A-Infos (en) Paperless : call for solidarity

[samizdat@ecn.org]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
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Paris, January 6th, 1997

LILLE (FRANCE) :  FAILURE TO RENDER ASSISTANCE TO PAPERLESS PERSONS IN
DANGER ... OF DEATH

Eighteen members of the Lille Sans-Papiers Committee ("CSP 59") have
been on indefinite hunger strike since November 17th, 1997 - in other
words for 49 days. They are holding out with courage and determination
for the "regularisation" of their right to stay in France.

This hunger strike is the 4th in the history of CSP 59 and was started
after a wait of several months, during which some sans-papiers received
their 9th appointment for an interview with the authorities, without any
clear indication of the government's decision on their fate.
In this way, after a series intimidations and prevarications against a
background of repression, the local  immigration authorities, who are
already renowned for their contempt for the cause of the paperless
immigrants mobilised by the Sans-Papiers, are now playing with the lives
of the hunger strikers and attempting to force them into capitulation by
attrition and divisive manoeuvres.

Do we really have to wait for a man to die before we find a collective
solution to the legitimate demand for the global regularisation of the
hunger strikers and their comrades?

Already, three hunger strikers had to be hospitalised last week as an
emergency measure because they were vomiting blood. According to the
association of 14 local doctors set up to monitor the hunger strike, the
situation is becoming "genuinely perilous" for all the others.

The National Coordination of Sans-Papiers in Struggle vigorously
denounces the cynicism and obstinacy of the local immigration authority
(Préfecture du Nord), which is deliberately allowing the situation to
deteriorate in contempt for the life of paperless foreigners whose only
crime, in most cases, is to be unmarried (because married immigrants
have a much higher chance of obtaining a legal residence permit). The
Coordination also denounces the inconsistencies and dead-ends of the
Circular of June 24th 1997 and of the proposed laws contained in the
Chevènement and Guigou Bills, which represent a continuity of suspicion,
criminalisation and discrimination, while maintaining the Sans-Papiers
in particular and all foreigners in general in a situation of social and
economic precarity and exclusion.
This state of affairs is unacceptable.

It is therefore urgent to send letters and faxes of protest to the
Interior Minister/Home Secretary:

Monsieur le Ministre de l'Intérieur
Place Beauveau,
75008 PARIS
France
Fax: (+33) 1 43 59 89 50

fax a copy of your message to the hunger strikers :

(++33) 3 20 86 15 56


For further information, please contact:
Coordination Nationale de Sans-Papiers
22 rue Pajol
75018 PARIS
Tel/Fax: (+33) 1 46 07 16 19

Bank a/c: CMDP No. 80187841




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