Dozens of buses, in which Afghans, Eritreans, Somalis, Iraqis rode, their belongings piled up in large shopping bags… in reception and guidance centers (CAO) spread throughout France. Eight months after a partial destruction of the “jungle” in February 2016, October 24 marked his total evacuation. ” Even if this departure seemed violent to us, we must admit that Bernard Cazeneuve, the Minister of the Interior at the time, really lacked his hands in the grease to find solutions. People were taken care of for relatively long periods of time. Unaccompanied minors have been able to join their families in England and the dublinized people (recorded when they entered the Schenge space n in the first country crossed – Editor’s note) were authorized to submit their asylum application in France», Recognizes Jean-Claude Lenoir, president of the association Salam (support, help, fight, act, for migrants and countries in difficulty), present in Calais since 2003.

House of passages by the sea

If, today, all traces of this informal camp, with its stalls, makeshift houses, schools and places of worship, have been eradicated, the United Kingdom remains a few tens of kilometers away and the candidates for crossing the Channel has not disappeared. They are currently between 1,500 and 2,000 on the spot, including 70 women and 300 minors, unaccompanied for 70 of them, taking ever greater risks in order to extend the passage to England. Last Thursday, a young man died, hit by a truck while trying to hide in a vehicle. On September 28, Yasser, a 20-year-old Sudanese man, lost his life under the same conditions.”   305 exiles have died in the area since the start of the migratory exodus to England ” , notes Juliette Delaplace, person in charge of exiled persons on the north coast for the Catholic Relief.

Faced with the debauchery of technological means (thermal cameras, CO2 and heartbeat detectors) and human (234 police officers, 689 PAF agents and 280 CRS) deployed to “trust” the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel, attempts to cross are mainly made by sea, aboard frail boats whose occupants hope to reach British territorial waters. “This new mode of crossing has developed since the Covid, then the Brexit, which reduced the road traffic congestion and eliminated the less that allowed people to slide in stationary trucks. They now take small boats and departures are spread over the entire coastline to escape the stalking of the police … ” explains Juliette Delaplace. Since the start of 2021, 18,500 people have managed to reach England by this means. A figure which serves as an argument to Priti Patel, the British Minister of the Interior, to justify a hardening of the migration policy of her country. Across the Channel, a bill provides for prison sentences for foreigners who have entered the country “without authorization”. The text also authorizes the Border Force (British border police) to carry out pushbacks (returns of migrant boats to French waters), in violation of maritime law which obliges any ship to rescue a boat in difficulty. The announcement of this measure even made Gérald Darmanin react, who warned his British counterpart that “ France would not accept any practice contrary to the law of the sea ”.

Gassings, beatings, laceration of tents

However, when it comes to human rights violations, the French state is not left out. In Calais, since 2016, the obsession of local and national politicians has been to prevent “fixing points”. In other words, the groups of exiles who could form new camps. To do this, the police do not shrink from any brutality: gassing, beatings, laceration of tents, confiscation of personal belongings … “The exiles are dislodged every day, they cannot have any rest and everything is done to make their access to water and food difficult”,deplores Pauline Joyau, coordinator of the Utopia 56 association in Calais. Practices already denounced in 2019 by Jacques Toubon, then Defender of Rights, who pointed out “Unprecedented violations of fundamental rights”. In two years, things have not only gotten worse. Since September 2020, the prefecture has prohibited associations from distributing food and drinks in part of the city center of Calais. “It’s the 15 e extension of this decree, deplores Pauline Joyau. And, each time, the perimeter is wider. Volunteers are regularly fined for illegal parking, rocks are installed on the land where we could serve meals… ” A harassment very badly experienced by the associations, who challenge without releasing the town hall and the prefecture, in vain.

Humanitarian work

To make themselves heard, three Calaisians – Philippe Demeestère, a 73-year-old Jesuit priest, Lud Holbein, 38, and Anaïs Vogel, 35, two activists, have called a hunger strike. Their demands? “Stopping the mistreatment of exiled people and allowing associations to offer them something to eat. “ A request for a dead letter. “The sub-prefect confirmed to us that the evictions and confiscation of camping equipment would continue. The State just proposes that the exiles be warned 24 hours in advance of their expulsion… An aberration, when we know that they are every day! In addition, she dares to suggest that the associations go and warn them… They refuse to let us do our humanitarian work. e, but they want to turn us into police auxiliaries! “says Anaïs indignantly.

A dramatic situation which pleads for the opening of the legal channels of passage to the candidates for immigration to England. “We must call into question the Touquet agreements, which moved the Franco-British border from Dover to Calais”,insists Bertrand Péricaud, regional councilor (PCF) of Pas-de-Calais. Since 2003, this bilateral treaty, which allows England to delegate the monitoring of access to its territory to France, does not prevent illegal crossings. It simply makes them more responsible for human lives and public money paid to dealers in star surveillance systems, fences and other barbed wire.