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Calais Jungle: Shoreditch House smoke bombed ahead of French ambassador's talk over plans to clear refugee camp

Masked demonstrators picketed the celebrity hangout over French government's 'social barbarity'

Wednesday 24 February 2016 00:57 GMT

Protesters picketed the private members' club over plans to clear refugee camp (PA)

Angry protesters descended on private members club Shoreditch House and let off smoke bombs in protest at the closure of the Jungle migrant camp.

Masked demonstrators descended on the popular celebrity hang-out in east London, where the French ambassador was due to speak.

Daniel Giacopelli wrote on Twitter: "Got smoke bombed out of Shoreditch House as balaclava'd protesters tried to get in. French ambassador was due to speak."

A video posted on his account shows protesters behind a banner which read "borders are weapons of fear & division. Tear down their fences live fighting live free" as one man shouts his opposition to "social barbarity".

Edith Hancock wrote on Twitter: "Was blocked for 45 mins from attending event with French ambassador to UK Shoreditch House due to protesters supporting Calais migrants."

A leaflet handed out at the demonstration and posted on Twitter warned that the destruction of the Jungle camp in Calais would tear down the shops, churches and community the migrants had set up.

It said: "Across Europe the walls are going up again.

"Some of the technologies of control and surveillance are new, developed by the high-tech 'creative industries' the French government is celebrating at tonight's event."

It added: "Borders are weapons of fear and division, used by the elites to carve up the world's wealth and turn us against each other.

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A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016.

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Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016.

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border

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Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia.

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A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos

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A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year

Refugee crisis - in pictures

The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos

EPA

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A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija

AP

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day

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An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Refugee crisis - in pictures

Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

"Against their vicious borders let's create networks of solidarity and cultures of openness and cut down their fences everywhere."

Earlier the French embassy had tweeted about being at Shoreditch House for the launch of the Creative France event.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Police were called to Ebor Street, E1, to reports of a protest taking place at approximately 6.50pm.

"Officers are currently on scene. An appropriate policing plan is in place."

The French embassy in a statement said: "Everyone agrees that life conditions in the 'Jungle' are not ideal. The French authorities are deploying huge efforts to cater for the migrants.

"Our objective is that everyone should be housed in humane conditions."

PA

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