Human rights watchdog Amnesty International published a report on Wednesday revealing instances of abuse, intimidation and arrests on the part of French authorities towards volunteers assisting migrants in major hotspots including Calais.
The organisation recorded 72 instances of harassment, but real numbers are likely to be much higher. One Amnesty volunteer said she was pushed to the ground and choked by police in what was an unprovoked act of violence.
The 30-page report titled Targeting Solidarity details how people helping and working with asylum-seekers in the informal refugee camps around Calais and Grand-Synthe are routinely targeted by the police and the court system.
“Providing food to the hungry and warmth to the homeless have become increasingly risky activities in northern France, as the authorities regularly target people offering help to migrants and refugees,” Lisa Maracani, Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defenders Researcher, said.
“Rather than attempting to make the lives of migrants and refugees as difficult as possible, French authorities should take concrete measures to alleviate their suffering and provide shelter and support to all those living on the streets.”
When reporting mistreatment of refugees, human rights defenders claim they are not taken seriously. Charlotte Head, a volunteer who made several complaints about police behaviour to the police’s internal investigatory body, was warned that her complaints were “defamatory in character” and could constitute a “crime”.
French authorities are also failing to be transparent about the issue. Cabane Juridique, a local human rights organisation, filed alone more than 60 complaints to different authorities and bodies between January 2016 and April 2019. But according to information provided by the French Ministry of Justice to Amnesty International in May this year, regional courts received just 11 complaints since 2016, and only one was being investigated by prosecutors.
The "Jungle", as the encampment in Calais is known, hosted more than 1,200 refugees and migrants, including unaccompanied children, before being demolished in 2016. Those reaching the northern tip of France are now living in scattered tents have no regular access to food, water, sanitation, shelter or legal assistance.
Amnesty International found this to be coupled with recurring harassment on the part of the authorities. In interviews with the watchdog, one Afghan man said that he was beaten on his back with a baton by police during a forced eviction, and another described how a police officer had urinated on his tent. “I left my country looking for safety, but here I face police abuse…The police come every day to take my tent and clothes,” an Iranian man said.
In Calais and Grande-Synthe, the number of camps and tents destroyed by the authorities has seen an uptick this year compared to 2018, with 391 evictions carried out in the first five months of 2019 alone. Migrants and refugees are at increased risk of violence and abuse after being evicted, the organisation has said.
Volunteers have said they have witnessed police spray migrants with teargas in the face while they were sleeping in the open.
The crackdown is a direct consequence of France’s “no attachment points” policy, the organisation said, which attempts to deter people from staying in the area by ensuring that camps are not set up.
Outreach services such as reception centres and asylum offices are still provided to migrants but they are located a long way from Calais and Grande-Synthe and are often full.
Kate Allen, Amnesty UK’s Director, said “The level of danger facing activists across the globe has reached crisis point. Every day ordinary people are threatened, tortured, imprisoned and killed for simply standing up for their rights and the rights of others.” She called on the UK government to live up to its responsibilities and make sure that the basic rights of migrants trying to reach Britain are respected.
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
