The arrival of the director of the French Office for Immigration and Integration, Didier Leschi, Wednesday, October 27 in the afternoon in Calais is “a com operation”, assured the same day on franceinfo, Philippe Demeestère, chaplain of the Catholic Help, on hunger strike with two other people since October 11 in Calais to denounce what they call the “daily harassment of migrants”.
franceinfo: With what intention will you discuss with the mediator Didier Leschi?
Philippe Demeestère: I think this is a com operation. It is now a question of showing that Mr. Macron watches over our health, is concerned about the problems that arise in France so we send someone, a mediator who will say at the end of the meeting without doubt that it is impossible. to dialogue with associations. I would like to say a first thing: there is no room for us, for a dialogue, since our demands or our expectations are precise, during the period of the winter break: we stop this stupid game which consists in dislodging their places the exiles.
That we do not evict them and that we shelter them, is that what you want during this winter period, that there be receptions?
We have chosen to do the minimum, that is to say what emerges from simple humanity. We say a period, we do not ask the government to commit itself for the future, we say at least that during this period you leave the exiles their tents while they are people who, for months already, have been sleeping in the same room. ground, in the rain and in the wind, which is really outrageous. I am not looking at the situation from legal, political, economic or police considerations. I look at the situation through the eyes of a child I have seen shivering with cold in the morning. In front of this child I will not say: “Listen, we’re going to take action, this, that”, it is a question of acting immediately.
If this pledge is made, will you stop your hunger strike?
Of course and I take out the champagne. I believe that we are all going to be of good will. But the people in exile here in Calais are caught up in a lot of considerations that have nothing to do with their own person, it is an electoral issue, especially now and then it is the issue of bargaining with Great Britain. which goes undercover, under the table. People smugglers proliferate because nothing is done to create accessible passageways. If the British border is on French soil, why does the British government not establish an office here in France which examines the asylum files of the people who are here? At that point, we can organize ourselves for all these people who are waiting to go to England and we prevent them from taking risks for their own lives. We are in the pretenses from A to Z.