In Calais, the government mediator wants to create an “airlock” for night accommodation for migrants, the town hall is opposed to it – Le Monde

The State will create in Calais a “Airlock” of “Sheltering” making it possible to temporarily accommodate 300 migrants at night, before redirecting them to permanent accommodation, announced the director general of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) and government mediator, Didier Leschi, Wednesday 3 November. Since October 27, he has been charged by the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, to negotiate with three activists on hunger strike, who protest against the dismantling of migrant camps.

This “Night shelter will be open every day after evacuations”, explained Leschi. The people who will be going there every night “Will be oriented towards long-term accommodation outside Calais” the next morning, he said. In an interview at World, he had recognized that “The action of the hunger strikers [avait] reveals an inconsistency in the policy implemented ”.

This structure should make it possible to keep the promises already made by the State, which undertook on Tuesday to propose “Systematically” accommodation for migrants displaced from their makeshift camps in Calais. This implies increasing the accommodation base by “Several hundred places”, mainly in Pas-de-Calais and Hauts-de-France, according to Mr. Leschi.

Hunger-strike

The mediator’s proposals are still considered insufficient by the three people – a Jesuit priest, Philippe Demeestère, and two activists – who have been on a hunger strike for twenty-four days to denounce the treatment of migrants in Calais. The police evacuate there almost daily the migrants gathered in the hope of crossing the Channel to reach the United Kingdom.

Local associations, which denounce the situation of some 1,500 migrants currently present in Calais, continue to demand a “Moratorium” evacuations and left the discussions on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the inter-association Human Rights Observers (HRO) network described the shelters as “Forced displacement of people far from the border to accommodation in which [HRO sait] experience that people will not stay ”. “By warning people twenty-four hours before each expulsion, the State’s proposal is to force them to expel themselves! “, insist these associations. They ask “The end of daily harassment, and therefore the end of evictions” during the winter break, “Essential condition to allow people to think calmly about their project”, they say.

For her part, Natacha Bouchart (Les Républicains), mayor of Calais, affirms that such a device is ” out of the question “. ” I am opposed to it, especially since we have no suitable place ”, she judges on France 3. The city councilor goes on to say that she “At length” interviewed with the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, who assured him that “The sheltering system (…) would be the same as last year ”.

Fear of a draft

Opposite, the State fears that a stop of the evacuations will cause a call of air which would allow the reconstitution of the “Jungle”, this gigantic camp dismantled in 2016 which brought together up to 10,000 migrants in inhuman and chaotic conditions.

According to Mr. Leschi, “40,000 people” have arrived on the northern coast since the start of the year, with the hope of reaching the English coast. Tuesday, 292 migrants were rescued in the Channel and returned to the French coast.

Since the end of 2018, illegal crossings of the Channel by migrants seeking to reach the United Kingdom have increased despite repeated warnings from the authorities, which recall the danger linked to the density of traffic, strong currents and low water temperature.