months on the decision of a magistrate - hence the new detention centres.
As in Britain, the official language of forcible detention is full of euphemisms. Detention centres in France are officially "retention centres". People are not deported = Å voł oc vł oa deportation of jews, gypsies and others by nazi collaborators - but "distanced", éloigné.
Under Charles Pasqua there has been a systematic attack on people who solidarise with immigrant workers.
Most notable perhaps is the December 27 1994 law no. 94-1136 which states that "any person who while in France directly or indirectly assists or attempts to assist the irregular entry, movement or stay of a foreigner in France shall be punished by five years in prison and a fine of 200,000 francs".
The new law has been undermined by a national campaign and the petition by over 300 well-known public figures stating that they have broken, or intend to break, the law by assisting foreigners whose situation is deemed "irregular" by the government.
The president of the Orleans association has been tried for public defamation of the police. His offence was to distribute a leaflet that recalls the role of the local police in Vichy France in imprisoning jews and others in detention camps from which they were sent on to their deaths in Germany and Poland.
He was acquitted along with the co-charged Kassoum Sidiki Ba at Orleans Correctional Tribune on June 23. The state prosecutor has appealed.
The French state does not intend to give up its pursuit of what is a part of a more or less Europe-wide governmental policy on this question.
Momentous decisions on immigration matters are made by interior and justice minister at secret meetings free of all public scrutiny and control. picket of around 250 people, with a significant role played by the Ragbir Singh campaign.
The day of actions co-insided with Ragbir's daughter's birthday. Pressure from the campaign forced prison authorities to return Ragbir to Birmingham.
• Around 200 people supported the picket at Harmondsworth detentiomn centre, with a coach organ- 'FIGHTING RACISM ised by the Collin Roach centre being supported by the Joint Commission for the Welfare of Immigrants.
• A march from Gosport Ferry to Haslar prison was diverted by police away from the planned route through Portsmouth town centre. Police also prevented the demo from going anywhere near the immigration wing of the prison. It appears that police were acting under instructions from a committee established under the Maastricht treaty.
• The picket at Campsfield detention centre near Oxford was supported by a livety delegation of activists from the Ivory Coast, and by the well established Close Down Campsfield Campaign, organised through the local labour movement.
• In Leicester a picket of the Immigration Police's office on June 21 received media attention from Sunrise Radio and local media. Activists from Leicester also mobilised for the Campsfield demo on the 24th.
• In Bristol a picket was organised by the local branch of ARA at Horfield prison.
• In Hull local activists organised a mass leafleting of the town centre.