the town hall takes care of two Ukrainian families turned back at the British border
Two families of Ukrainians live in uncertainty in Calais. Nine of them arrived on Monday afternoon hoping to reach England but were turned away. Parents, uncles, aunts and children have found refuge in a youth hostel. They are two couples aged over sixty and five young people aged between their twenties and their thirties. The city of Calais contacted the embassies in connection with the Ministry of the Interior and the prefecture in order to understand the reason for this blockage.
Hundreds of rooms available
The town hall of Calais has mobilized a hundred rooms at the youth hostel to accommodate Ukrainians. “Restaurant owners invite families who arrived on Monday to lunchadds Natacha Bouchart. This support is carried out by the services of the State and the municipality.”
The town hall anticipates the arrival of other Ukrainians. A hundred rooms in the youth hostel are therefore reserved for a week to welcome Ukrainians. Several families from Calais are in particular located near the town hall to indicate that they have accommodation options.
An unexplained blockage
The municipality finds itself in incomprehension in the face of this blockage at the border and this refusal to grant these families temporary visas. The prefecture and Natacha Bouchart have no explanation yet. “It’s historic at home, the British always want to teach everyone lessons, to make sure that in the eyes of the world they have nothing to reproach themselves for, gets annoyed the chosen one. But _they are unable to act quickly in situations like this_.”
In Calais, we are faced with two different audiences
The mayor is accused of having double standards regarding the reception of refugees in Calais, “these are bad speeches from people who have never done anything. We are dealing with two different audiences. The Ukrainians are in a regular situation. They ask for help from the state when _migrants welcomed in Calais ask nothing of France_they are in an irregular situation and just want to go to England and refuse the accompaniment of France.”
The Utopia 56 association, which helps exiles in Calais, reacted on Twitter after the reception of these two Ukrainian families. “At the same time, in the same city, more than 800 people, coming from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, are humiliated and forced into misery in camps. Again on Monday, a young man died in Calais while trying to cross the border. Hypocrisy and racism in the headlines.“