On patrol

This morning, some activists went on their regular patrol. Wake up at 7am, on duty at 7.30am. First place visited was the African House Squat. Yesterday morning, the police went there and told them to leave on the following day. Today, when we were there at 7.45am things hadn’t changed. After our patrol, we decided to go back and have a look again at the African House. To our surprise we got told that the police was there at 8am, and arrested someone.

On our way out, we see a police van coming in, by the time we get back the van is gone but the police is still checking people and No Border people are being checked as well, and told not to come back. Sounded like a usual day for everyone involved…

During lunch distribution, we heard that the police chased all night the people who got evicted from the BCMO yesterday, and that they couldn’t find any sleep. This afternoon, No Border activists entered the Cronstadt Hangar, the rented No Border space that the police evicted recently, to retrieve all their belongings. No Border activists started renting a new space in February, a hangar on rue Cronstadt, to help and support migrants in Calais. But of course the police and the Mayor weren’t happy and even though the warehouse was entirely legally rented, the people got evicted in very quickly, and most of their stuff was still inside. People on the ground here thought that this stuff (beddings, tents, kitchen equipment, cleaning products, literature and leaflets, tools) could be very useful so it was decided to try and take it back. Around 15 of us went on a mission and forced the authorities (Police and owner) to let us grab everything we could. At the end of the day, we are still tenant of this place, so it’s only fair that we’re going there to take our things back! Now we also have an agreement with the police to come back and take the rest.