On the beach of Wissant, Saturday November 6, children play or take speed sailing lessons with their parents. But behind the postcard of the end of the school holidays, the gendarmerie patrol arriving from the end of the street brings us back to reality. “They go down to each entrance to the beach and they watch through the binoculars”, comments Alain, a resident. On Thursday, the body of a migrant was found on the beach, next to a small boat and two other people with hypothermia.
In recent days, attempts to cross the Channel by migrants on boats and rescue operations have multiplied at sea, off the North and Pas-de-Calais. 400 people were rescued the day before, following several shipwrecks. Alain, like the other inhabitants, has already seen the violence of this migratory crisis up close. She invites herself even in her daily walks.
“We have already seen boats with burst floats … It’s not very big, a boat of four to six people. After that I don’t know how many they were on it.”
Alain, a resident of Wissantto franceinfo
A few meters away, a bicycle rental company had a similar experience a few days earlier. “I was washing the bikes, like every morning, and I saw about fifty migrants carrying a boat and then getting into the water. They struggled for 10-15 minutes, they circled around a bit while they got into position and managed to leave. They may have been in English waters since, no more news. “
In the hotel overlooking the bay of Wissant, we witness the ballet of those who attempt the crossing, often at night. “Since the first confinement, there have been more and more migrants, says an employee, they deflate the Zodiacs, they put them in the dunes and then they wait for high tide at night to be able to go there. ”
A situation that prompted Nathalie to tell her children aged 5 to 12 about it. Who are these people and why do they want to go to England? “We come from Lille and on the highway, they see a lot of people walking along the road when it is forbidden, says the mother of the family. And then they ask questions, why the police are coming to the beach … “
In his shop with a sea view, for Gauthier, the police presence is completely part of the landscape. “The gendarmerie patrols are between ten and twenty times a day, with the helicopters on surveillance”, he explains.
“There is a scary side to thinking that we are in a corner of France which must be one of the most watched after the Elysee and the ministries.”
Gauthier, a trader from Wissantto franceinfo
In this town of barely 1,000 inhabitants, everyone insures it. There is no problem with the presence of migrants. According to them, “the only problem is that France is not helping them”.
The inhabitants of Wissant faced with the migration crisis: the report by Valentin Houinato
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