Hunger strike: fifth day for the chaplain of Secours Catholique du Pas-de-Calais and two other people. In particular, they demand an end to the systematic expulsions from the camps of migrants in Calais and the possibility of distributing them something to eat. A petition has been launched to challenge the public authorities.

He said to himself “More than determined, combative”. Here, Philippe Demeest, chaplain of Secours Catholique du Pas-de-Calais for five days, has started a hunger strike with Vogel and Ludovic Holbein, also engaged alongside migrants in Calais.

“For the moment, to tell the truth, I don’t have time to feel the fatigue”, assures the 72-year-old priest. Since Monday, several local and national media have visited the strikers installed in the Saint-Pierre church in Calais.

“Our politicians have not learned to deal with life”, summarizes Philippe Demeestère in a short video posted on Instagram by the collective “Faim aux frontières” which supports them. The strikers are protesting against the umpteenth measures taken by the public authorities to prevent exiled people from meeting their basic needs: drinking, eating, sleeping, washing.

“Two weeks ago, new measures were put in place », Can we read in a press release issued by the collective. “On four occasions, the State has laid rocks on a distribution site in Coquelles with full access to associations to distribute essential edible people to the exiles. Bans then multiplied in all places where people lived, making all distributions illegal. “

At the end of September, the death of Yasser Abdallah, a young Eritrean and Sudanese 20 years old who was trying to get in a truck to reach England, was the tragedy too many. In twenty years, more than 300 people have died trying to cross the Channel. Among them: men, women, children, infants.

The strikers demand the opening of a dialogue between the authorities and associations not mandated by the State to define the modalities of humanitarian aid.

The strikers demand an end to the systematic evictions from the places where migrants live during the winter break; an end to the confiscation of their tents and personal belongings; the opening of a dialogue between the authorities and associations not mandated by the State to define the modalities of humanitarian aid. A petition has been put online by the Faim aux frontières collective for these requests..

This Sunday, October 17, the president of Secours Catholique, Véronique Devise, will go to Calais with the strikers and will hold a press conference there in the company of the Bishop of Arras, Monsignor Olivier Leborgne.

Article updated on 10/15/2021 at 7:50 p.m.