Detained immigrants on hunger strike in France: "We refuse to be treated as sub-humans"

The protest is being supported by the sans papiers solidarity group RESF (Education Without Borders Network). On New Year’s Day, RESF organised a demonstration of some 60 people outside the Mesnil-Amelot centre with the participation of several show business personalities.

One detainee told the press that December 30-31, for the second consecutive night, “The police, at around midnight, surrounded the detainees who were in the yard refusing to go to their rooms [and] shouting ‘Freedom.’” There were fifty policemen with helmets and batons. According to another detainee, some of the protesters were injured as they were forced back to their rooms. The immigrants said that they had been disturbed by eight or ten head counts the previous night.