“It’s out of the question”: the mayor of Calais opposes the creation of an airlock to accommodate 300 migrants in – France 3 Régions

She has been silent since the start of the hunger strike by Father Philippe Demeestère and the two activists, Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein, which began on October 11.

Silent also since the arrival of Didier Leschi, mediator sent by the Ministry of the Interior to Calais last week to try to find a way out of this crisis.

But Natacha Bouchart, mayor Les Républicains de Calais, decided to react today following the announcement to the press of the mediator of the opening of a “airlock” of “sheltering” making it possible to temporarily accommodate 300 migrants at night, before redirecting them to permanent accommodation outside Calais.

This “airlock” accommodation announced by the mediator will be “open every day after evacuations”. The people who will be going there every night “will be oriented towards long-term accommodation outside Calais” the next morning.

“There will be no sheltering directly in Calais”

“No way, she explains. I am opposed to it, especially since we have no suitable place “.

After being made aware of the opening announcement of this “airlock” through the press, the city councilor “at length” interviewed with the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, who assured him that “the sheltering system that existed this year would be the same as last year”.

“there will be no sheltering directly in Calais and not 300 places mobilized for these shelters”.

Natacha Bouchart, LR mayor of Calais

So she says it: “there will be no sheltering directly in Calais and not 300 places mobilized for these shelters”.

No contact between the mayor and the mediator

Since the arrival of the mediator Didier Leschi in Calais last week, no exchange has taken place with the mayor of the city. “We have mediators who come from outside, who do not know the root of the problem and the methodology which unfortunately is involved behind all these humanitarian difficulties”, she denounces.

“We have mediators who come from outside, who do not know the root of the problem”.

Natacha Bouchart, LR mayor of Calais

According to Natacha Bouchart, the announcement of the opening of “airlock” is the perfect example. “Perhaps he does not know enough about the subject of Calais and that he does not know that if unfortunately there is a place that is created with 300 people, we will recreate the conditions of the moor, of the jungle”. Before continuing. “If we recreate a place, we renew the breath and we have been sufficiently tested, the people of Calais and the migrants themselves, by these forms of devices”.

The mayor sends a message to the strikers

During our telephone exchange, we also questioned the mayor of Calais on the situation of the three hunger strikers who began their 24th day of action today.

She explains her silence. “If I did not go there, it is because I did not want to poison their action, which is a humanitarian action called a media buzz. My role is rather to try to appease them. things”.

Natacha Bouchart also tackles certain activists in passing “young and radicalized”, who “come and get excited” around the three strikers. “I advise hunger strikers to be surrounded by benevolent people and not by people who come to reinforce their convictions”, she said, recalling however that “it is not the role of the mayor to manage this problem”.