Two days ago, two detainees in Coquelle detention center started a hungerstrike, that was today joined by 4 other detainees.

The refusal of food is, as many other hungerstrikes that have been held in Coquelle so far, a protest against the inhumane conditions inside this detention center.

The main demands of the protesters are:

- Getting food in sufficient amounts

- Serving halal food

- Respectful treatment

- Proper medical care

- An end to their injust detention

The protesters reported that another detainee had been been beaten up this morning – when No Border supporters tried to visit several people this was the only person the police “could not find in the computer”, so that it was impossible to check in what state this person is now.

The detention centers’ atmosphere is marked by strong repression and intimidation, the recent beating is only an escalation of that.

The protesters would be happy about signs of solidarity from the outside and about everyone spreading their demands and their reports about the treatment they receive. Messages of solidarity can be send to the CMS mail adress, we will pass it on.

The phone number of Coquelles detention center, for everyone who wants to give them a small feedback, is 00333 21 46 25 00.

Food is brought into prison by a private company, name so far unknown.

Destruction municipalo-policière à calais : https://lille.indymedia.org/spip.php?article27679

If there ever is a hard way…

At 3pm the cops discovered a new squat. The occupants had put up the legal notice article 423-8 and proof that they had been in the building for more than 48 hours – but the police, as so often, did not care about their own laws. Luckily there were only a few people inside who managed to escape before the police broke an illegal entry. Legally they would have needed a court order to enter, which they never presented.

how many cops does it need to…?

An anonymous person got arrested and released after more than 24 hours – being presented with a paper telling her that she had been heard saying “fuck the police fuck the police society fuck no identity no”. Surprisingly the PAF could not make up a charge that was a bit more creative. The arrested person heard them discussing “what they should put as reason for arresting her” for several minutes in the arrest van AFTER they had put her in handcuffs. Handcuffing is illegal in an id control. According to the cops outside the arrest van she was in for just an id control- communication problem or sign of willingness to randomly arrest anyone who gets in their way; we can only guess…

Cops did not give the occupiers permission to take things out the building.

Owner of the new legal squat was apparently the municipalité. A person had been brought over for the occasion representing them – her only function was to chitchat with the cops and repeat “i m the owner i m the owner” over and over again. Now the city council can happily go back to not using the empty building. This meaningful purpose must have been worth a lot to the municipality considering what it must have cost to put round 30 cops up for several hours to watch 1 guy making tiny wholes in a piece of glass.

The occupants had vanished in the meantime but the PAF took their time to search the building to check if noone was hiding behind a piece of wallpaper.

 

The only one without uniform: Mignonnet; who likes to call himself the deputy major attended the eviction as well; as usual contributing nothing but his smug presence and joy in other peoples’ misery.

The raids in the jungle are still ongoing. Every day in the morning hours a big number of police (around 50) enters the jungle from different directions, violently wakes people, controls IDs and arrests. Just yesterday again around 20 people were arrested. Most of the arrested are usually set free after 5 to 8 hours, others kept in Coquelles (see last post).

Also the police has been violently evicting garages where people are living. Some people were physically attacked by the police while beeing thrown out of the garages.

During the past weeks the police have been frequently entering the jungles and performing ID controls and arresting people, taking them to Coquelles and trying to deport many back to other European countries (under Dublin II), particularly Italy.

It has started to become daily raids again in the jungles. On Friday (22nd) morning about 20 people were arrested. 17 people were released, three were taken to detention.

Also people are being harassed in the parks a lot, with the same police officers ID controlling the same people repeatedly again and again in the same day, sometimes after only minutes, including those who have papers for France.

And people are again being picked up late at night for ID controls in town, not just by the port, and held over night in cells at the police station.

Friday morning, 8th of March 2013, a raid took place in the Jungle of Calais. 15 to 20 people with and without papers were arrested and brought to the police station in Coquelles. After a few hours many were released, but at least six were transfered to Coquelles detention center.