Last week the French and British governments launched a new era of co-operation with a joint flight to deport asylum seekers to Afghanistan. Just weeks after the clearing of 278 people living at the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais, this was a fresh reactionary step by the French authorities, who had previously said they would not deport people to countries at war. Below appears a statement from Afghan communist women based in France – see here for their previous commentary on the conflict.
We, the organisers of the French section of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, condemn the cowardly and disgraceful expulsion of three Afghans which took place on 20th October.
It is important to recall several points:
– France, an imperialist power, is one of the main forces responsible for the poverty and instability which reigns in Afghanistan: in the past, taking part in the pillage of the country, today, directly mounting a military occupation.
– This war is clearly not fought for the freedom of the Afghan people, but the division of the bounty of its gas and oil resources. It is part of the struggle between states to carve up spheres of influence in Asia and the Middle East.
– Restricted economic and political immigration will exist as long as between peoples there are imperialist relations of exploitation, inequality and military oppression, aggravated today by the context of economic crisis.
Given these circumstances, Afghans seeking refuge in France and the rest of the Europe must be defended by the peogple, and by all democratic and working-class forces. We demand an immediate halt to all deportations to Afghanistan, the liberation of Afghans held in detention centres, and the en masse regularisation of migrants without papers and the cancelling of racist laws.
We reaffirm our support for the forces in Afghanistan fighting for democratic rights, the withdrawal of French and allied troops from the country, gender equality and opposition to the corrupt and reactionary government of Hamid Karzai, installed by the occupiers.
No barbed wire can keep people subject to war and famine from seeking refuge abroad; no government can stop solidarity between peoples. Only a democratic Afghanistan in a world where imperialism has been swept away can deal with the exile and poverty to which millions of human beings are subjected today.
We call for as many people as possible to support initiatives in solidarity with migrants without papers from Afghanistan and elsewhere, and build a determined opposition to France’s racist and imperialist government!
Freedom of movement!
French troops out of Afghanistan!
No wars between nations, no peace between classes!
the commune 