of illegal residence,…

The 150 persons who attended the commemorations on the 28/10 and 31/10 walked up to the sculpture and added a banner saying « avec les sans-papiers » then « avec les rochers ? » below the word « solidarités ».

The 29/10, the city hall was putting rocks on a camp « quai du Danube » in center town to prevent about a hundred people to set up back on this survival camp.

REPRESSION

Two persons were arrested in Ambleteuse the 30/10. They are accused of having tagged messages such as « Manche = cimetière » « Frontex assassin » or even « les frontières tuent ».

OCTOBRE 2024 A CALAIS

SEPTEMBER 2024 IN CALAIS

AT LEAST 23 DEAD IN SEPTEMBER
On 03/09/24, at least 12 Eritreans drowned in a shipwreck off Cap Gris-Nez. Two people were reported missing. The next day, the cops came to evict the living spaces where the survivors of the shipwreck and the victims’ relatives were staying.
Commemorations were held the following 3 evenings in Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne/Mer.
On 07/09/24, Meri, the baby of a woman who survived the shipwreck on 03/09, died in Calais hospital. Their mother had had to undergo a C-section section following the shipwreck.
On 07/09/24, a Syrian man who fell into the water in front of his family was reported missing.
On 12/09/24, the body of a man was found on the sand at Wimereux.
On 15/09/24, at least 8 people died off the coast of Ambleteuse while attempting to cross the English Channel.
A group of people went to shout their anger in front of the prefecture following the sadly usual gathering.
On 17/09, the body of a woman was discovered at sea off Ambleteuse.

BANALIZED POLICE BRUTALITY
Violence on the beaches is intensifying. Once again, on 21/09, police officers endangered people on the move by throwing tear gas canisters which set fire to a small boat that was about to set sail from Le Portel.

On 22/09, according to the testimony of five people on board a small boat travelling up the Aa to reach the English Channel, the PAF ordered a fishing boat to ram them. The small boat broke up and all the passengers fell into the water. No one came to help them.

An association has referred the matter to the IGPN and the « Défenseur des droits ».

MORE FENCING
On 04/09/24, the mayor of Calais and the prefect announced the construction of an 11 km fence around Transmarck set to begin in November. The fence is intended to prevent attempted truck crossings. The work will take 2 years and cost 4.5 million euros. Another gift of the British government via the funds raised by the Treaty of Sandhurst!

FASCIST MEDIA
Far-right propagandists posing as journalists from the independent media “Frontières” are wandering around town in search of sensational images with RN MP Marc De Fleurian. They tweet and feed their hatred to CNEWS. They film distributions, places of survival and migrant people without their consent as well as harass volunteers.
They, however, did not talk about the bikers who threatened people of color with a knife in a bar in Northern Calais.

FREE PALESTINE
On 08/09, some fifteen West Bank teenagers from the Askar refugee camp visited Calais. The troupe performed traditional Palestinian dances and talked about everyday life in Palestine.
The weekly rallies in support of Palestine continue…

AUGUST 2024 IN CALAIS

DEATHS AT THE BORDER

On 02/08/24, Nasreddine, a Sudanese statutory refugee in France, drowned in the Calais canal.

On 11/08/24, two Afghans died at sea off the coast of Calais during an attempt to cross the English Channel.

COMMEMORATIVE MARCH

On 07/08/24, a commemorative march in memory of Dina (who died on 28/07/24), Mohammed (who died on 29/07) and all those who have been taken by the border was organised, at the request of the families.

SMASH FASCISM

A group of far-right anti-immigration activists in the UK have taken to social media to call for a ‘migrant hunt’ starting on 11/08 on beaches along the French coast. The fascists have so far failed to show up.

In response to this threat, people campaigning for freedom of movement hung a ‘Smash fascism’ banner on a building on the Calais beach, during peak tourist season.

Racist violence is nothing new in Calais, but has become more frequent since the last elections.

POLICE VIOLENCE

Every day, people on the move are gassed, intimidated, pushed around and threatened by over-armed police officers on the beaches, in the streets, at the station and during evictions.

On 02/08/24, the cops assaulted two volunteers near Gravelines. They opened both doors of an organisation’s car during a shift and violently blocked the head of a volunteer against the steering wheel. This was followed by 3 detonations. A complaint has been lodged.

EVER MORE OBSTRUCTIONS

On 19/08/24, the Calais town hall had huge rocks placed at the entrance to BMX on Rue du Petit Courgain, to prevent associations from accessing the usual distribution point. The policy of rock-laying has become a Calais speciality.

Since its installation in 2023, the barrage of buoys installed on the Canche against small boats has been cut twice. So the authorities have gone one better, and now there’s not just one line of buoys, but three.

AOUT 2024 A CALAIS

JULY 2024 IN CALAIS

THE BORDER MURDERS AT AN ALARMING RATE

On 12/07, four Somali people died in a shipwreck.

On 17/07, an Eritrean woman drowned off the coast of Gravelines.

On 19/07, a Sudanese man was found dead in a small boat off the coast of Calais.

On 28/07, a Syrian woman died off the coast of Calais.

These seven people died trying to cross the Channel in dinghies.

On 29/07, the infant of a refugee family well known to the associations died in Calais, probably from a medical condition.

EVICTIONS OF SQUATS

– On 02/07, the municipal authorities and the town hall’s technical services evicted a woman from the Frédéric Sauvage squat and walled up the entire house following an order which bans anyone from entering or living there and falsely claiming that the house was empty. In Calais, illegal evictions featuring theft of personal belongings are routine…

Hundreds of people have been housed in this bourgeois house for almost 2 and a half years. 

https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/squat-de-la-rue-sauvage-a-calais-anatomie-dune-chute/

– On the night of 30 to 31 July, a fire broke out in a squatted warehouse where more than a hundred people were living in Rue Clément Ader. The police and fire brigade evacuated the premises and blocked off access the next day. Many personal belongings were destroyed by the fire or stolen by the town hall and the police.

NOISE DEMO AT COQUELLES DETENTION CENTRE

On 06/07 and 20/07, people shouted out their support for the 104 people imprisoned at the Coquelles detention centre. 

A person wishing to visit a prisoner was refused entry on the pretext that they had taken part in an unauthorised demo a few days before and had been recognised on the surveillance videos.

EMMAUS: REGULARISATION

After more than 10 months on the picket line, 47 of the 50 strikers in the north of France who were complaining about degrading working conditions have got their papers in France. The picket line has been suspended. Three Emmaus bosses in the north of France have been given suspended prison sentences for undeclared work by undocumented workers.

FRONTEX

63 Frontex agents from all over Europe came to reinforce the PAF (border force) at the ports of Calais and Dunkirk and at the Tunnel this summer. As if it wasn’t enough to have Frontex planes flying over the coast all the time.

JUNE 2024 IN CALAIS

FREDERIC SAUVAGE SQUAT, NEW PROJECT
The squat has been emptied, cleaned and “fitted out” by supporters with the aim of taking in families without accommodation. There were many obstacles.
On 14/06, the municipal police pulled a bluff and allowed themselves in, asking those present to leave. Two city vans were ready to wall off the entrance. Fortunately, the people refused to leave and the police have not returned since.
Neighbours and are far-right activists are verbally aggressive and physically threatening. They also entered the house by cutting the chain with pliers, smashed the windows and then stucked the padlock closing the entrance gate. They spray-painted the back and front of the house with hyper-racist tags.
The project continues!

Down with CRAs
On 01/06, there was a rally of around a hundred people in Dunkirk against the plan to build a deport centre in the Dunkirk area. Some testimonies from prisoners were played, and a lot of leaflets to alert the city’s residents of this nauseating project were distributed. 
An information evening on anti-CRA struggles was also held in Calais at the F Sauvage squat.

CONFISCATED EQUIPMENT AND POLICE HARASSMENT
On 01/06, despite calls to cancel the neo-Nazi Black Metal concert by the group Taake, it was maintained. Activists wanted to put leaflets in the car park of the Gérard Philipe municipal music hall, but the cops rushed in to carry out an abusive identity check. Not only did the activists had to leave under threat of being taken to the police station, but all their leaflets were confiscated.
On 14/06, one year after Greek coastguards sank the “Adriana” causing the death of more than 600 people off the coast of Pylos in Greece, people showed their support for the relatives of the victims by holding up banners over a bridge in Calais. With barely enough time to take photos, the municipal police arrived, checked identities and stole the banners!

AMBIENT FASCISM
The results of the european election have uninhibited the fascists. In addition to the neighbourhood of the squat, which felt like it had wings, there were projectiles and insults thrown in front of the only day centre in Calais and in front of the squatted sheds in the Marcel Doret area. Near Dunkirk, a chemical liquid was mixed with the water in a tank intended for people surviving in a nearby camp. Reports of attacks on racialised people on the streets are multiplying.

PRIDE
On 29/06, the 2nd edition of the Pride march in Calais brought together more than 500 people. The march was an opportunity to demand the rights of LGBTQIA+ people and to express concern at the prospect of the far right coming to power.

JUIN 2024 A CALAIS

MAY 2024 IN CALAIS

BORDERS KILL
On 04/05, the lifeless body of a migrant person was recovered from the Bourbourg canal, which links the Aa to the port of Dunkirk.

RELENTLESS HARASSMENT
The number of migrant people on the coast is falling down. Evictions continue every 2 or 3 days in different campsites and at any time of day, exhausting the inhabitants. An eviction with a bus took place on 23/05. The question of Rwanda is a major source of anxiety, prompting some people to leave for Paris or Belgium while they wait to know more about it.
Despite this, sea crossings continue and police violence on the beach is becoming commonplace. On 1 May, 711 people crossed the English Channel.

RWANDA
The British Prime Minister has announced that there will be no flights to Rwanda before the legislative elections on 04/07. A failure at the elections would allow this despicable project to be abandoned.
 
FREE PALESTINE
On 12/05, a march brought together several hundred people who refused to turn a blind eye to the massacres in Gaza. In the morning, the march linked Grande Synthe to Dunkirk. In the afternoon, walkers shouted slogans from Malo to Leffrincoucke. The procession just kept growing.

TAGS BLOOM IN SPRING
– A huge graffiti ‘free Ibrahima Bah’ appeared on the Blériot beach huts.

– Messages on the facade of a Calais concert hall denounced the arrival of Taake (a black metal band with nazi, racist and islamophobic ideologies).

– Tags were also spotted on several construction companies that collaborate with the inprisonment business. (“The state locks up and kills. Effage collaborates“, “Fuck Vinci and all prison builders”, …)

– Tags on the facades of companies pursuing their activity in israel denounced the genocide in Gaza. Two people were taken into custody.

MAI 2024 A CALAIS

APRIL 2024 IN CALAIS

AGAIN AND AGAIN
On 01/04, a 26-year-old Iraqi Kurdish was stabbed to death in a camp in Loon-Plage.
On 04/04, a man was hit several times in Furnes on the E40 road in front of a petrol station near Dunkirk.
On 19/04, a person was run over on a main road near the camp in Loon-Plage. The man had to cross the dual carriageway because the passage through the bridge Pont-à-Roseaux had very recently been walled off.

On 23/04, at least 5 people, including a little girl, died trying to reach the United Kingdom by boat off the coast of Wimereux. The next day, the commemoration gathering spontaneously turned into a demonstration. More than 200 people shouted their anger in front of the town hall and the sub-prefecture.

NORMALIZED VIOLENCE
On 04/04, tear gas grenades set fire to a boat and an 18-year-old person was wounded in the hand by an LBD (rubber bullet) shot.
On 04/04, a large-scale eviction from all living areas took place, with buses present. The cops were particularly violent, beating on the tents and shouting orders to wake up and terrorise the inhabitants. The PAF (police aux frontières), CRS (“compagnies républicaines de sécurité“) and national police then organised a real manhunt in the town to force people onto buses to get to the CAES (reception centre). A great deal of personal property was destroyed.
On 23/04, the evening of an attempt to cross turned into a tragedy, around sixty people on the move were violently evicted from a first train and then from a second one at Calais centre and Fontinettes stations by heavily armed national police officers. They were also prevented from taking the bus, which was cancelled at the last minute. At least three person were arrested that evening. As for the people who watch this state violence, they are regularly controlled, hindered and intimidated. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6Ok9NuCuja/
In April, 4 complaints were lodged by people on the move alleging that the police had stolen their phones. The IGPN (inspection générale de la police nationale) interviewed the complainants.
The new sub-prefect (Agathe Curry), a former adviser to Darmanin, who took up her post on 11 March, is continuing her policy of harassing people on the move.

STOP DEPORTATIONS
On 19/04, a Sudanese person was deported to Sudan from the Coquelles detention centre.

OFFENCE OF SOLIDARITY
On 02/04, a volunteer from an association acting in Grande-Synthe was remanded in custody for 15 days. At the hearing on 19/04, he was cleared and released.  It was acknowledged that he was acting on a humanitarian basis and as part of the voluntary activities of the association, without any compensation.

FREE PALESTINE
The weekly gatherings on Saturdays at 6pm continue to denounce the atrocities committed against Palestinians.
On 20/04, a peace march to the beach was organised.
Stop the genocide! Sanctions against Israel!

RWANDA
On the night of 22 to 23 of April, the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ bill was passed by the British Parliament. This bill allows people seeking asylum to be deported to Rwanda. The fact that Rwanda is not a safe country and that this project will be a financial abyss is not stopping the British government.

in french :

AVRIL 2024 A CALAIS

MARCH 2024 IN CALAIS

NO MORE DEATHS

On 03/03, Rola, a 7-year-old Iraqi child, drowned in the river Aa at Watten in the presence of her mother, who was eight months pregnant, her father, who was taken into police custody, and her three brothers, when their boat sank.

On 19/03, the body of Jumaa, a 27-year-old Syrian, was found in the Aa canal in Grand-Fort-Philippe. On 02/03, as he was about to board a small boat, the police sprayed tear gas. In the panic this caused, he drowned. His relatives and various organisations had been calling on the courts to resume the search for his body since the beginning of the month. 

Unsurprisingly, a request has been made to install a line of buoys on the canal to prevent small boats from passing through.

FEMINISTS WITHOUT BORDERS

On the 8th March, to mark International Women’s Day, a rally was held in Place d’Armes to discuss the situation of displaced women and Gazan women.

HATE CRIME

Seven years after the events, the leader of a series of 2016 hate crimes, Christophe Griffart, appeared at the tribunal of Boulogne-sur-Mer on 19/03. At least four outbursts of violence around the informal camps of Grande-Synthe and Calais were recognised by the court. The court sentenced him to 3 years imprisonment with a suspended sentence of 18 months. Griffart will have to pay €1,500 in compensation to one of the victims.

DETENTION CENTER (CRA)

Following the riot and the burning of a mattress in the Coquelles detention centre at the end of February, the police unions denounced a ‘climate of violence’ within the center and called for 40 new police officers to be assigned there.

On 31/03, around forty people took part in a noise demo outside the center in support of those detained inside.

ROUTINE VIOLENCE

On 21 March, the beach at Ambleteuse was the scene of aggressive maneuvers by the police to prevent people from crossing the Channel. The use of tear gas and truncheons against those present as well as the ignition and puncturing of inflatable boats are recurrent.

Videos dating back to 2023 have been recovered as part of an ongoing investigation by the IGPN. They clearly show the highly dangerous manoeuvres carried out by the cops at sea. https://twitter.com/cerveauxnon/status/1772231994778292649

Evictions at living sites are a daily occurrence.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Calais’s free bus service for the area’s residents is under reconsideration. Philippe Mignonnet, Calais town council’s deputy security officer, says the aim is to combat the excessive presence of migrants on the bus. The Rassemblement National is delighted.

NICE ONE

On 31/03, the floating buoys installed in August on the river Canche were cut with an angle grinder.

FEBRUARY 2024 IN CALAIS

DEATHS
On 04/02, Rojdar, a 34-year-old Iraqi man, died following a gunshot wound near the Loon plage camp. On 28/02, during a Channel crossing, a body was recovered lifeless off Cap Gris-Nez and two people are still being sought.

COMMEMOR’ACTION
It’s already been ten years since the Tarajal massacre, ten years during which the number of dead and missing has continued to rise. On 6 February, in Calais, nearly 300 people gathered in Richelieu Park to respond to the international call for mobilisations in memory of the dead and missing at the borders. The gathering turned into a wild demonstration. The anger was expressed in front of the town hall (at the same time as the town council meeting) and in the streets of the town centre with slogans, drums and smoke bombs. Migrate to live, not to die!

DETENTION CENTER (CRA)
On 10/02, a noise demo took place to send force to people imprisoned in Coquelles. Despite the speed of the action (5 minutes), the cops carried out an identity check. The following day, 11/02, a mattress caught fire in the basement of the CRA. A number of people were brought before a judge and two days later had to appear in court. On 17/02, around fifty people gathered at a solidarity ball organised to protest against the planned detention centre in Dunkirk.

SQUAT
Exactly two years after the occupation of the Fort-Nieulay tower, which ended with the intervention of a RAID helicopter, the building has been demolished. Four activists were arrested on the sidelines of a demonstration and fined heavily. A great support evening was held on 24/02.

FREE PALESTINE
Mobilisation continues in Calais. In addition to the weekly rally, a “march for peace” took place on 24/02 in the town centre and a screening of a documentary film recalled the terrible situation in Gaza for decades before October 2024.

FREE IBRAHIMA
Ibrahima Bah, a Senegalese teenager, was sentenced by an all-white jury to 9 and a half years in prison for manslaughter and facilitating illegal entry into the UK. He was driving the dinghy that sank on 14 December 2022 in exchange for free passage. Ibrahima risks spending years in prison because of this racist and unfair border regime.

FEVRIER 2024 A CALAIS

JANUARY 2024 IN CALAIS

THE BORDER MURDERED AGAIN

On 14/01, five people drowned near Wimereux.

Abadeh aged 14, his brother Aysar aged 26, Mohamed aged 18, Ayham aged 25 and Ali aged 25 were trying to reach a boat in icy water. These young Syrians died trying to cross the Franco-British border.

The survivors were left wandering the streets of Calais just a few hours after the tragedy.

As Alarm Phone’s latest report explains, the consequences of the agreement to “stop the boats” have led to an increase in the number of fatal accidents in the Channel.

On 27/01, Uday, a 19-year-old Sudanese man, was found dead in a lorry in Transmarck. His body had been pierced by metal bars that had come loose during braking.

CRA

On 1 January, some people went outside the Coquelles Administrative Detention Centre to reaffirm their support for the people being held there, who in turn were able to shout their need for freedom from the courtyard.

One of the areas was undergoing work this month, and occupancy of the three remaining areas exceeded 100% with the addition of beds.

3rd ANTI-MIGRANT BARRIER

On 09/01, the Préfecture de la Somme installed a floating boom on the Authie at the Madelon port in Waben. These buoys, like those installed on the Canche in August, are designed to prevent any boats from passing. Before the buoys were installed, small boats used to set sail for the Channel and then the United Kingdom.

FREE PALESTINE

In Calais, every Saturday at 6pm, people from all walks of life get together to shout their support for Palestine, to give leaflet, to exchange ideas and to publicise the Boycott Israel campaign.

Ceasefire!

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE IMMIGRATION LAW

The trivialisation of racist, xenophobic and discriminatory positions was echoed along the coast.

On 20/01 in Dunkirk, over a hundred people demonstrated in the streets.

On 21/01 in Boulogne, around a hundred people gathered in front of the monument to Franco-British friendship.

On 21/01 in Calais, a gathering of around a hundred people took place on the beach.

JANVIER 2024 A CALAIS