Like the trailblazing Sans Papiers before them, undocumented migrants in France have recently come out of the shadows to demand citizenship (‘regularization’). ‘We want to be as powerful as the Gilets Jaunes,’ as member Kanoute said. Since launching in November 2018, the Gilets Noirs, who are drawn mostly from Francophone Africa, have held high-profile occupations of Charles de Gaulle airport and the Pantheon, risking arrest and deportation. But Kanoute says that ‘to stay silent’ and remain exploited is more dangerous still. They believe France owes them a historical debt: ‘All the countries of the “Third World” are directly or indirectly colonies of the West. So, everyone should be able to come.’
In the summer of 2016 refugees were camped out in their hundreds in Maximilian Park, Brussels. In the early days, residents responded with compassion and pragmatism, taking people into their homes, preparing food, setting up classrooms and counselling services. Then, as police harassment intensified – with raids, intimidation and physical violence – the Citizen Platform stepped up to defend the people it had championed as members of its own community, giving legal support and collecting evidence of abuse. The Platform’s powerful interventions – they could call on a network of 6,000 people to foil camp raids – made them a target, with their members put on trial for ‘human smuggling’. The group avoids reference to ‘refugee rights’ and supports everyone. Their call, they insist, is simply for a ‘dignified Belgium’. bxlrefugees.be
