Five years after the eviction of the so -called Jungla de Calais, the field that came to house about 10.000 people in northern France, the situation has not improved and thousands of people continue to live in informal settlements in several areas of this municipality in the face of constant harassment and abuse of French police forces.
The forced misery report: the degrading treatment of migrant children and adults in northern France, recently published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), points out that the French authorities regularly submit adults and minors who live inThe surroundings of Calais to a degrading treatment.From the eviction in October 2016, the slogan of the French government is to prevent the images of a stable settlement of people whose dream is to cross to the United Kingdom and, for this, the police confiscate and destroy the temporary households created with stores fromcampaign and canvas.This constant humiliation, which sometimes includes the subtraction of personal objects such as telephones or documentation that are within the stores and sleeping bags, forces those affected to be constantly alert.
The HRW report is based on the daily work of organizations that work in northern France, such as Human Rights Observers (HRO), a project by L'Auberge des Migrants in charge of documenting and denouncing the expulsions that occur almostdaily both in Calais and Grande-Synthe, another field near the city of Dunkerque.Only in the three months of summer of 2021, HRO documented 287 evictions and the confiscation of 1.169 stores, 972 canvases and 196 backpacks, in addition to police excesses such as the use of tear gas against migrant people.
The fences, walls and concertinas that draw the landscape of Calais do not prevent thousands of people from tryingThe Eurotunnel.Most of those who arrive in Calais and risk their lives to meet with their relatives or support networks that are in British territory come from Sudan, and to a lesser extent from neighboring Eritrea.Colonization and globalization explain that many of the people trying to cross the English, a very important factor when starting a new life in a safe country.
In recent weeks there have been great expulsions in which the French State not only confiscated and destroys the settlements, but forces these exiles to ride buses to send them, against their will, to temporary reception centers in other parts of France.The objective of this inefficient measure is to move them away from the border, although most return, since they can only spend a few days in the centers and their goal is to reach the United Kingdom.
La organización Utopia 56 publicó este vídeo de la destrucción del campo en Grande-Synthe el pasado 23 de septiembre.Shortly after, on September 28, a young Sudanese named Yasser died in his attempt to climb a truck to cross the border.That same day the police evicted the area near the Calais hospital, and the next day the local authorities imposed new restrictions in that area - until that moment, the most populated in Calais - that in practice prevents operating with organizations that distribute food, water, clothes or that offer wifi connection and phone charges.
The escalation of state violence and repression led the volunteers Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein, of the Shanti Association, next to the chaplain Père Philippe Demeestère, by Secours Catholique (Cáritas France) to start a hunger strike in the sto church.Pierre de Calais, which began on October 11 with three claims: first, that the evictions during the cold winter will be stopped.Second, during the same period, end the confiscation of personal objects;And third, ask for the beginning of a reasoned dialogue between NGOs and the State related to the opening and location of distribution points of all the necessary assets for the maintenance of the health of exiled people.His virtual request has already exceeded 50.000 signatures and their claims and the evolution of the hunger strike can be followed through its active Instagram account @faimauxfrontieres.
On October 25, Emmanuel Macron was questioned by a citizen during his visit to the town of Montbrison, about the hunger strike.Macron showed interest and offered his willingness to send a member of his government to Calais.The elected was Didier Leschi, president of the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII).His proposal to give 45 minutes of margin to displaced persons to collect their belongings before routine expulsions has not satisfied either strikers or associations, since it means that expulsions will not cease.
The humanitarian associations present in Calais have witnessed how expulsions continue in November.On the 4th, Père Philippe, 72, announced that he ended the strike after 25 days without feeding.Philippe will continue his defense of the rights of people displaced in Calais by other means, such as the preparation of reception devices for the cold season.That same day, members of associations, local activists and exiled people joined for breakfast and form a human chain that avoided a new eviction of a field.This little victory did not prevent, in a new attempt to avoid an eviction, the police would use tear gas to proceed to empty the same field three days later.While police expulsions and violence do not cease, Anaïs and Ludovic continue their hunger strike in the ST Church.Pierre de Calais.
The situation in Calais can be aggravated if non -governmental organizations, severely affected by pandemic, reduce their services or fail to get ahead.To deal with the financial instability that characterizes these projects that survive thanks to volunteer people, and after the announcement of the withdrawal of Calais of the main donor from the United Kingdom, several organizations that work in Calais and Grande-Synthe have joined forces for forcespublicize their projects and raise funds that allow them to continue operating while their work remains necessary in northern France.
