UN group calls for halt to traveller evictions at Dale Farm (From Echo)

UN group calls for halt to traveller evictions at Dale Farm

9:00am Tuesday 28th April 2009

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A United Nations committee is expected to call for Basildon Council to freeze its traveller eviction plans after representatives visited their Dale Farm camp in Crays Hill, near Wickford.

Yve Cabannes, French-born chairman of the UN Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, told residents at the unauthorised site they should not have to negotiate with the council while the threat of homelessness looms.

Mr Cabannes said his committee’s report to the Government would include a recommendation for a moratorium on evictions.

He argued the UK had signed international covenants pledging that nobody should be removed from their homes against their will.

Mr Cabannes, a professor of architecture at University College London, went on to commend residents for their resistance to eviction and said Dale Farm was an example to travellers across Europe in their long fight against discrimination.

Dale Farm spokesman Richard Sheridan said he expected UN advisory group members to be present should an eviction operation be launched.

A meeting will take place next month at Westminster to finalise plans for human rights monitors to oversee an eviction, including Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury.

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