Calais. Many migrant aid associations boycott the consultation meeting in the sub-prefecture
The day after a new evacuation, a consultation meeting was held this afternoon in Calais in the sub-prefecture. Several migrant aid associations were missing.
While on Thursday January 6, a new evacuation of a migrant camp took place in Coquelles, a consultation meeting was held in the sub-prefecture of Calais with some associations of aid to migrants (such as La vie active, France Terre d’Asile, Audace, UNHCR, the Mahra-Le Toit association, according to the Calais sub-prefecture)
L’Auberge des Migrants, Association Shanti, Collective Aid, ECPAT France, Human Rights Observers (HRO), Secours Catholique du Pas-de-Calais, Project Play, Calais Food Collective (CFC), Utopia 56, Collectif Faim Aux Frontières declined the offer, believing that the policy undertaken does not allow “the search for lasting solutions”.
“We renew the requests […] stopping evictions from encampments and confiscation of personal belongings during the winter period, the opening of a genuine dialogue […] as well as the establishment of a humanitarian base to meet the needs of exiled persons “, they declared via a press release entitled The escalation of state violence in Calais makes any dialogue impossible.
The sub-prefect of Calais, Véronique Déprez-Boudier regretted the absence of these associations at this meeting which usually takes place monthly. It’s a “missed moment” she lamented, specifying that her door remained open.
According to the sub-prefect, two points have been particularly improved: the methods of recovering the effects of migrants which will be done from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., every working day on rue des Huttes in Calais and the sheltering of isolated men on weekends. -end, outside of Calais.
Thursday, January 6, some 150 gendarmes and police had around a hundred people living in tents on land belonging to the State, in Coquelles, a town very close to Calais.
Driven in buses outside the Pas-de-Calais department (in Laon), or even outside Hauts-de-France (in Nice), people were avoided to avoid any new point of attachment.
Véronique Deprez-Boudier, sub-prefect of Calais, explained on Thursday that not only the land is private but, above all, “if we let the migrants’ settlements take place, the camps will grow and demand disturbing public order and developing all trafficking, including that of smugglers “.