“The fundamental rights of migrants have been violated for years” in Calais, denounced Sébastien Nadot, deputy Liberties and Territories of Haute-Garonne, Sunday, November 14 on franceinfo. In the National Assembly, the deputy is also chairman of the commission of inquiry on migration, the report of which is presented on Wednesday 17 November. “We are very far from the mark”, he added, before pleading for “treat the emergency “ humanitarian aid on site.
franceinfo: Marlène Schiappa said Sunday morning on franceinfo that the State is saving lives in Calais and organizing the shelter of migrants. What do you think ?
Sébastien Nadot: There is one thing Marlène Schiappa does not lie about, is that the state, indeed, saves lives during unsuccessful attempts by migrants to cross the Channel. Everything else is a lie of omission. She fails to say what shelter is today, because people could be led to believe that these migrants are being given decent accommodation with a decent temperature. However, we are very far from the mark. On that side, it is not a reality and it is not what we see on the ground.
“Marlène Schiappa should go on the field to realize the enormity of what she is saying.”
Sébastien Nadot, Liberties and Territories deputyto franceinfo
There is no shelter, except considering that people who sleep outside, sometimes in tents, who are dislodged, that’s what sheltering is. I do not understand this speech. We should realize in this country that the Calais jungle has not been dismantled. It was disseminated, that is to say that the people were distributed by small islets in Calais, around Calais. What we can see is that the urgency that there was to deal with, considering their living conditions, has still not been dealt with.
In your report, you speak of “state abuse”. Why this term?
When the fundamental laws of the Republic are not respected in our country, what else can we talk about? These people have rights which are called fundamental rights: the right to accommodation, the right to food, the right to access to first aid, the right to education. All these fundamental rights have been violated for years in Calais. We are in an emergency situation and the state is sending a mediator to talk about a future urban plan and whatever. No, that’s not possible. When a firefighter goes on a fire, he tries to save people, children, women, adults, and he tries to keep everyone out of harm’s way.
You chair a parliamentary committee of inquiry on migration. What are the proposals of this commission that you chair?
They are many. For example, the annual cost of the mission to combat illegal immigration in the North, that is to say on the entire Nord-Pas-de-Calais coast, is 178 million euros. Could we not with this sum start by dealing with the emergency? It is a matter of political priority. If we no longer treat the emergency, that’s a problem. In our country, we have not dealt with the migration issue for years. We have not tackled the causes, the problem of immigration in this country for years. It is a whole set of mechanisms which need to be rethought and which are to be rethought within our borders, but also with our partners and with the countries of departure.