In Calais, nearly 1,400 migrants were welcomed in the temporary reception center – archyde

Almost 1,400 migrants were received in one week in a “Temporary reception center” – 300 camp beds distributed in two hangars – open every night by the State in Calais, noted, Wednesday, November 10, the prefecture.

Large white tents have been set up in these two heated hangars, located in the industrial zone of Calais, about 4 kilometers from the city center, already open occasionally in winter in recent years, depending on weather conditions.

The migrants are transported there by bus. On site, they have a snack, electrical outlets to recharge their phone, toilets, a toothbrush and a pair of flip-flops. On the walls, posters recall the dangers associated with crossing the Channel on board a makeshift boat.

Migrants can spend one night there, but they must leave the premises at 8:30 am On average, 197 people are received each night; 1,380 were received there in one week, according to the prefecture. They are, if they wish, then redirected to more permanent accommodation outside Calais. “We are on a temporary structure which aims to provide exceptional hospitality. It is a site which is not intended to be perpetuated ”, insists Véronique Deprez-Boudier, sub-prefect of Calais.

A device that convinces neither the associations nor the municipality

The opening of this “airlock” was announced on November 3 by the boss of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII), Didier Leschi, sent for mediation to Calais by the government to negotiate with several activists on hunger strike who denounce the policy of the State with regard to migrants. More than 300 Emmaus members began on Wednesday morning a “Symbolic fast” of twenty-four hours in support of these strikers.

This device, decided by the State in response to complaints from associations on the living conditions of migrants in Calais, does not convince either the associations or the municipality. ” This is not enough “, estimates Ludivine Colas, coordinator of Utopia 56. “Three hundred places cannot meet the needs of 1,500 people on the Calaisis. We would also like a device (…) which allows [aux migrants] to rest for several days “, she says. “It’s always that taken, but it’s really insufficient”, tance Pierre Roques, coordinator of the Auberge des migrants.

For her part, the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, fearing the reconstitution of a new “jungle” in her town, asked for the “Deletion” of this airlock, which she considers to be a device ” doomed to fail “.