Migrants are stitching their own lips shut to protest the French government’s clearing of the refugee camp in Calais, known as the "the Jungle," according to CNN.
Authorities are clearing the southern half of the camp and relocating the refugees, they say in response to unsanitary conditions. They bulldozed a church and a mosque in the camp on Feb. 1.
On Thursday, a group called Calais Migrant Solidarity published a grainy video statement of the protesters.
Its narrator said these migrants began their protest at noon Wednesday and had "a simple request: for a representative of the European Court of Human Rights to visit the Jungle, see the conditions which they are living in, and address the problems which are facing these people."
…Migrants have joined in hunger strikes involving stitched lips in protests at Idomeni, a major migrant transit camp in Greece, and as far away as Nauru, the Pacific island where Australia operates a refugee processing center. Other acts of self-harm are not uncommon. Last week, migrants attempted to hang themselves from a tree in Athens, Greece — a country that's the scene of a major bottleneck of migrants.
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