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To: Robert Goodwill, Immigration Minister and Amber Rudd, Home Secretary

Stop the building of a pointless wall in Calais

Stop the building of a pointless wall in Calais

We need to stop the spending of £1.9million of UK tax payer money on building a pointless wall in Calais, the first border wall to be built in Europe since the Berlin wall.

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Arrêtez la construction d’un mur inutile à Calais

Nous devons empêcher la dépense de 1,9 millions de livres des contribuables britanniques pour construire un mur inutile à Calais, le premier mur frontière construit en Europe depuis le mur de Berlin.

Why is this important?

There is no evidence to support that the building of further border defenses at Calais will help resolve the border situation, and will rather put refugees at further risk of injury and death.

We need better political dialogue around the safe passage of refugees into Britain. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it is Britain's responsibility to care for those affected by wars, poverty and conflict, particularly those that Britain has had a direct hand in creating or maintaining through defensive interventions and the arms trade. Britain's responsibility includes caring for the displaced citizens of those countries on our home soil.

The Calais jungle and other migrant camps in the Calais area are a human rights sore on the conscience of the West. The first-step solution is to stop the building of a pointless wall on the UK border in Calais, the second step will be to remove the UK border from Calais and back into the UK. This will ensure a safe passage of refugees into their destination country. The border situation is not going to be solved by building a pointless wall.

The camps exist in Calais because the UK has pushed its border controls into France, to try and stem migration into the UK. Since the defenses were built in 2014, net migration into the UK has increased, as have the residents of Calais and the documented border crossing attempts. This proves that these controls have little or no impact on migration into the UK.

The UK demonstrates a rigid, racist border control policy by not allowing migration form outside the EU into the UK where people can seek asylum through legal means. This results in people being trapped on the border in Calais living in slum conditions, attempting dangerous crossings to try and reach family and asylum in the UK.

Building walls and increasing border defenses has yet to be proven as an effective means of dealing with refugees and migration. Instead it puts pressure on neighbouring countries and fractures international relations with these countries.

Stop the building of a pointless wall in Calais, and take our border back onto our own soil.

#pointlesswall #Calais #stopthewall

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Il n’y a aucune preuve soutenant que la construction de défenses frontalières supplémentaires va aider à résoudre la situation à la frontière, et cela va plutôt mettre les réfugiés dans une situation où ils courent plus de risques de blessures et de mort.

Nous avons besoin d’un meilleur dialogue politique autour de possibilités de passage sûr des réfugiés vers la Grande-Bretagne. En tant qu’un des pays les plus riches du monde, il est de la responsabilité de la Grande-Bretagne de prendre soin des personnes affectées par la guerre, la pauvreté et les conflits, particulièrement ceux dans lesquels la Grande-Bretagne a une implication directe en les créant ou les maintenant par des interventions défensives ou par les ventes d’armes. La responsabilité de la Grande-Bretagne est notamment d’accueillir des citoyens déplacés sur son propre sol.

Les campements existent à Calais parce que le Royaume-uni a déplacé ses contrôles frontaliers en France, pour essayer d’empêcher la migration vers le Royaume-uni. Depuis que des défenses ont été érigées en 2014, la migration nette vers le Royaume-uni a augmenté, comme le nombre de réfugiés présents à Calais et les tentatives documentés de franchissement de la frontière. Cela prouve que ces contrôles ont un impact limité ou pas d’impact sur la migration vers le Royaume-uni.

Le Royaume-uni fait preuve d’une politique de contrôle des frontières rigide et raciste en n’autorisant pas l’immigration de l’extérieur de l’Union européenne de personnes qui peuvent demander légalement l’asile. Avec comme résultat des personnes bloquées à la frontière à Calais vivant dans des conditions misérables, essayant dangereusement de franchir la frontière pour rejoindre leur famille et tenter l’asile au Royaume-uni.

Il faudrait maintenant prouver que construire des murs et accroître les défenses à la frontière sont un moyen effectif de traiter la question des réfugiés et de la migration. Cela met plutôt sous pression les pays voisins et brise les relations internationales avec ces pays.

Arrêtez la construction d’un mur inutile à Calais, et reprenez votre frontière sur votre propre sol.

#pointlesswall #Calais #stopthewall
Calais, France

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2016-12-04 13:29:10 +0000

Yesterday a small group of activists went to the wall in Calais to release a banner #BridgesNotWalls
Here is the facebook photo album, please share with your friends and contacts:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=582590426&sk=photos&collection_token=582590426%3A2305272732%3A69&set=a.10157839601515427.1073741848.582590426&type=3&pnref=story

2016-09-11 20:38:11 +0100

5,000 signatures reached

2016-09-07 18:29:58 +0100

1,000 signatures reached

2016-09-07 12:37:05 +0100

500 signatures reached

2016-08-03 10:53:34 +0100

French petition here, please SIGN HERE IF YOU LIVE IN FRANCE:
https://www.change.org/p/amber-rudd-ministre-de-l-int%C3%A9rieur-britannique-arr%C3%AAtez-la-construction-d-un-mur-inutile-%C3%A0-calais?recruiter=883465&utm_source=petitions_show_components_action_panel_wrapper&utm_medium=copylink

2016-08-03 10:29:30 +0100

Some really useful and interesting historical context to the border defences in Calais over the last two decades, thanks to a French supporter of the campaign:
https://passeursdhospitalitesenglish.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/new-wall-of-calais-petition-to-the-british-authorities/

2016-08-02 12:01:07 +0100

This image details all of the refugee deaths on our border relocated to Calais. An awful statistic. People fleeing terrorism arrive to find this. The wall will only make this worse. #stopthewall #pointlesswall https://www.facebook.com/help4refugeechildren/photos/pcb.279343242435386/1775593652663712/?type=3&theater

2016-07-29 16:08:58 +0100

Please also sign and share this UK Govt petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/162732
#stopthewall #pointlesswall

2016-07-29 11:32:41 +0100

If you are more fortunate than othes, it is better to build a longer table, than a taller fence. Thanks for all your support so far! Please help spread the word share on social medua & email. Thank you! https://www.instagram.com/p/BFrUqs2SIUL/

2016-07-27 17:32:01 +0100

Interesting and relevant article from 2015, detailing the importance of not building more pointless walls or defenses in Calais, but what has been done so far? Nothing! Let's share this far and wide to raise awareness of this issue and get better dialogue going for refugee and asylum seeker rights in the EU. Even more important to bring this issue to UK govt attention since Brexit, so the UK doesn't lunch out on its responsibility to care for these people after leaving. Let's #stopthewall !!

"As Europeans, we should know all too well that building walls is never a solution. Instead of building divisive and ineffective walls that divide us further, Britain and France should be working together to help process asylum claims and provide humanitarian assistance to those in need."

Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/06/building-walls-calais-asylum-seekers-uk-france

2016-07-26 23:01:08 +0100

100 signatures reached

2016-07-25 14:21:26 +0100

50 signatures reached

2016-07-24 12:36:21 +0100

25 signatures reached

2016-07-23 00:00:47 +0100

10 signatures reached