During a party, an association in Calais offers migrants a semblance of normal life
The Mosaïc association, founded in the summer of 2021, helps migrants in Calais by offering them a chance to change their minds to music, around a good meal or through cultural activities. A breath of fresh air for these exiles more accustomed to dismantling than parties.
Sound system, musical instruments, painting materials… In Calais, the paraphernalia carried by the members of the Mosaïc migrant aid association contrasts with the goods provided to exiles on the street. In their van, neither blankets nor tents, but good humor and a festive spirit.
Created in the summer of 2021, Mosaïc is, unlike many associative actors, not there to provide shelter or meet the basic needs of migrants, who number around 2,000 in the region. She also wants to get out of this emergency dynamic and the caregiver-helped relationship that is generally established between members of associations and exiles.
“Migrants have no space to share with the French, apart from the police and the volunteers who are often in the rush”, notes Foued, the 31-year-old founder. “I want to promote the link between exiles and the French.”
The volunteer – who also works as a volunteer for the Utopia 56 association – imagined simple moments when the exiles “don’t ask us for anything and where we don’t ask them anything”.
“Just listening, dancing, singing, smiling”
Mosaïc was born during car journeys, when Foued and other members of Utopia 56 took migrants to the hospital. “I always have a speaker in the car, explains Foued to InfoMigrants. And I have observed that it was enough to create a link with exiled people in just a few minutes. extraordinary share.”
Mosaic therefore uses it as a valuable means of communication for these people with whom it is often impossible to communicate because of the language barrier. “With Afghans, we had put on a sound from rapper Jul and Italian rapper Anna. The Afghans were a little questioning because, musically speaking, it’s light years away from what they can listen to” , explained Fou. “Some liked it, others didn’t. And it’s very good like that: what we want is to create emotions. These are really moments of sharing, just listening, dancing, singing , smiles.”
The association has invested in festival equipment, in particular large speakers and lights “to create nice little atmospheres” and allow people to dance in the open air, in these camps more used to dismantling, almost daily, than at parties.
In January, a match of the African Cup of Nations (CAN), which opposed Sudan to Guinea, was also broadcast on a wasteland planted with tents, using a video projector. “It was very well received by people, welcomes Foued. It was accessible to everyone and there were a lot of Calaisians. They had a festive time with music and football.”
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A meal was also organized at the beginning of January. “We had brought back painting equipment, says the founder again. Afghans and Sudanese painted. Some represented the sea, another drew a window in which it was said that he would have in his house later .”
Bumper car rides and churros
A few days later, on January 17, an outing to a funfair was organized for around 25 young migrants aged between 15 and 20. “Bambinos”, as Foued affectionately calls them.
“They did rides in bumper cars and thrill rides and ate churros. It was great. It was a first for them. ‘they ‘they lived.”
The participants in this outing, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, also, for a few hours, talked about something other than their attempts to cross to England. “Usually it can be tense between these communities as they separate the places where migrants try to get on trucks [pour traverser clandestinement le tunnel de la Manche, ndlr]. But that day, there was no place for tensions.”
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Have fun to let go and enjoy, for once, the present moment. “The goal is that they are no longer in the projection in which they have been for years. We no longer want them to say to themselves: ‘Ah it will be good in England’, but rather: ‘There, now , I am well'”.
The association, which is preparing to raise funds, prefers to remain discreet about future events. History to avoid disappointments. In mid-January, the police did not hesitate to interrupt the broadcast of a football match organized by Mosaïc, brutally bringing viewers back to this Calais daily without entertainment.