Tear Gas

So, Monday was the deadline for all removals to be completed by - which they were. The French authorities wasted no time in sending in the bulldozers to excavate the land and erase all traces of the lives that had previously inhabited it. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to take any photos of their activities as I have only had time to drive past the affected section of land.

However, on Monday night I was in camp and have photos of a stand off that occurred between some of the refugees and the CRS.

I was in camp drinking tea with some friends and when I tried to leavs I discovered that the police were on the bridge preventing anyone from entering or leaving the camp. I went beack in and headed for the former Afghan area which is next to the piece of land currently being bulldozed. I went this way because there was a lot of smoke coming from that direction.

When I reached the field in question, I was met with an apocalyptic scene as there were at least 15 bonfires burning surrounded by refugees with scarves over their mouths and noses. Every so often something would explode in the sky over one of the fires - tear gas canisters being fired in by the CRS from the bridge.

Being tear-gassed offensively by the CRS is a near nightly experience for the refugees in the camp although the French authrities insist that they only use it defensively to restore law and order and never fire it into the camp. The use of tear gas is actually banned in warfare under the chemical weapons convention yet its use on unarmed civilians and vulnerable refugees is apparently acceptable.

The British are paying for a substantial proportion of the security in Calais and the French are implementing the security strategy. Therefore, they are both complicit in the use of chemical weapons against refugees - an action that I'm pretty sure contravenes international human rights law and refugee law.

And isn't it rather ironic that both countries are currently engaged in the Syrian conflict under the pretense of protecting the Syrian people from, amongst other things, the use of chemical weapons against them by the Assad Regime?

The following morning, I showed a Guardian journalist around the area and here are the remains of the tear gas cannisters that had been fired in to the camp.