the mayor of Grande-Synthe “feels completely abandoned by the State”

Pas-de-Calais has been facing a significant migratory influx for several weeks, with sometimes tragic consequences. Thus, a migrant was found dead in a boat in Wissant while another was killed and three injured in a collision with a TER in Calais on Thursday 4 November. In Grande-Synthe, more than 1,500 of them are gathered in camps on the outskirts of a commercial area of ​​the city. This is a record since 2015. “The mayor of Grande-Synthe that I am feels completely abandoned by the State”, declared on franceinfo the socialist mayor of the city, Martial Beyaert.

“The situation we are experiencing today is intolerable”, said Martial Beyaert, recalling that he “alerted the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin by a letter in September” to which he had no answer. The mayor of this city of Dunkirk pleads for “the opening of reception centers on a human scale on the entire coast”, while the State announced this week the creation of a temporary emergency accommodation center in Calais to accommodate up to 300 migrants after the evacuations of the camps.

These places of reception “would allow migrants to take stock of their situation” according to the councilor and therefore to slow down the passages to England, estimated at 17,000 since the beginning of the year. “France is not up to the task of providing support” exiles, he ruled. “We could explain to them that there are possible political refugee or war refugee statuses in France.”

Martial Beyaert recognizes that he would be “angelic to think that we will be able to prevent all the passages and convince them to accept a French integration” but he insisted on the lack of resources dedicated to welcoming these people. “We are all alone”, he laments. “We will see the associations and residents but we have no response from the State services.” He regrets the presence of a mediator for the situation of Calais alone: “Here, the mediator is me.”