January 2017
Of course, solidarity has never been included in any code as an offense.
However, associative activists who are only helping people in very precarious situations, victims of dangerous, violent and even inhuman decisions, find themselves facing justice today.
With the introduction of a state of emergency, and in the context of the so-called “migratory crisis”, there has been a resurgence of prosecutions aimed at preventing the expression of solidarity with migrants, refugees, Roma and undocumented migrants. It is the support for all foreigners which tends to become suspect, the expression of the contestation of the policies being carried out which is assimilated with rebellion and the disturbance to public order.
The law makes it possible to prosecute those who help the “sans-papiers” 1, but all sorts of other charges are now used to hinder any citizen action that is opposed to the policies being implemented. All these intimidations, prosecutions, and sometimes convictions, are in fact what really constitute new forms of the “offense of solidarity”.
As early as 2009, associations for the defense of human rights and support for foreigners denounced the fact that the offense of “assistance for the entry, movement and residence of foreigners in an irregular situation” which was intended to combat those who trade in the trafficking and exploitation of foreigners, has allowed over time to sanction the “helpers” of undocumented foreigners, even if not acting for profit. If the penalties are not always applied, such a regulation will of course have a dissuasive effect on those who refuse to submit to policies hostile to foreigners.
The mobilization of the associations, at the time, resulted in several successive reforms, including that of 31 December 2012 which was presented as the “suppression” of the crime of solidarity. It is not so ; The redrafting of the texts merely specifies and increases the cases of exemption from prosecution. In addition to assistance to parents, assistance is granted which has only been aimed at “ensuring dignified and decent living conditions abroad” or “preserving the dignity or physical integrity “. Despite this, people who have expressed their solidarity with foreigners without a residence permit continue to be treated as criminals – summoned by the police or gendarmerie, put in police custody, searched, telephone tapping – even prosecuted and sometimes punished with fines and imprisonment .
At the same time, prosecutions have been started on the basis of texts not related to immigration.
Offenses of contempt, insult and defamation, rebellion or violence against a law enforcement officer are used to defend the administration and the police against those who criticize their practices;
The offense of “obstructing the movement of an aircraft”, which appears in the Civil Aviation Code, makes it possible to suppress passengers who, seeing persons tied up and gagged in an airplane, protest against the violence of the evictions;
The regulations sanctioning the employment of a foreign worker without a work permit have been of concern to people who host irregular migrants who accept that their guests assist them in domestic work.
Today, the motives for prosecution are becoming ever more diverse. While prosecutions for helping entry and stay have resumed, new charges are used to condemn solidarity actions:
Urban planning regulations have been invoked at Norrent-Fontes (Pas-de-Calais) to demand the destruction of migrant shelters;
Texts on hygiene or safety applicable to premises have served to prevent accommodation being provided in St-Etienne;
The absence of a seat belt and a seat for a girl in a truck resulted in the conviction of a helper in Calais;
The intrusion into particular zones, prohibited because of a state of emergency, was used, in Calais also, to prevent citizen’s seeing ;
The offense of forgery and the use of forgery has been used to intimidate people who wanted to attest the presence for more than 48 hours of people in a squat in Clichy;
etc…
And, more and more, the mere fact of having wanted to witness police operations, evictions of camps, raids, can lead to an arrest, under cover of rebellion or violence against an agent.
These intimidation processes must stop. We affirm the legitimacy of citizens’ right of scrutiny over the practices of the administration, the justice or the police.
We want to encourage those who show solidarity with people in precarious situations without worrying about whether or not they are in a regular situation regarding their stay. We refuse that populations targeted by xenophobic practices and policies are stopped from having support. The future of the very principle of solidarity is at stake.
Join the collective and participate in its actions : look at the box after the signatures
First organisations to have signed :
National Associations
Acort (Assemblée citoyenne des originaires de Turquie)
ADDE (Avocats pour la défense des droits des étrangers)
ADMIE (Association pour la Défense des Mineurs Isolés Etrangers)
AFVS (Association des familles victimes du saturnisme)
Amoureux au ban public (Les)
Attac France
Catred (Collectif des accidentés du travail, handicapés et retraités pour l’égalité des droits)
Cedetim/Ipam (Centre d’études et d’initiatives de solidarité internationale)
Ceras (Centre de recherche et d’action sociales)
Cnafal (Conseil national des associations familiales laïques)
Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope
Collectif Ni Guerres Ni État de Guerre
Comede (Comité pour la santé des exilés)
Comegas (Collectif des médecins généralistes pour l’accès aux soins)
Copaf (Collectif pour l’avenir des foyers)
Culture et Liberté
Emmaüs France
Fasti (Fédération des associations de solidarité avec tou-te-s les immigré-e-s)
Fédération Entraide Protestante
Fnars (Fédération des acteurs de la solidarité)
Fondation Abbé Pierre
FTCR (Fédération des Tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives)
Gisti (Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré·e·s)
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) France
La Cimade
LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme)
Mrap (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples)
RESF (Réseau Éducation Sans Frontières)
Revivre (association de soutien aux demandeurs d’asile, réfugiés syriens et prisonniers politiques en Syrie)
Secours Catholique
UJFP (Union juive française pour la paix)
Utopia 56
Local Associations
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
RESF 03 (Allier)
RESF 43 (Haute-Loire)
RESF 63 (Puy-de-Dôme)
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Collectif Creusot-Autun des Droits de l’Homme
Les Amis du CADA (Digoin, Saône-et-Loire)
Centre-Val-de-Loire
La Cimade – groupe local de Blois
Hauts-de-France
ACC Minorités visibles (Dunkerque)
Adra Dunkerque
Arras Solidarité réfugiés
Attac Artois
Auberge des Migrants (L’)
Care4Calais
Collectif de soutien à Jean Luc Munro
Équipe de soutien juridique de Dunkerque
Flandres Terre solidaire
Fraternité Migrants Bassin Minier 62
La Cabane juridique / Legal Shelter
La Fraternité (Bruay-la-Buissière)
Le Réveil Voyageur
Mrap Dunkerque
Planning familial Pas-de-Calais
Salam Nord/Pas-de-Calais
Terre d’errance
Terre d’errance Flandres littoral
Île-de-France
ASEFRR (Association Solidarité Essonne Familles Roumaines et Rroms)
Aset 93 (Association d’aide à la scolarisation des enfants Tsiganes)
Assemblée citoyenne du 14ème
Collectif de Vigilance Paris12 pour les droits des étrangers-RESF
Collectif Romeurope du Val Maubuée
Collectif de soutien 5è-13è aux migrants d’Austerlitz
Ecodrom 93
Hors la Rue
Inter-Collectif Parisien de Soutien aux Migrant-es
La Chapelle debout
Observatoire Citoyen du CRA de Palaiseau
Paris d’exil
RESF 93
Romeurope 94
Solidarité migrants Wilson
Turbulences Marne-La-Vallée
Normandie
Itinérance Dieppe
Itinérance Cherbourg
Occitanie
Cercle des Voisins du CRA de Cornebarrieu (Haute-Garonne)
Planning familial 48 (Lozère)
PACA
Association pour la démocratie à Nice
Beaux repères (Avignon)
Collectif Agir à Aix-en-Provence pour l’accueil des migrants en pays d’Aix
Comité de Vigilance des Alpes Maritimes (COVIAM)
Habitat et citoyenneté (Nice)
MRAP Vaucluse
Roya citoyenne (La)
Tous migrants (Marseille)
Trade Union Organisations
Émancipation tendance intersyndicale
Fédération Solidaires Étudiant-e-s
FERC CGT (Fédération de l’Éducation, de la Recherche et de la Culture)
SAF (Syndicat des avocats de France)
SGLCE-CGT (Syndicat Général du Livre et de la Communication Écrite CGT)
SNUipp-FSU (Syndicat national unitaire des instituteurs et professeurs des écoles et PEGC)
SNPES-PJJ-FSU (Syndicat National des Personnels de L’Éducation et du Social)
Solidaires Étudiant-e-s
SUD Collectivités territoriales
SUD Éducation
SUD Industrie Francilien
SUD Logement social
SUD Santé Sociaux
Syndicat de la Magistrature
Union départementale Solidaires Pas-de-Calais
Union syndicale Solidaires
Political organisations :
Alternative Libertaire
EELV (Europe Écologie Les Verts)
OCL (Organisation communiste libertaire
Different ways of participating in the collective mobilization
Bring the signature of an organization to join the collective (from January 13th)
contact@delinquantssolidaires.org
Participate in the Day of Action on Thursday, February 9th, 2017
Gatherings, speaking, forming human chains to proclaim that we are all “delinquents” and in solidarity with foreigners …
In Paris, a gathering will be organized at 10 am – the place, the type of action and the speakers will be specified later.
Be aware of the activity of the collective
Request to subscribe to the mailing list http://listes.rezo.net/mailman/listinfo/delinquants-solidaires-info
Contribute to the mobilization, to disseminate information, texts and photos of protest actions
Targeting messages (eg @Place_Beauvau or @ justice_gouv …) “If solidarity with foreigners is a crime, then I am a delinquent”
Find out about past and ongoing prosecutions
See file
To inform the collective about cases directly or indirectly related to the offense of solidarity
Write to <contact-delit-de-solidarite@gisti.orgcontact-delit-de-solidarite@gisti.org>
Warning: It is necessary that the person concerned give his or her permission to be online, even anonymized. And even if the case has already been publicized.
The essential facts must be presented (circumstances, custody, appearance, decisions …) and proven. Attach any official documents if possible.