This is a question many people are asking, so we try here to give some answers.

If you are not in Calais

The government is trying to pass the destruction of the equivalent of a small city and the forcible displacement of its population as a humanitarian operation. Do not hesitate to circulate widely information on what is actually happening from sources with reliable estimates, by email, social networks, and through any other channels available.

Several calls to rally across France are circulating for the evening of the first day of the eviction and for the following Saturday. The date of 24th of October is given in calls circulating on this. Join rallies already organized or group together to organize in your community if nothing is already planned.

If you are abroad, you can demonstrate in front of French embassies and consulates.

Those evicted from Calais shantytown will be sent to 160 centers Reception and Orientation (CAO – see here, here, here and here) everywhere in France (except Île-de-France and Corsica), which will be added to existing CAO. So there will inevitably be a CAO not too far away from your home. We do not have the list of these centers.

You can get information from facebook pages Info CAO by major region and the facebook page General CAO Info https://www.facebook.com/Info-CAO-484548968414251/ by the associations in your area like the Cimade, or by the press. It is important to know what happens in these CAOs, what happens to the people, if there is a risk of expulsions to other countries, if people need support on site or to return to Calais. If associations are already active in relation to CAO, contact them.

Places are being held in various detention centers for people evicted from Calais either directly from Calais or from the CAO. You can find in this document a map of the detention centers, as well as other information, to find out if there are any near you. You can contact the associations or collectives involved on the subject to help them in their action.

People whose project is not to remain in France and want to go to the United Kingdom will not remain in the CAO, and will attempt to return to Calais or reach other camps in the British border. It is likely that racial profiling and arrests will take place in stations and trains going to Paris and the coast. If you witness racial profiling, arrests, aggressive behavior or violent police, write an accurate and detailed testimony (place, date and time, police officers involved, description of facts) and seize the Defender of Rights: http : //www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/fr/saisir-le-defenseur-des-droits. You can also share this information with associations defending human rights and the rights of foreigners in your neighborhood. It would be useful if citizen observers set up in the main stations.

If you are in Calais.

It is important that as many people can see the real conditions of the evacuation and destruction of the slum, and therefore to be present on site and nearby. It is again likely that the police will block access to avoid witnesses.

Half the police presence will be used to prevent the Exiles settling anywhere elsewhere in the Calais area, which means racial profiling in stations and in the streets, arrests, possible violence, expulsion from new places where the Exiles will try to take shelter. You can also send your stories to the Rights Defender: http://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/fr/saisir-le-defenseur-des-droits. Any form of citizen observation is welcome.

The Exiles will not stop coming to Calais, and an operation to show big government will not stop migration. It is therefore vital that solidarity and citizen observation continue beyond the evacuation.

 

vigie