in Calais, Ukrainians are migrants like no other
“It’s very well organized here, thank you France! “says this graying fifties. Construction worker, he works in London. But he left at the beginning of the week to pick up his wife and daughter at the Slovakian border.
“When we arrived in Calais on Wednesday, we had been driving non-stop for more than 24 hours,” he says. “At the port, the British customs told us that I received in England. But not my wife or my daughter… And we found ourselves there, exhausted, without knowing where to go. »
“Fortunately, people were very welcoming, and told us to come and sleep here,” he continues.
They are accommodated with sixty other Ukrainians by the town hall of Calais in a youth hostel specially opened since Monday. “I wanted to pay, and they told me ‘no’, says Aleksandra. We are really welcomed. »
As of Thursday evening, residents of the surrounding area distributed basic necessities. Faced with the expected influx in Calais, the British authorities also dispatched officials, who received the asylum seekers at the sub-prefecture. But only Ukrainians.
The first Ukrainians to arrive there were even received by the mayor of the city, Natacha Bouchart (LR), at the start of the week.
“A refugee is a refugee”
A treatment that moved local activists and on social networks, in a city where migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria are settled in often dramatic conditions and regularly chased away by the forces. of the order.
“The big difference is that the Ukrainians are in a regular situation,” replies the mayor.
She points to the fact that the European Union on Thursday granted unprecedented “temporary protection” to refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
“It’s great to see all of this being put in place”, rejoices François Guennoc, of the Auberge des migrants, a coalition of associations helping exiles.
“But we would like all those who flee the war to be treated like this. If the British authorities open an office in Calais, why should it be reserved for Ukrainians? A refugee is a refugee, there should be no discrimination. »
A few steps from the hostel, a group of Sudanese swallows a cold meal, watching for a heavy weight on board that may be hiding to reach the United Kingdom.
“With us too, there is war, militias”, underlines Omar, 33, who arrived from Darfur a few months ago. “We also would like to go to England, but here we are suffering. Every morning the police come to make us move our tents. “We are black, African, maybe that’s why,” he says.