Contents this week: “The Battle of Callac”; “Host families, happy families”; “Panama: we went through green hell”; “Clandestine euthanasia: the taboo”.
Public death threats against elected officials, violent demonstrations in the streets… who would have thought that Callac, 2,200 inhabitants, would one day occupy the front of the news for months? The small Breton town has become the symbol of the tense debate on immigration. It all started in the spring of 2022, when the city council announced that the town should welcome families from Syria, benefiting from a long residence permit.
The local, and even national, extreme right then made the failure of this new project its battle horse. Eric Zemmour’s party dispatches its executives to disrupt every municipal meeting and create a climate of terror. Elected officials will fear for their physical integrity, some receive threats. Gradually, Callac is divided into two irreconcilable camps… “Special Envoy” followed the daily life of this small town. In January 2023, the mayor, worried about his city, announced the abandonment of the private project to welcome refugees, but the maintenance of a public project which provides for the arrival of four families.
A report by Julie Benzoni, Jean-Charles Guichard, Pablo Rey and Julien Dufau.
Guest: Yannick Morez, mayor of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique).
Host families, happy families
In her Normandy farm, Stéphanie is a family assistant, a job better known as “foster family”. Alongside her two children, she is raising a 12-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl who were entrusted to her by the Children’s Social Aid. And if she does everything to ensure that these children are happy in her family, it is because she herself is a former foster child. Her placement, she says, saved her: that’s where her life began. A chance that she now wants to give to the young people she welcomes.
A report by Alice Gauvin, Sarah Lerch, Jérôme Sarfati and Soline Braun.
Panama: we went through green hell
In the mountainous jungles between Colombia and Panama, “Special Envoy” followed migrants trying to reach the United States from South America. For days, these people from Venezuela, Haiti or Africa face the dangers on foot to cross the “Darién Gap”, or “Darién plug”, 100 kilometers of extremely dangerous jungle where many lose their lives. “If we break a leg, if we have a fracture, it’s over. There won’t be any help, we’ll stay at the Darien. It’s do or die. But for us, the worst thing would be to stay where we come from“, declares one of them, Manuel. He flees Ecuador and the gang who wanted to recruit him: “They attacked my house and shot my wife who was pregnant. I was not there“, he says.
To make this grueling journey, they paid 350 dollars per person to a cartel of Colombian drug traffickers. Once past this dense jungle, they will still have several countries to cross, over 3,000 kilometers, before crossing the United States border: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. “I dream of going for a ride, then I want to see the beach“, testifies Precious, 8 years old, from Congo.
A report by Loïc de La Mornais, Thomas Donzel, Keely Sullivan Den Bergh and Carlos Villalon.
Clandestine euthanasia: the taboo
Euthanasia is still strictly prohibited in France, but there are clandestine channels to allow those suffering from incurable diseases to end their lives with the help of a third party. Journalist Julie Pichot went to explore this reality that is less and less hidden. She notably followed the story of Christiane, suffering from Charcot’s disease, who agreed to be accompanied until her last breath in Belgium.
Today, many candidates do not even make the trip, but resort to euthanasia in France, completely illegally. Some networks have organized themselves to help patients die. The doctors concerned are discreet, because they risk years in prison, but some dare to break the silence. On the Internet, several association sites also encourage the purchase of deadly products, but there is no guarantee that the substances purchased at a very high price are not counterfeit…
An investigation by Julie Pichot, produced by Cat & Cie.
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