The prefecture of Pas-de-Calais has been prohibited since August 14 to associations not mandated by the State to distribute water and food at the level of two quays in the city center, a decree renewed Monday until September 6.
Le Monde with AFP
The Auberge des Migrants and Secours Catholique, Associations of Aid to Migrants, deplore the “return” of prohibitions for food distribution in downtown Calais and denounce a “recurring and” ineffective “harassment policy” .
After a few months without prefectural orders, the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais has been prohibited since August 14 to associations not mandated by the State to distribute water and food at the level of two quays in the city center, a decree renewed Monday Until September 6. Similar decrees, but in a larger area of thirty -one streets, had been taken between September 2020 and April 2022, causing the ire of associations. The measure then aimed “to prevent the risks linked to the COVID-19 and to the disturbances to the public order”, according to the prefecture.
The new decree this time “intended to respond to difficulties following the recent and dangerous implementation of migrant tents in this area where the circulation of heavy goods vehicles and vehicles is particularly important and where the accumulation of waste “, argues the prefecture. “We are disgusted. We thought we had finished with that,” reacted to the France-Presse Pierre Roques agency, coordinator in Calais of the Auberge des Migrants association. “It proves to us that the policy of the new prefect, which took office in early August, goes in line with his predecessor,” he regrets.
harassment policy
Until spring, “when we read the arguments used, over the months it seemed more and more absurd. At the beginning, the pretext was the Covid-19. Little by little, they brought up sordid news. Then it stopped because it became ridiculous. Today, they start again. ” The two streets concerned, “this is where people are coming most at the moment, and have the least access to services” and distributions organized by the Association La Vie Active, mandated by the State, has he says.
“There are a hundred people there, including families, unaccompanied minors. The state does not intervene,” added Juliette Delaplace, project manager at Secours Catholique. “The idea is to starve, [to] cut food to dissuade people from staying.” “We are, in a recurring way, in completely stupid, ineffective arrested” because these people “flee the Attacks, the war, will continue to come, “said Jean-Claude Lenoir, president of the Salam association, denouncing this” harassment as the only policy “.
Record number of crossings, Monday
Some 1,295 migrants succeeded in crossing on Monday on 27 boats, according to figures published Tuesday by the British Ministry of Defense. Monday’s crossing peak is “due to weather conditions, optimal to cross right now,” said Pierre Roques. For Jean-Claude Lenoir, “it’s every day like that as soon as there is no wind” and “it’s like that this week”. Migrants “do not remain in France, because the living conditions are deplorable, said Juliette Delaplace. There is always, in summer, a seasonal increase, because it is very difficult to survive the street to Calais in winter “.