“first contact” of the Calais mediator with the hunger strikers
Lionel Gougelot with AFP
, modified at
7:41 p.m., October 27, 2021
The boss of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii), Didier Leschi, sent on a mediation mission to Calais by the government, met on Wednesday the priest and the two activists on hunger strike in support for migrants.
The boss of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii), Didier Leschi, sent on a mediation mission to Calais by the government, met on Wednesday the priest and the two activists on hunger strike in support for migrants. “We had a first contact. There is a shared desire that as many people as possible be sheltered,” said Didier Leschi on the steps of the Saint-Pierre church in Calais, where this hunger strike has been going on for 17 days.
“Fruitful exchanges”
After two hours of “fruitful discussions”, he agreed that there were “difficult situations to deal with” and solutions to be found “to increase the number of accommodations and avoid a reconstitution of a large camp. dimension in Calaisis “. But “it is important that those who, today, engage with a great humanity, find a way to continue their fight in a way that has encountered in question their health”, he said.
Philippe Demeestère, a chaplain of the Secours Catholique pour le Pas-de-Calais, aged 72, as well as two activists, Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein, took part in this hunger strike, in particular to demand the end of the dismantling of migrant camps during the winter period.
1,500 migrants in Calais
In a joint statement, 150 associations are attached to their demands on Tuesday. Didier Leschi, one of the actors in the dismantling of the moor (called “jungle”) of Calais five years ago, almost to the day, will meet on Thursday with associations of aid to migrants. Then he will come back to see the hunger strikers, who until then have announced that they want to continue their action. All three refused to answer questions from the press, saying they were exhausted. Didier Leschi plans to give a press conference on Thursday at midday. According to local associations, the situation of some 1,500 migrants present in Calais is inhuman, with evictions from their camps several times a week, and the confiscation of their tents and their personal effects.