Fifteen Eritrean migrants and a volunteer from Terre d'errance (loosely 'Earth Wandering'), an association helping migrants in the Northern France, were arrested on Wednesday 25th at Norrent-Fontes, near Béthune in NW France.
On the route to England, the truck stop at St Hilaire-Cottes on the A26 is a base for migrants trying to get across the Channel and it is regularly targeted by Border police for raids. Following the arrest of the 15 Eritreans at the Norrent-Fontes camp by Border police, the police went to the home of Monique Pouille, a Terre d’errance volunteer, who had regularly been helping migrants in the area. In their possession was a warrant for Monique's arrest for the "flagrant crime of assisting illegal immigrants", to quote the police. They also searched her house and took away 3 laptops belonging to migrants whose batteries she had been charging. All those arrested were taken to the detention centre at Coquelles near Calais.
Nan Suel, one of the managers at Terre D’errance in Norrent-Fontes, expressed his ‘surprise’ and ‘incomprehension’ . It’s the first time that a volunteer from the association has been arrested, though volunteers from other migrant support groups have recently been suffering increasing police harassment and a number have been arrested.
Later that afternoon, dozens of people from Steenvoorde, Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk and Norrent-Fontes gathered around the Border police facility at the detention centre to protest the arrests. Monique was finally released after 10 hours in police custody.
Terre D'errance blog
There is also a short film in English which features Monique on France 24 (though there is an annoyingly regular use of the term 'illegal' immigrant)
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