has mediation been successful?
It was a month ago, Tuesday, November 2. To respond to Anaïs Vogel, Ludovic Holbein and Father Philippe Demeestere, who had stopped eating since October 11 to denounce the treatment of migrants in Calais, Didier Leschi, director of the French Office for Immigration and integration (Ofii) and mediator appointed by the government, made three commitments: the end of evacuations without an accommodation offer, the announcement of these evacuations 24 hours in advance, and finally the forty-five minute period left to the exiles to collect their personal effects.
→ MAINTENANCE. Didier Leschi, mediator: “In Calais, get out of the deadly dynamic”
A month later, and when a new meeting between the prefecture and the associations, to which the mediator is invited, is to be held on Friday December 3, what has become of these commitments?
The night airlock has closed
On the “Airlock” which was to be open every night, the time of orientation of evacuees to permanent accommodation outside Calais, around 252 people per night were sheltered there for a while. But, according to Nathanaël Caillaux, migration project manager at Secours Catholique for Hauts-de-France, “The airlock was opened less than two weeks, and it closed overnight, first on the pretext of a leak in the roof. Then we learned that it would not reopen. “
→ DEBATE. Migrants in Calais: is a “fixing point” being recreated?
These measures “Was opened within the framework of mediation, the time necessary for the mobilization of 300 new places of accommodation”, answers the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais. Since then, 150 places have been identified in Pas-de-Calais and 150 outside the department, “The airlock was therefore closed”. 493 people were sheltered in these new places. However, according to the same source, in November, only 55% of all available places were occupied.
No delay
On the promise to warn 24 hours before an evacuation, “To our knowledge, that has never been really respected”, continues Nathanaël Caillaux. “After the announcements of the mediator, the expulsions took place every three days instead of every two days but, very quickly it resumed every 48 hours”, details Laurine, volunteer at Human Rights Observers, a project of the Auberge des migrants to monitor evacuations. “On the other hand, they never warned the day before, just as there was never a forty-five minute delay for the exiles to collect their belongings. “
→ REPORTING. In Calais, the hunger strike is over but the fight continues
The prefecture does not deny, but argues by asserting that the practice of preventing “Was immediately misled from its purpose by the associationsin order to prevent any intervention by the police “. She adds that “Social diagnostic surveys are carried out upstream of each operation, as provided for in the mediation protocol”.
Personal effects recovered in poor condition
There remain the conditions for recovering the personal effects of exiles following the evacuations. In October, according to the Human Rights Observers (HRO) count, at least 178 tents and 23 sleeping bags were seized. Until then, after these dismantling, items left behind (tents, blankets, quilts, papers, etc.) were collected by a service provider and provided at a resource center, where migrants had a time slot to come and pick them up. But, as we have seen The cross during a report in January 2021, most of the objects arriving in very poor condition.
→ READ. Migrants: “In Calais, the burn-out of volunteers is a reality”
For several years, associations have denounced damage to objects, including lacerations of tents to make them unusable. Asked about these accusations, the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, was indignant at the end of November: “Do you realize what we are suggesting?” That we could like that with impunity lacerate tents and even encourage him? “
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, then admitted to having learned from ” the journalists ” that tents had sometimes been torn apart by a ” company private “, but claimed that since then he has “Arrested” these practices. HRO denies: “On Grande-ynthe, we observe it almost systematically and the last video evidence of which we record is the date of November 18, says Laurine. In Calais, where the police prevent us from approaching during the evacuations, HRO volunteers found torn tents on July 5, 6 and 24, as well as on August 17. “
At the start of the hunger strike, the prefecture announced that a new protocol for the recovery of personal effects would be proposed. According to her, it was sent on October 29 to associations, which did not receive it. This will be a topic of discussion for the next meeting on Friday November 3rd. Since the hunger strike, the prefect has decided to make these meetings monthly. But on October 22 and November 10, the associations decided not to go there to demonstrate against the mediator’s proposals, deemed insufficient by the hunger strikers. The three have since recommended to eat.