A week after the sinking of a boat in the English Channel, resulting in the death by drowning of 27 people who tried to reach the United Kingdom from France, many associations denounce “the culpable blindness of the French and British authorities” and the call for a change of policy. The signatories, associations or associative managers, express themselves here freely.
Twenty-seven people drowned in the English Channel on November 24. This tragedy was feared by our associations, which have been warning for years about the risks taken by people in exile to go to Great Britain for lack of legal and secure passageways, or for lack of access to an asylum procedure. in France.
Our organizations, alongside all people in solidarity, send their condolences and thoughts to the families and all the relatives of the victims. They strongly denounce the culpable blindness of the French and British authorities who accuse the smugglers, when they are only the unscrupulous profiteers and the consequence of a policy as brutal as ineffective carried out all along the Franco-French coast. British.
The death of these 27 people adds to the list of those who have died on land or at sea – more than 400 since 1999 – while trying to cross this border. This drama comes a few days after the hunger strikers in Calais put an end to their action started on October 11, precisely motivated by the death of a young Sudanese, Yasser, run over by a truck in Calais.
The strikers’ request was simple: that an end to the policy of mistreatment against exiled people, decided at the top of the state, which breaks all confidence in the French authorities and strengthens their will to embark on perilous, even fatal crossings.
Today, a double feeling dominates: hope by noting a real awareness in public opinion; but a hope quickly covered with anger by noting that the non-violent action of the hunger strikers did not make it possible to change anything in the dehumanizing practices of the public authorities.
The announcements made at the beginning of November by the government through the intervention of Mr. Leschi, however, constituted only a minimal advance: notice given before the expulsions, summons of 45 minutes before the intervention of the police so that the exiled people can take their personal effects, opening of an “accommodation lock” (that is to say a hangar) of 300 places in Calais, and the promise of a forum for dialogue more representative of all the actors involved in the field as well as exiles.
It was still too much! As soon as the strike ended, the public authorities chose to immediately renounce their commitments: the hangar, presented as a concession, to meet the demands of the strikers, was closed by decision of the prefecture and the Ministry of the Interior. After a slight lull, the camp evacuations resumed their infernal rhythm, with the destruction of personal effects. A recent prefectural decree has further restricted the places of distribution of food and other essential goods by associations, trenches have been dug and rocks deposited on places of (over) life, etc.
Proposals, based on welcoming and respecting people’s dignity, do exist: they emanate from independent institutions such as the Defender of Rights or the CNCDH, parliamentarians, elected officials. All share the same conviction that it is urgent to understand differently the presence of people in exile on the coast and to consider them for what they are: human beings in search of a better life and, for the most part, in situations justifying international protection because their life is in danger in their own country.
France must now draw the conclusions of the tragedy that occurred on November 24: stop acts of mistreatment, propose shelter systems all along the coast, allow exiled people to apply for asylum or stay in France, negotiate hard with Great Britain on legal and safe ways of passage. Instead of spending additional millions on border surveillance as proposed by the Interior Ministers meeting Sunday in Calais, we must offer these people the opportunity to build a future, and experience peace.
Not to do so would be complicit in new dramas, new deaths. The signatory associations once again call on the authorities to engage in constructive dialogue with our associations and all the stakeholders concerned.
It’s urgent.
The petitioners :
Véronique Albanel, President of JRS-France
Sylvie Bukhari-de Pontual, president of CCFD Terre Solidaire
Cécile Coudriou, President of Amnesty International France
Cécile Duflot, Managing Director of Oxfam France
Christophe Robert, General Delegate of Fondation Abbé-Pierre
Jean Fontanieu, secretary general of the Federation Entraide Protestante
Marie-Aleth Grard, president of ATD Quart-Monde
Yann Manzi, Managing Director and co-founder of Utopia56
Henry Masson, President of Cimade
Céline Meresse, co-president of CRID
Dr Carine Rolland, President of Médecins du Monde
Malik Salemkour, President of the LDH
Antoine Sueur, president of Emmaüs France
Corinne Torre, Head of Mission France of Médecins sans Frontières
Collective of associations of Calais, Grande-Synthe and Dunkerque: ADRA France antenna of Dunkirk, Amis, Auberge des migrants, LDH Dunkerque, Maria Skobtsova, Refugee Info Bus, Safe Passage, Salam, Shanti, Solidarity borders