Mais way onto our screens both try ing to break records.
But wno caresr ane migrants were non-white and breaking the Noone cataco are ac journey after all.
Ordinary
There was an ordinariness about the whole episode. Even its revelation met with disinterest. No one believed the survivors tales Most of the press ignored it, even after The Observer's coverage.
Those lines come back to me, About suttering they were never wrong/ The Old Masters/ How well they understood/ Its human position".
The migrants had paid agents in their own countries anything between US $5,000 and US $8,000 for passage into Europe as undocumcatca legal workersThe ship captains and crew fear imprisonment and heavy fines if caught with their merchandise. So sometimes the would be immigrants will change ships several times to avoid attention. For most of the journey they are kept below deck anyway. Penned in cramped accommodation, eating gruel and scraps, sleeping, defecating, hophis way onto our screens... in France.
Once upon a time people from the Third World were encouraged to migrate to the First. That was when they needed cheap, semi-skiica aoour. Now ine require ments have changed.
vive us your (cacers, doctors. scientists and professionals whose upbringing and education we didn't pay for". Two-thirds of Ghanaian doctors who graduated after 1980 have left that country in the 'brain drain'.
As Western Europe tears down the walls between its countries it crects new ones around it. The bricks in this wall are laws like the Immigration and Asylum Act in Britain which criminalise non-white people and make emplovers. health workers and school teachers into immigradon oricials.
Once upon a time, one would take a simple but safe boat journey or fly direct. Today, even an asy. lum secker needs a visa and airline companies are fined for carrying passengers without proper entry That makes it more difficult to enter the West but still not impossible. dred African men and women began their struggle for the right to live and work in France. In August 1996 they were violently removed from a church • St Bernard • which they had occupled.
In response to this, some of these men and women began hunger strikes, in one instance, the hunger strike lasted for more than fifty days.
Every week the Authorttles are expelling more people without regard for human rights.
Thousands of 'Sans Papiers' from 40 different countries have joined the struggle since August 1996 and have received help from a coordinating group based movement became national when local groups, throughout France, decided to unite and combine taeir acaons. Indy dugan national campaigns and awareness raising with the alm of enabling the 'Sans Paplers' obtain residency permits for all.
The supporters of the 'Sans Papiers' movement include trade unions, left wing organisations, community groups, people compolitics and life.
The 'Sans Paplers' movement are now in need of international solidarity and contact with other groups and movements around the world.
Immigrants in many European countries including those from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and the USA can all benefit from sharina information and support. They also need the active support of organisations, groups and individuals who are willing to show their commitment to freedom. of protest to the French government and to the president to demand:
* Resident permits for all of the 'Sans Papiers' * The Immediate release of those currently imprisoned * To immediately suspend all deportations * The return of those who have been deported * A repeal of anti-immigrant legislation Protest Send your protest urgently to:
58, me de Varenne, 75007 Paris fax: + + (331) 45 44 15 72 and M. le President de la Republique 55, rue du fbg. St. Honore, 75008 Paris fax: + + (331) 47 42 24 65 Please send a copy of your letter to us at the address below.
For further information contact: National Coordination of 'Sans--papiers' 22, rue Pajol, 75018 Paris, France fax (331) 46 07 16 19 http://bok.net/pajol E--mail : [email protected]
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