French Mayors Panic As Migrants Overwhelm Cities, Beg Macron For Help

This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Percentage of immigrants in total population

Mayors from seven major French cities overwhelmed by the flow of migrants have written a joint letter to Paris published in LeMonde on Saturday, begging the government to step in and help.

According to the letter, the cities of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulousa and Nantes are taking in “several thousand” refugees per month, which the mayors say is causing a social emergency as they are “backed up against a wall” and “completely saturated” by a seemingly endless flood of asylum seekers.

The year 2017 ends with a massive rise in the demand for asylum and the arrival of newcomers puts extreme tension – particularly with the onset of the cold wave – of the classic public and institutional policies. In a proportion never before known, the mechanisms allocated to housing asylum seekers, led by the State, often with the support of our communities, are indeed completely saturated, despite the steady increase the number of places … The evidence is there, before our eyes, in our streets, in homes and shelters: there is urgency.

Every month, several thousand people arrive in our cities. Integrating those recognized as refugees and helping those who have lost their right of asylum who still remain in our territory is a major issue. –Le Monde (translated)

The mayors point to a lack of shelters, and call on Paris to establish a “solidarity network” between the cities of France dedicated to addressing the flow of migrants, as well as an “enlarged meeting with the state at the highest level,” which the mayors say must act quickly by assuming its sovereign powers to “finance these developed actions and propose a clarified framework of work with the communities for a real plan of reception of the migrants.”

In other words – Paris needs to step up and dedicate more money and housing towards the migrant crisis.

In response to the letter, the French Interior Ministry proposed a resettlement scheme which would result in the relocation of some 20,000 housing units, “broken down regionally” to ensure “distribution balanced” refugees and mobilization of donors, reports AFP.

In addition, the authorities asked the prefects to establish “mobile teams” responsible for the identification of migrants in emergency accommodation, much to the chagrin of the associations. (Midecins du  Monde, Emmaus, …) who denounce a logic of “census,  labeling and  triage”. –AFP (translated)

As anyone who listened to the French Presidential debates gathered, France knows it’s got a massive problem with migrants. In October, after a 29 year old undocumented Tunisian man stabbed two women to death in the Southern city of Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed a new policy whereby illegal immigrants who commit crimes in France will face deportation.

“Even without new legislation we can take tougher measures and expel illegal immigrants if they commit a crime, whatever it may be,” Macron said.

France has been heavily affected by the migrant crisis. After an October 2016 relocation of some 6,000 migrants from the Calais “Jungle” camp across Europe, new asylum seekers continue to pour into the country and set up makeshift camps. Many migrants are sleeping on the streets of Paris, begging for money and angering local residents and sparking sanitary concerns. Last week, a group of Parisian protesters threatened to go on a hunger strike if police didn’t relocate approximately 100 Syrian and Afghan migrants from a northern Paris neighborhood.

UK Prosecutors Admit Destroying Emails In Julian Assange Case

Next month will mark seven years since Julian Assange first sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Even though Sweden dropped a sex crimes investigation into Assange back in May, he has been forced to remain confined to a cramped room, where he has no access to the outdoors, since AG Jeff Sessions reaffirmed that the DOJ intends to prosecute Assange for his role in leaking the Iraq war logs, State Department cables and DNC emails.

And with a Freedom of Information case brought by a journalist for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica set to be decided in London next week, surprising details published by the Guardian Friday suggest a representative for the UK government intentionally discouraged Swedish investigators from meeting with Assange in person - something that investigators say could’ve led the country’s government to drop its charges against the Wikileaks founder years ago. The report also shows that the Crown Prosecution Service, the branch of UK law enforcement responsible for criminal prosecutions, deleted emails pertaining to Assange"s extradition case after the lawyer in charge of it - the same lawyer who advised Swedish investigators not to interview Assange in London - retired.

The Crown Prosecution Service is facing embarrassment after admitting it destroyed key emails relating to the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy fighting extradition.

 

Email exchanges between the CPS and its Swedish counterparts over the high-profile case were deleted after the lawyer at the UK end retired in 2014.

 

The destruction of potentially sensitive and revealing information comes ahead of a tribunal hearing in London next week.

 

Adding to the intrigue, it emerged the CPS lawyer involved had, unaccountably, advised the Swedes in 2010 or 2011 not to visit London to interview Assange. An interview at that time could have prevented the long-running embassy standoff. In a laughably ironic admission, the prosecutors’ office said it had no knowledge of the content of the emails - but assured the Guardian that they didn’t contain anything that could’ve influenced the outcome of a criminal case involving Assange.

UK government officials have said the CPS inadvertently destroyed the emails after the lawyer in charge of the Assange extradition case retired in 2014. By that time, an office spokesperson said, the case had been settled.

 

Amazing: not only did UK authorities destroy key docs in the Assange case, but they pressured Sweden not to interrogate Assange in the UK, which gave rise to the 6-year standoff: https://t.co/VY8DlL2FIe

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 10, 2017

 

Of course, one can’t help but wonder, given the repeated denials and stonewalling, if this is some kind of coverup. Assange’s allies feared that if he had been extradited to Sweden, he could then be extradited from Sweden to the US.

The CPS, responding to questions from the Guardian, denied there were any legal implications of the data loss for an Assange case if it were to come to court in the future. Asked if the CPS had any idea what was destroyed, a spokesperson said: “We have no way of knowing the content of email accounts once they have been deleted."

 

Assange, whose WikiLeaks has been involved in a series of controversial leaks that include the Iraq war logs, US state department cables and Democratic party emails, was wanted by Sweden as part of a preliminary investigation into rape allegations. Sweden dropped the investigation in May.

 

Detractors of Assange, who sought refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in 2012, accuse him of collaborating with Russian propagandists in undermining Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency and helping Donald Trump secure it.

 

Supporters of Assange fear he could have been extradited to the US from Sweden and might yet from the UK. The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said this year Assange was a priority for the justice department and US federal prosecutors are believed to be considering charges against him over the leaks.

The FOIA request that led to this revelation was filed by Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi a reporter for the Italian Newspaper La Repubblica, who will be represented at the FOIA hearing next week by two Barristers.

Maurizi unearthed two years ago, through an FOI request to the Swedish prosecutors, an email from a lawyer in the CPS extradition unit on Jan. 25 2011 saying: “My earlier advice remains, that in my view it would not be prudent for the Swedish authorities to try to interview the defendant in the UK."

The sentence was redacted in the email obtained by Maurizi from the CPS under an FOI request but not when it was released under an FOI request from the Swedish prosecutors.

As La Repubblica points out, Assange is the only western publisher being arbitrarily detained in Europe, according to two decisions by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions in February 2016, a decision that has completely faded into oblivion. Dec. 7 will mark seven years since he lost his freedom, yet as far as we know, in the course of these last 7 years no media has tried to access the full file on Julian Assange. Maurizi will appear before a Freedom of Information tribunal in London on Monday to argue for the release of more information. Jennifer Robinson, a Doughty Street chambers barrister, and Estelle Dehon, who specialises in freedom of information, will be representing Maurizi at the tribunal, set for Monday and Tuesday.

Specifically, La Repubblica will be defending the press’s right to access the documents regarding Assange’s case after trying in vain for the last two years. Maurizi, a reporter on La Repubblica who has covered Wikileaks since 2009, has been pressing both the CPS and its Swedish counterpart for information relating to Assange and extradition.

Government spokespeople dispute the notion that the Assange case was “live” when the emails were inadvertently deleted in 2012 because the extradition proceedings had concluded. However, Assange remains trapped in the Ecuadorean embassy.

Unhappy over the limited material released so far, she is taking her case against the CPS to an information tribunal on Monday and Tuesday.

“It is incredible to me these records about an ongoing and high-profile case have been destroyed. I think they have something to hide,” Maurizi said.

By securing the release of more documents, she is hoping to establish how much influence the UK had in the decision of the Swedish authorities at the time not to travel to London to interview Assange. She is also looking for evidence of US involvement in extradition moves.

Assange declined to travel to Sweden at the time, expressing fear it was a ruse that could pave the way for his extradition to the US. His lawyers offered a compromise in which Swedish investigators could interview him in person in London or by a video link, but the Swedish authorities did not take up the offer at the time.

If we’re reading this correctly, it would appear that a lawyer in the CPS unilaterally discouraged Swedish investigators not to interview Assange in person, knowing that Assange wouldn’t travel to Sweden voluntarily for fear of being extradited to the US. While Assange’s lawyers offered Sweden the opportunity to interview their client via video link, Swedish authorities declined to accept.

This helped pave the way for a yearslong diplomatic standoff, all the while forcing Assange to live under conditions that even prisoners in US maximum security prisons aren’t forced to endure - indeed, at least prisoners are allowed at least an hour outdoors per day.

Robinson, who has also represented Assange, said: “The missing information raises concerns about the Crown Prosecution Service’s data retention policy and what internal mechanisms are in place to review their conduct of this case in light of the fact the UK has been found to have breached its international obligations."

A spokesperson for the CPS said the agency has more than 50 files on Assange, and depending on the tribunal’s final ruling next week, much of the information contained therein could be released to the public.

We’re certainly curious to learn more.

 

Big case on my detention Monday+Tuesday next week https://t.co/c5WbwKqwZf

— Julian Assange ???? (@JulianAssange) November 10, 2017

 

Julian Assange In Jeopardy As Exit Poll Shows Lasso Winning Ecuador Presidency

It may be the worst possible news for Julian Assange. Or the best, depending on which exit poll of the Ecuador presidential election is right.

With the results of the Ecuador presidential run-off race set to be announced in hours, two exit polls projected two different winners in a tight election in OPEC"s smallest member nation on Sunday evening, sparking celebrations in the rival camps of a leftist government-backed candidate and a former banker. As Reuters reports, the final results could take days to tabulate, the electoral council has warned, in a race that could extend a decade of leftist rule or usher in more business-friendly policies in the oil-rich Andean country.

According to one exit poll, conservative challenger Guillermo Lasso had 53.02% of votes versus 46.98% for government-backed Lenin Moreno, an exit poll by leading pollster Cedatos showed on Sunday afternoon. With Cedatos considered one of the most trustworthy polls, the Lasso camp broke into cheers, with supporters waving flags and honking horns in wealthier northern Quito.

"Today a new Ecuador is born, the Ecuador of democracy, the Ecuador of freedom," Lasso told a crowd chanting: "Lasso President!" in his sweltering coastal hometown, Guayaquil.

Meanwhile, a separate exit poll by Perfiles de Opinion showed Moreno with 52.2% of the vote versus 47.8% for Lasso. Moreno was more measured, telling supporters in Quito: "We have a very trustworthy lead." He urged Ecuadoreans to await final results.

The results will have substantial geopolitical implications, and South America is watching closely to see if Ecuador will follow Argentina, Brazil and Peru in shifting to the right as a commodities boom ends.

But the polarized country is also bracing for potential unrest after a tense campaign. Both candidates have called for their supporters to take to the street and "defend the vote."

The two contenders could not be more different.

Moreno, 64, a paraplegic former vice-president, just missed the minimum threshold to win the presidency in the first round in February, and polls leading up to Sunday"s runoff showed him leading Lasso. Moreno, who has used a wheelchair since being shot during a robbery in 1998, has promised to boost social benefits to single mothers, pensioners and disabled Ecuadoreans while being more conciliatory than the mercurial Correa.

Lasso, a 61-year-old former head of Banco de Guayaquil who has campaigned on creating one million jobs in four years, argues that Moreno"s generous social promises risk plunging Ecuador"s economy further into debt. He also accuses the ruling Country Alliance party of covering up corruption scandals, stifling media, and stacking institutions with supporters in the vein of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a Correa ally. As Reuters notes, Venezuela"s political upheaval cast a shadow over Ecuador"s vote, with Lasso supporters fearing their country could turn the way of the crisis-hit nation.

* * *

But the biggest reason why the presidential election is being closely watched by the international community is that its outcome may seal the fate of Julian Assange.

Lasso, who according to the Cedatos poll is the winner, has vowed that if he wins the WikiLeaks founder’s time in the Ecuador embassy in London will be up. Lasso has said he would “cordially ask Señor Assange to leave within 30 days of assuming a mandate”, because his presence in the Knightsbridge embassy was a burden on Ecuadorian taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Lenin Moreno, has said Assange would remain welcome, albeit with conditions. “We will always be alert and ask Mr Assange to show respect in his declarations regarding our brotherly and friendly countries,” Moreno said.

As the Guardian wrote on March 31 ahead of Sunday"s election, the Australian’s legal team are extremely worried.

“We are obviously very concerned that any candidate would threaten to undermine the protection that the Ecuadorian state has granted Julian,” said Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer at Doughty Street Chambers who is a member of Assange’s UK legal team. “No government should play politics with the granting of asylum. It’s a legal protection provided for under international law, Ecuador has granted that protection, they have recognised him as a refugee, and now they have obligations to protect him whatever happens in the elections.”

Assange’s team are reluctant to be drawn on what legal avenues they might be able to pursue, but he is understood to have instructed lawyers in Quito, while others are looking at whether they may have potential options through the Inter-American and European courts of human rights.

Making matters for Assange worse, British authorities are adamant that, should Assange leave the embassy under any circumstances, he will be immediately arrested and sent to Sweden, which has been seeking to extradite him over an allegation of rape dating from 2010, which Assange denies.

In short, Assange’s best hope in the short term, is a Moreno victory. If that does not happen as at least one poll suggests, international human rights groups might rally in his defence, or WikiLeaks might uncover material to put pressure on Lasso. But according to Arturo Moscoso, an Ecuadorian lawyer and academic, Assange should not expect Ecuadorian public opinion to come to the rescue: “For many it’s a headache.”

 “No organisation, no law and no person can prevent the president from revoking the status of political asylum.” Assange’s asylum was granted by a presidential decree and could just as easily be removed by one, he said.

Curiously, while many have implied Russian "interference" in every major recent geopolitical event, from the Brexit vote, to the US presidential election, to the upcoming elections in France and Germany, few have discussed whether or not the Kremlin would be "manipulating" the results of the Ecuador presidential election, especially since the fate of one of the men rumored to have been collaborating with Putin, Julian Assange, is now on the line and could result in a protracted prison sentence.

Then again, it"s just one exit poll, which as recent events have demonstrated, can be painfully wrong. One person - the founder of Wikileaks - will spend the night praying that it is.