IN DETENTION centres across Europe more and more including refugees and people without the "cortion papers are being imprisoned.
Opposition to this brought gether over 200 people from 15 European coun tries at a conferCHEC DI "Barbed Wire Europe" orby France's Federation of Associaof immigrant in Lille on March Most of those present were involved in practical work assisting detainees. From tives from the London and Gatwick Detainee support Broups, Detention Advisory Service, the Refugee Legal Service and five from the Camapign to close Campsfield. Dr Christina Pourgourides, who reported on her study on the psychological harm inflicted on deConference opened with a strong address from the President of the Assembly of the Nord/Pas de Calais She demanded that the arms trade, third world "debt" should be challenged and anti- colonial policies be persued as well as the detentions of innocent people being ended.
During the reports from diller• ent countries it emerged that Brit. The Sans Papiers has become a mass movement of black people ain is exceptional in that it detains refugees and other migrants in common prisons.
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The numbers of people in. volved, the length of detentions, the lack of "proper" judicial proce dures and the involvement of private security firms also make it The Conference sent support to the "sans papiers" on hunger strike just a few minutes walk away (sec It also sent a letter to the European Commission President Jac ques Santer calling for the closure of detention centres, proper judicial procedures, and visiting rights for humanitarian, legal and medical support groups.
The mayor of Fernay-Voltaire on the border with switzerand told how his town success. fully opposed the building of a detention centres nearby. He invited delegates Fernay for a recall conference. Proposals for this and for international day ofaction will be considered by a steering group from the conference. A full report will be published. Contact 01865 558145.
EST MIDLAND! TV special