Today (Tuesday 2nd) the French police evicted the Squat Galloo and the jungle near the Leader Price supermarket. Opened in July 2014 by a collaboration between associations, migrants and activists, at one point home to over 300 people, Galloo was a space in Calais for people to gather, share a meal, charge phones, and rest. It was people’s home.

This morning at 6am the eviction at Galloo started and by 10am the numbers of police had increased. The police surrounded the 12,000m square disused metal reclamation building blocking off all possible exits. People staying inside were given a limited time to collect possessions and were escorted from the building through a side entrance. Reports claim that 66 people were arrested and around 40 of them were taken to the detention centre in Coquelles, although this is not confirmed. There is now security on the premises.

At the Leader Price Jungle, which had already experienced a semi-eviction earlier this year, scores of Gendarmes cleared the area around the supermarket, forcing people from their sleeping spaces. There are reports of arrests from here as well.

The new destination for the people ejected from their shelters is the open air prison on the outskirts of Calais, the new jungle surrounding the Jules Ferry Centre. Those evicted today were those who had been resisting the ‘voluntary’ move to the new day centre for over two months, having been pressured by the police and other state organisations to leave at the end of March. Here is a statement from the residents in Galloo, written back at the end of March to explain why they didn’t willingly move to the new centre.

This police operation was co-ordinated as well with the eviction of a large jungle in La Chapelle in Paris, which was home to over 350 people.

From Paris-Luttes.info:

(Gathered from various articles & translated by Rabble)

 

The eviction of the 600 or so mostly East African refugees from the camp of La Chapelle, Paris, on Tuesday was alleviated by a soothing chorus of liberal humanitarianism. All day, the radio and TV bleeted out about the public health emergency and humanitarian necessity of the operation on the site near the Gare du Nord. Dozens of vanloads of riot police and large numbers of undercover cops – identifiable by their brash orange armbands – descended on the site at 5.45am. In a frighteningly familiar routine, the camp inhabitants were methodically split into groups and loaded onto buses: families or single people; asylum seekers; different nationalities; ‘true’ or ‘false’ Eritreans. Separating the wheat from the chaff were the NGO workers from Emmaüs and France Terre d’Asile, distinguishable from the undercover cops only by their green armbands, and presumably, their friendlier veneer. A thin crowd of protestors watched and shouted from the sidelines, kept at bay by a ring of police.

To finish the humanitarian spectacle, at least some of the camp inhabitants were bussed out to different homeless shelters across Paris and beyond,  leaving the machines free to raze their tents and belongings in peace. These accommodation offers usually only last a few days – but just long enough to get people out the way.

On Thursday and Friday, migrants and comrades tried to regroup in front of a church near the site of the eviction, before they were swiftly encircled by police. Attempts were made to occupy a church and a gym, only to be blocked by the cops or violently evicted. The media have also announced plans to evict another, smaller camp near the Gare d’Austerlitz. The struggle continues…

http://rabble.org.uk/france-humanitarianism-in-action-as-migrant-camps-are-cleared/