Mar. 2011 Issue four
WITHOUT BORDERS
The far left paper that incites people to revolt
What comes around, goes around
The mistreatments, the intimidations, even the beatings for those
who refuse to be deported, have become daily bread for the illegal
foreigners locked up in european detention centres.
After the hunger strikes and escapes last Autumn in the
Vincennes et Mesnil Amelot centres, on Sunday 20th of February at
the 127 bis detention centre near Brussels, a hunger strike
transformed into an actual revolt.
The beating of a young 18 year old Egyptian by four warders in
the night of 15th of February had sparked off the anger. He had
gone through a « conditioning » before his deportation to Italy
planned seven days later.
He testifies: « I was caught and the four individuals beat me (...),
I was told so that you don't come back here in Belgium (...), I was
caught and put on the ground, I was handcuffed, and the four
officers injured my hands and feet, and I have head injuries.  »
On February 20thth, whilst a supporting demonstration was held
on the outside with activists for freedom of movement, a fire was
started by the detainees and one of them managed to escape by
climbing the compound fencing.
The parts designated for male adults of the 127bis detention
centre of Steenokkerzeel have been declared uninhabitable on
Sunday night. 23 « inhabitants  » had to be immediately evacuated
to the closed centers of Merksplas, Vottem and Bruges. Later 31
other individuals will also be moved.
Come Monday, in the « La Libre Belgique » paper [1] you could
read: « M. Wathelet, asylum and immigration policy secretary of
state called the provocating attitude of the demonstrators
unacceptable. « It is an exterior demonstration organized by a left
wing grouping that excited the residents putting in danger both the
personnel and the residents themselves.  » He also underlines that
there are lots of misunderstandings about the situation.  »
And, in response, on Brussels Indymedia [2]:
« Those who come to show solidarity with other human beings
whom people lock up because they are without papers, those who
have heard the calls to help from the inside, those who do not
support those base treatments that are every day inflicted on the
detainees, those who, against the silent and deaf majority, hear the
cries and the crying, the hurt and the sorrow, are supposedly guilty
(continued on page 2)
p.
In Greece as in Calais
As Europe has closed itself to immigration,
the people who were refused legal entry started
to cross the borders illegally. Europe then
attempts to block its borders, in particular with
the help of Frontex agency. The towns of Ceuta
and Melilla, Spanish enclaves in North Africa,
are surrounded with walls and barbed wire.
Naval patrols hunt for small boats transporting
exilees between Maghreb and the south of Spain,
then between west Africa and the Canaries, then
between Lybia and the south of Italia, finally
between the Turkish coast and the Greek islands.
The land border between Turkey and Greece
thus became the main crossing point for exilees
from Africa and Asia. A pretty dangerous river,
the Evros, makes up the greatest part of that
border, save for a dozen kilometes where Turkey
continues on the west bank of the river. The
Greek government has planned to build a wall
on that 12 km portion.
Greece does not respect the right to asylum
and locks up the undocumented in sub-human
conditions, a fact established by associations and
international institutions. Despite this and a
recent finding by the European Court of Human
Rights, most European countries continue to
send asylum seekers in Greece within the
framework of the European guideline, Dublin II.
Facing the lack of reception in Greece, the
Exiles continue their journey to Italy and wait in
the "jungles" of Patras and Igoumenitsa to be
able to get onto a truck that will come aboard a
ferry bound for Ancône, Bari or Venise. Others
go up through the Balkan states, towards central
Europe.
Since January 25th, 300 migrants have been on
a hunger strike in Athens and Thessalonica, to
obtain papers, access to the job market and to
dignified reception conditions.
In the next issue of Without Borders, a report
from our special correspondent.
More information at:
h t t p://ww w.m i g reu rop.or g/
h t t p://w2eu .ne t/
h t t p:// hu n ger s tr ike300.e s pivblo g s.ne t
h t t p://ex i le sen g re ce.over-blo g.com /
 WITHOUT BORDERS
Drowned by the border
The Nord-Pas-de-Calais prefect was inhumane
enough to state that the drowned man was a
wanted smuggler, implying that being a smuggler
was tantamount to a death sentence, and that
the strange conditions of the drowning did not
necessitate any investigation. A man fled the
law.
But wasn't he scared, instead, of the PAF
officers' brutality? Scared of being locked up in
one of our jails famous for their inhumanity?
Border crossing is a perfectly legal activity,
even if it is criminalized by nationalist
bürokrats. It is as instructive to say of someone
that he or she is a smuggler, as it is to say that
he or she takes hitch-hikers. The real question is:
did he or she have something to hide, actually?
We do not know what kind of smuggler that
person was: what he or she may have done
outside of smuggling people as he or she has the
right to do. To smuggle people is essentially as
insignificant as giving a lift to someone from
Calais to Lille.
Some criminal networks, however, sometimes
use lethal violence to establish their territorial
monopoly of the black market, to secure profits
for themselves. But the crossing is not, in itself,
violent. We thus cannot judge that poor 24 year
old Afghan. No more than can we judge someone
on the basis that he or she has a croissant in the
morning, for that is as insignificant and
legitimate as crossing borders.
Actually, we prefer to assume, considering the
facts we do know, that this person had a courage
and a sense of justice much more developed than
that of the irresponsible robocops who hunted
him down, and who provoked his death by
drowning.
And we hope the investigation will reveal why
it took the police so long to call the fire brigade,
when their station is 2 minutes away.
A BIG BROTHER's cog: the
Steria group
"Steria delivers services that rely on new
technologies and that allow administrations and
companies to improve their efficiency and their
profitability."
In other words, Steria makes money by helping
governments establishing the general filing of
populations, and cuts in the personnel of public
services .
With a 1.6 billion euros turnover [1], and
established in 12 european countries in addition
to China, Morocco, and Singapore, Steria
"accompanies the transformation of public
services" under the cover of "simplifying the
every day life of citizens."
Biometry, electronical voting, chip-equipped ID
cards (continued on page 3)
p. 2
of the revolt of the mistreated?? And is it so surprising that he
who tries to escape is supported? Certainly, it would have been a
case of failure to help a person in danger, had it been otherwise.
Probably we should have pushed him over the other side, and have
him go through a 16 ft fall, so as to secure ourselves the respect of
the ministers, mayors, police officers and other citizens...  »
[1] h t t p://w w w. la libre.b e/s uje t/GL/Br u ge s+%28F land re -
Oc cident a le%29
[2] h t t p:// bx l .i ndy me d i a .or g/a r ticle s/1121
A little online game to learn to manage a detention centre:
h t t p://ww w.avenue -joi nv i l le. fr/i ntention s
To Madame Bouchart
To obey your xenophobic government's directives that contradict
Human Rights, you have put everything in place to make migrants'
lives hellish on the territory of Calais.
You hide behind arguments that fool no one:
- A secure distribution area, that serves as hunting ground for
the CRS
- Squats declared unsafe, when the streets, the cold and isolation
are much less safe
- Cleaning operations with your workers whose objective it is to
get a hold of the personal belongings of those who already have
nothing left.
The State gave you an important sum of money this winter to
improve the care of migrants in times of harsh cold.
This money should not serve to restore fences and barbed wire
that so help the CRS in their odious manhunt.
At the last migrants council, you got angry against the
international activists of No Borders, probably because you cannot
exercise any authority over them, as contrary to the humanitarian
associations on a leash due to your subsidies.
Take notice that you are facing europeans, french people,
calaisians, world citizens, with papers, and aware of their rights and
duties.
Forbidding access to the food distribution area amounts to
discrimination, and we will not hesitate to use judicial means to
protect our fundamental freedom of speech, demonstration,
movement and international solidarity.
Communications Team of Calais No Borders
From one No Borders to another
On February 19th and 20th, members of the No Borders network
gathered to take stock of the camp that took place from September
27th to October 3rd in Brussels, and talk about what could happen
next.
The Brussels camp was a very rich opportunity to meet, to debate
ideas, to weave networks together and to launch actions. But it was
also the object of rash police repression, in particular of preventive
arrests and violence. The Belgian Human Rights League sent an
account backed up by more than 80 testimonies to the Human
Rights Committee of the UN, who quoted it in their report on
Belgium.
The next camps will take place in Bulgaria (2011) and Sweden
(2012). The discussions also bore on Frontex, the European
deportation policy, and the European companies involved in the
business of deportations.
 WITHOUT BORDERS
Norrent-Fontes, a report on the march and
thinking on asylum
On Saturday the 29th January we participated in a march of
about 300 people from the village of Isbergues to Norrent-Fontes.
As we discussed in the last issue, the Prefect Bousquet has
formally demanded that the Mayor Norrent-Fontes dismantle a
camp near the town, on the basis that disturbances to public order
have taken place. The Ecologist Mayor Mr Marc Boulnois, has not
complied, and so risks prosecution.
The march was held to support the Mayor. Attended by other
Mayors from the area, the vice-president of the Regional Council
and a number of associations, including Terres d'errances,
Fraternité Migrants, the Belle Etoile. No Borders activists were
present. The march ended with a press conference by Marc
Boulnois. A lunch was waiting for the marchers, the money made
went to the Belle Etoile in Calais.
It was followed by two workshops, discussions, where you could
hear good things from the participants. (But unfortunately not the
right thing.)
Jean-Pierre Alaux, member of GISTI [1], pointed out that the
good reception conditions of Great Britain are a double-edged
sword: a person being denied asylum is more easily found if s/he is
fed and housed by the state. It is therefore more difficult to then
blend into the population.
All this was taking place with the backdrop of a banner saying
"Save asylum."
As No Borders, we do not want to save the asylum. Never again
do we want to accompany a migrant to a government building
where a person comfortably seated may decide the residence of a
person over a geographical area of 600,000 km².
Everyone has the right to asylum, to protection against danger
from his/her government. But what can a bürokrat sitting in a chair
do with his dirty paper ?
Asylum is a fact of nature, not a piece of paper that is carried in
a pocket. A person leaving a war zone to get to a peace zone is out
of danger by the very fact of being there. Similarly, a person leaving
an area of misery to reach a zone of prosperity.
The only thing that the bürokrat is doing in giving his usurper
permission is to "protect" the Exiles from French police
harassment, de facto racist, if not racist in ideology. An Exile is
given papers and "protected" from the possibility of being sent to
the dangerous country in question. But if it was not given the
French state would simply become an accomplice and we know that
people have been tortured to death in the past, because they were
not believed by the French authorities.
Clearly, this kind of "protection" makes no sense, since the Police
and the administration have no right to harass or deport migrants
in this way to begin with. But since they do it anyway, and since the
migrants are unable to change things, they have no choice but to
submit. Not because they want to, but because they simply cannot
cope otherwise.
It's on this kind of sickening constraint that "asylum" rests.
Therefore, the right to asylum must disappear, because it is a
declaration of slavery for all foreign people who are already in
enough trouble without having the French state on their backs too.
[1] Information and Support Group for Immigrants,
h t t p://ww w.g i s ti .or g/i ndex .php
If you wish to follow us, receive the paper in PDF format, or simply
react to our articles, you may send us an email at
s an s frontiere s.c a lai s @ gm a i l .com
An electronic copy is available on the following blog:
h t t p://s a n s frontiere s - c a la i s.blo g p os t.com
Comments welcome!
p. 3
the security tentacles are worming their way in
everywhere, for our own good, of course, and for
the benefit of private groups, with public money.
In Britain, Steria works with NOMS, the
« national offender management services », to
put on file and to track any person who has
been jailed. In Spain, Steria has put in place the
overhaul of postal services where electronic
messages are favored as against paper mail.
In Sweden, they manage the privatisation of
the student grant, loan, and recovery system.
In Belgium, thanks to the chip identity card
imposed on all only a little while ago, Steria puts
in place a network system between the FOREM
files of job seekers and those of "other structures
involved in job searching."
In Norway, a fingerprints file with high speed
access for all identity controls...
With the European Union, Steria is the drive
behind the establishment of the new Shengen
Information System (SIS II), and the Visa
Information System (VIS).
The security policies of our governments, the
filing and tracking possibilities offered by
techonological developments, have opened a wide
market to private companies.
Our personal information is out of our control.
They now only have to tattoo us when we're
born.
Big brother is watching you
[1] h t t p://ww w.s ter i a . fr/i ndex .php?
pa ge=pre sent a tion - s ter i a
Frontex is developing its power
FRONTEX was set up in 2004, it is the agency
responsible for protecting the external borders
of the European Union: surveillance, arrests,
and repatriation to their countries of origin or
third countries such as finance working against
Libya.
Members states provide specialists and
budgetery increases.
In October 2010, for the first time, rapid
response teams (RABIT teams) intervened on
the Greek-Turkish border at the request of the
Greek state. The number of people illegally
crossing the Greek border has decreased by 40%
and the effectiveness of Frontex is being praised
by European governments.
On January the 20th, from Austria and to the
general indifference of the media, 46 Nigerians
were deported to their country as part of a joint
charter led by Frontex. (continued on page 4)
 WITHOUT BORDERS
11 countries participated in the operation,
diluting responsibilities. Among these Nigerians,
a young woman of 27 a victim of forced
prostitution was arrested for illegally staying
when she came to ask for help and to denounce
her torturers. The aircraft took off at 1am to
prevent any activist rally at the airport.(1)
The new Hungarian presidency of the EU
pledged to strengthen the role of Frontex.
42 million euros in 2007, its budget should
amount to 100 million in 2011. (2)
Switzerland agreed first to cooperate with the
agency in February. It is participating in
Operation "Hermes" which started on February
20th due to the influx of refugees from North
Africa, by "lending" specially trained border
guards.
This, was despite opposition from the Greens
and Socialist Party politicians who lament that
we no longer speak of welcoming refugees but of
sending them back immediately even before they
reach the coast.(3)
Unlike its neighboring Tunisia and Libya,
Algeria is the only Mediterranean country which
has still not yielded to temptations against the
EU's financial participation in the supervision
and control of borders with Frontex. Italy is
multiplying meetings to try to convince the
Algerian government to cooperate.(4)
(1) h t t p://no -ra ci sm .ne t/a r ticle/3642/
(2) h t t p://w w w.eu2011.hu /fr/news/ la-
pre s idence -ren forcera i t-le -role - de -frontex
(3) h t t p://w w w.ts r.ch/i n fo/s u i sse/2971083 -
de s - ga rde s -frontiere - s u i sse s -bientot- en -
i t a lie.h tm l
(4)h t t p://ww w.elwa t an .com /rep or t a ge/ bient
ot- de s - e q u ip e s - d-i nter vention -rapide -
rabi ts -p ou r- tra q uer-le s -h a r ra ga-09- 02-2011-
110866_117.php
Ca la i s M i g ra nt Solid a r i ty is a transnational
group of activists bringing daily support to
migrants, through police monitoring, patrols and
watches around squats, jungles and camps,
clothes donations, english and french lessons, and
other acts of solidarity. There is a great need of
Calaisians! Get in touch by sending an email to
c a la i s olid a r i ty @ gm a i l .com
Keep informed by visiting the blog:
h t t p://c a la i sm i g ra nts olid a r i ty.w ordpre ss.co
m
p. 4
Crimes necessary to control borders, March
2011
Last month, we ended our summary on the 21 st of January. New
information has been added and should be included, for fear of
being forgotten. We recount therefore this month from the 20th of
January to the 25th February.
For being one of the places of border closure at one end of this
world from the free movement of peoples, the town of Calais has
seen a t le a s t 87 cases of kidnapping, 11 cases of destruction of
private property, 12 cases of physical aggression, 6 cases of verbal
aggression, 3 cases of tear gas spraying, 4 cases of harassment, two
cases of sexual harassment.
These are what the Police have been doing to the migrants and
activists. It is also important to remember the indirect
consequences of the manhunt that takes place every day, and which
have reached severe extremes this month.
One person d ie d , d row ne d on February the 22nd . Two people
fell from a roof and suffered mu l tiple fra ct u re s on February
10th and January 28th. Two people fell froma a gutter on February
9th and suffered a broken a r m and a he a d trau m a. Palestinian
youths d i s app e a re d on the night of January the 15th. They have
recently shown signs of life, after at least one month in which
every thing and any thing could have happened to them. A young 12
year old boy los t a fi n ger while trying to swim to a boat, on
January the 31st.
All these figures and facts hardly seem to do justice to the
inhumanity and malevolence of the French police, hiding behind
their duties before the invalid laws. So we also want to mention
episodes of the month that seem particularly troubling.
The CRS posing on the roof of the squat in rue Descartes with
their guns, and declaring that their work is a game. The PAF
coming into the courtyard of Africa House and waking everyone
very early, with their carlights, or with music, then leaving; this
happened many times. The PAF stealing the artwork of activists
and people from Africa House. The PAF trying to run over the
activists with their vans on several occasions. A man beaten on the
ground while he appeared to be unconscious and groaning; an
activist who arrived on the scene saw her camera smashed by the
perpetrators of the beating, who subsequently resumed their
violence. Activists were violently thrown to the ground and beaten
in the stomach and head. One activist was tripped to the ground,
and then the PAF declared that he must be more careful with the
debris on the ground. Officers of the PAF used a migrant to relay
sexual advances toward a female activist. Rumours circulated that
the Police, like last Spring, said to the migrants that female
activists are whores and that they make love with anyone.
Menacing insults, and rape jokes, by male Police towards female
activists, who are believed to be unable to understand French. A
minor was wounded in the arm by the CRS. Black eyes and a broken
nose that are supposed to be the result of a fall on the back.
Officers speak in Arabic to tell the migrants how pathetic they are,
and that they have no chance to stay in Calais.
One could go on forever to list all the little daily crimes done by
the "representatives of public order." Calais is a frustrating town, the
malice and wickedness are daily, too fleeting to be identified and
combatted. And so the activists and migrants continue to fight and
support each other as much as they can.