On Monday evening in central Paris, migrants and journalists were physically abused by police engaged in a brutal, manu militari evacuation of a makeshift camp set up on the Place de la République. The police violence was exposed in images circulating on social media and which would be banned if draft legislation currently before parliament is approved. In this joint op-ed article, Mediapart co-editor in chief Carine Fouteau and social affairs editor Mathilde Mathieu argue that the overnight events are a representation of the liberticidal drift of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration, and may prove to be a political turning point.
Four US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, bought by France and discovered by forces loyal to the UN-backed Libyan government in a camp used by enemy troops serving Libya’s eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, were left by a French military unit on 'counter-terrorism operations' and were 'damaged and unusable' according the defence ministry in Paris.
A migrant camp close to the Channel port of Dunkirk, in north-east France, which housed about 1,500 people in wooden sheltered accommodation, was razed to the ground in a huge blaze on Monday that was started during fighting between groups of Iraqi Kurds and Afghans. The events have further fuelled anti-immigrant rhetoric from candidates campaigning in the French presidential elections, and placed in question the outgoing socialist government’s already reluctant support for the site. But, as Carine Fouteau reports, the local mayor behind the creation of the camp, which opened only last year, has pledged to rebuild it.
At least ten people were reported injured among the camp's more than 1,000 residents when the blaze, which broke out following fighting between Afghans and Kurds, levelled its closely packed wooden huts.
François Hollande, on the second leg of a South American tour and who is the first French president to visit Colombia in 30 years, pledged further support for the country's peace process, which it already partly funds, during a visit to a Farc rebel camp.
Hundreds of unaccompanied minors trapped in the "Jungle" migrant shantytown in Calais, which is due to be demolished, are to be allowed entry into Britain to join relatives as French and British officials speed up the transfer process.
The northern French port of Calais was this week the scene of violent clashes between police and migrants who continue to gather in their thousands in the hope of crossing illegally into Britain. While a recent security clampdown at the port and Channel Tunnel entrance has succeeded in reducing incursions, migrants continue to arrive in Calais and the numbers living in the infamous makeshift ‘jungle’ camp have swollen significantly. As winter approaches, the authorities are attempting to disperse the migrants, some to holding centres, others into temporary accommodation, while actively inciting them to apply for asylum in France. Carine Fouteau reports.
In just a year the number of migrants living in the so-called 'New Jungle' camp at Calais in north-east France waiting to get to the UK has doubled to around 6,000. The migrant question has now become a key issue in December's regional elections, with the head of the far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen, standing for the region that includes Calais. But what do the town's residents think about the migrants and their plight? As Haydée Sabéran found out, it is a complex picture.
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