Migrants threatened with expulsion in Ouistreham: who owns the camp site?
By Maxence Gorregues
Published on
Nearly 150 people responded, this Thursday, October 6, 2022, to the call of several collectives to gather before the court of Caen (Calvados). Inside, the question of who owns the land on which a about thirty immigrants, was debated. This makeshift camp, established at the end of the towpath and in a wooded area along the canal from Caen to the sea, is located on land whose Ports of Normandy (PNA) claims to be the owner, without being able to prove it for several months.
New documents presented
The property file had already been debated in court at the end of June 2022. But the president of the court had decided on a new hearing, due to the lack of evidence provided by PNA. The lawyer representing the interests of the Ports of Normandy began by presenting a plan of the area, followed by observations, based on a 2006 agreement, “unmodified timeless car”. Declaring according to him the administrative limits of the port of Caen-Ouistreham, proving that the land concerned is indeed the property of PNA.
The plot occupied is located between the canal and what appears on the plan as the campsite. The parcel is therefore indicated as being within the limits of the port of Caen-Ouistreham.
He also relied on a prefectural decree of March 9, 2010, “a fundamental document” according to him, which indicated that “the non-registered maritime domain is transferred to PNA from 1uh January 2007.
“We are talking about human lives”
Then the lawyer who defended the interests of the exiles of Ouistreham intervened, considering that the new elements provided “still do not make it possible to establish the ownership” of PNA. He is also surprised that they were not presented during previous hearings.
He pointed to what he said could represent a procedural flaw. “The person who signed the prefectural decree presented today was incompetent to do so, since only the minister in charge of seaports has the necessary authority, according to a 2004 law.” Also, according to him, the tribunal de grande instance is incompetent to rule on a case that concerns the maritime public domain.
During his speech, he also regretted an audience “above ground, because we are talking about human lives. 50 people need this land”, also evoking the fact that these exiles “do not represent a threat to public order. »
A key decision for the future of migrants
This court decision is essential for the future of the exiled people, brought to the field at the heart of this affair. Because if an owner were to be recognized, he could go to court to request their eviction.
“A few days ago, the Normandy World Peace Forum was held in Caen, organized by the Regional Council, with the central theme Down with the walls! These confinements that make wars, notes Bastien Récher, regional councilor and administrator of PNA, present at the hearing. And there, we want to erect a wall in front of a few people in great difficulty. It is a real relentlessness orchestrated to meet them, far from the humanist values advocated during this Forum. »
Outside, on the court gates, the grievances of migrants and people who came to support them were clearly displayed on large sheets.
We ask the authorities not to close the forest. The camp is where we live while waiting for our papers. We have nowhere to live and now the police want to shut it down!
Earlier this week, the authorities ordered the evacuation of a nearby squat in Ouistreham, occupied by seven Sudanese in exile. Two days before this new hearing.
The matter was adjourned on November 10.
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