Migrants: the anger of the mayor of Calais
La migration crisis in Calais is a real human drama that has lasted for more than twenty years. Twenty years of diverse and varied measures proposed by successive governments and which have all proved to be more or less ineffective in the long term, for lack of legislation adapted to the situation.
The goal of the exiles present on our territory is to join, at all costs, the United Kingdom which has been so often sold to them as being the Eldorado. For those who manage to cross the Channel, the dream very often turns once again into a nightmare. British labor law is cruel to this foreign and undocumented workforce. I say it: she has little hope of being regularized, condemned to be exploited on the British labor market.
To do this, these people take incredible risks and put their lives in danger, to reach what they believe to be a land of dreams, and refuse all the humanitarian solutions offered by the State, thus finding themselves living in conditions indignant.
My course of action has always been consistent. It wants to strike a balance between humanity and firmness.
For all these years, the mayor that I am assumes and acts according to her powers and her means. My course of action has always been consistent. It wants to strike a balance between humanity and firmness. Humanity because nobody can deny that the exiles live a real drama on which it is humanly impossible for me to turn a blind eye. I have also, over the years, made proposals as mayor and senator and set up mechanisms. There are many examples, I will name just a few:
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The creation of a council for migrants, which brought together state services, the city of Calais and historical associations helping exiles;
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The creation of several meal distribution areas;
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Subsidized aid to associations through grants;
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The installation of shower cubicles, which ended up being set on fire several times;
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The implementation of a specific extreme cold plan;
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The creation of a place of shelter for women and children which, I remind you, for lack of supervision by the government of the time, a subject at the birth of the misnamed “jungle”; a place out of control, at the mercy of networks of smugglers, activists and associations of all kinds, where more than 11,000 people have lived.
I thought in October 2016 the dismantling of the “jungle would mark a real turning point.
After making headlines for months and months with the migration crisis, I hoped that the media around the world would finally talk about our city for what it is created: a dynamic city, in full transformation, a city where life is good, which is constantly reinventing and innovating, a city turned towards the future.
And yet, every day, the people of Calais still call on me, because a camp is set up in one district, then in another, generating understandable concerns about the security and serenity they are entitled to expect.
On this date, since each time that the State services dismantle a camp, I have no other choice but to implement measures awaiting any new point of attachment, thus responding to the requests of my citizens who, I remind you, have always had a dignified behavior in the face of this situation which is beyond us.
For four years, we have seen a new phenomenon appear on our coast. The smugglers, always anxious to make money off the backs of migrants, have come up with a new idea for ensuring Channel crossings: small boats. These makeshift boats where each seat is sold for gold. 8,500 passages reserved in 2020, 28,000 in 2021 and, to date, nearly 41,000 in 2022!
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But he will have waited the shipwreck and death of 27 exiles sailing on one of these makeshift boats so that the European Union finally mobilizes on this subject through a European summit on the migration issue which was held in my town on November 28, 2021.
The absence of coordinates on the scale of Europe develops in most of our fellow citizens the feeling of abandonment which leads them to choose the far right.
Unfortunately, since that date, the responses have not been up to par. Too many European countries today are left alone with the migration issue. The absence of coordinates on the scale of Europe develops in most of our fellow citizens the feeling of abandonment which leads them to choose the far right. The proof again in recent weeks with their success in Sweden and Italy. It is therefore essential that democratic and moderate leaders take up this subject.
The agreement signed on November 14 between France and the United Kingdom is perhaps a first step towards improving the situation, but in no case will it solve it, for lack of tackling the problem as a whole. Reinforcing the human and technical resources of law enforcement is a good thing, as is the willingness displayed, it seems, by the British government to finally cooperate, after so many years, on the judicial level in order to improve the fight against smuggling networks, which today are extremely organized and powerful, but what next? What response is provided in terms of judicial treatment?
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Twenty years that the legislation which is ours does not allow Calaisians or exiled populations to live with dignity. It is time to act on the bottom! The future bill on immigration, which is currently being studied by the government, must be the legal framework which will finally allow the services of the State to act. The populations present today in Calais do not ask anything from France, they do not wish to ask for asylum there. This law must include a section adapted to the particular situation of border areas such as Calais. Exiles should no longer be able to occupy our territory as they see fit, because this is in a way putting them in danger while risking creating disturbances to public order.
On our national territory, we need dignified but closed places of reception, far from border areas, which would make it possible to create humane care for exiles. Places where they can take all the necessary steps to examine their situation.
The whole of Europe now expects the British government to finally assume its responsibilities!
Furthermore, I am well aware that the central actor in solving this problem is the British government. He alone is in a position to have his own legislation evaluated in such a way as to make it less attractive and to fight against the hidden labor market which creates the enormous draft that we are experiencing. The whole of Europe now expects the British government to finally assume its responsibilities!
As I have always done, I am at the disposal of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and parliamentarians to help draft this new bill.
I hope that the proposals that I have been formulating for more than ten years, and that I am renewing here, will be studied and retained, because they are the only ones that can put an end to the dramatic situation that Calais residents and exiles have been living for more twenty years old.