European Marches against Unemployment - News and Archives
To day, July 15th, this is the 29th day of hunger strike..., follows the call of the "3eme collectif des sans papiers:
WE ARE ON HUNGER STRIKE. WHY?
We are "sans-papiers", undocumented immigrants living in France. Our request for "regularisation" and legal residence papers has been refused. We started a hunger strike on Tuesday, June 16th 1998.
We know that this decision is grave, but because we are desperate, hundreds of us are willing to resort to this ultimate step. 30 of us have already started the hunger strike. We trusted the French government: we presented our files to the administration and freely gave them our names and addresses. The members of our collective include families with children born in France or who arrived in France in their infancy. There are also unmarried people who have been living in France for twelve years. We believed that we satisfied the criteria laid down by the government, and our hopes were high. But we have been turned down, for a variety of reasons.
In August and September, many cases identical to our own were accepted. We do not understand why ours have been rejected.
We have submitted appeals. They remain either unanswered or receive only a standard answer that does not address any of our individual arguments.
On the legal level, all recourses are now closed to us. At any instant, we may be stopped in the street for an identity check, arrested, placed in a detention centre and forcibly deported from France. In the meantime, the government is throwing us back into hiding as illegal immigrants. From now on, fear has returned to our everyday life.
However, we are asking for nothing more extraordinary than a normal life for ourselves and our children. The French government has refused to engage in talks with us. To make ourselves heard, we have therefore decided to go on hunger strike.
PLEASE HELP US Inform people about our cause and our demands Your solidarity will be decisive We are relying on you.
The 3rd Collective of Sans-Papiers
The following trade unions, voluntary sector associations and political parties were the first to sign in our support: CGT (trade union federation), Greens ("Les Verts"), French Communist Party (PCF), Human Rights League (LDH), Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP), Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), Young Communists (Jeunesse Communiste), Ras-l'Front (anti-fascist association), Ensemble dans le 19, ATF, FTCR, ATTF. Paris, June 25th ===========
APPEAL
Since June 16th, 29 "sans-papiers" (undocumented immigrants) members of the 3rd Collective of Sans-Papiers, together with 1 French supporter, have been on hunger strike. The reason is that the second phase of the "regularisation" process, promising an indispensable revision of the cases that were rejected in defiance of common sense and in contempt of considerations of justice and past promises, has been found to be totally lacking in substance:
- Most appeals will not be examined, - The French government refuses all talks on new examination procedures, - The government is unwilling to accept any mediation.
For that reason, we, as sans-papiers, and the French citizens in solidarity with our cause, are taking part in the personal sponsorship ("parrainage") ceremony on June 27th 1998 and in launching an awareness-raising campaign with the aim of obtaining legal residence papers for all members of the 3rd Collective and, beyond, for all those who have submitted formal requests for the "regularisation" of their legal status.
As of now, we issue this urgent appeal for mobilisation in solidarity with the hundreds of "sans-papiers" currently occupying - and sheltered by - the Reformed Church in Batignolles (L'Eglise R‚form‚e des Batignolles, 44 boulevard des Batignolles, Paris, France), Our demands:
- Reexamination of all rejected cases - Definition of new general conditions for examining our files - A moratorium on deportations while this new phase is completed.
postal address : 3eme collectif des sans papiers de Paris 21ter ryue Voltaire 75011 Paris, France
E-mail : pajol@bok.net
"sans-papiers" site: http://bok.net/pajol
Contact:
"Marches europeennes contre le chomage, la precarite et les
exclusions"
104, rue des Couronnes
F-75020 Paris France
Tel : +33 1 44 62 63 44
Fax : +33 1 44 62 63 45
E-mail : marches97@ras.eu.org
URL: http://www.mygale.org/02/ras/marches/
Contact: "AC!", France, Voice/Fax: +33-1-43495037, e-mail: aguiton@sud.unions.eu.org.
Last Modified: October 1998