“We are all totally devastated”Yann Manzi, co-founder of Utopia 56, an association that helps migrants, after the sinking of a migrant boat off Calais (Pas-de-Calais), which left 31 dead according to the latest police report.
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“Yes, the smuggling networks are criminal, but France and Europe are also criminal, with all this treatment that pushes these people to take risks.” He insists on the responsibility of the State: “The smugglers are incriminated but it is obvious that all the administrative regulations which prevent these people from seeking asylum in our country are also criminal”, he denounced
According to the founder of Utopia 56, the tension had been growing for several weeks, with “over-security and additional means to prevent these populations from having a future”. He therefore claims “safe routes, so that the migration can be secured “. He considers it necessary because according to him “vspeople will continue to take risks “. They are Kurds, Afghans and Iraqis “who are fleeing war and misery and, when they arrive on our soil, 70% are not granted asylum”, according to Yann Manzi.
According to Utopia 56, moving migrants away with accommodation solutions far from the coast is not efficient. “England remains an objective because they are denied their residence permit in Europe and left to roam without rights. So they try to cross to England, because there are fewer identity and work checks. in the dark”, assures its co-president. According to Yann Manzi, the problem will remain significant as long as Europe and France “will not have found harmonizations to welcome these populations with dignity”.
An opinion shared by the president of France Fraternité. “The policy pursued by Great Britain is a real shame coupled with a deep hypocrisy”, reacts on franceinfo Pierre Henry. “Since the start of the year, there have been 30,000 attempts to cross from France to Great Britain via the Channel. This closure policy has the effect of increasing the price of the passage, and enriching the smugglers. and to make this passage more dangerous, of course. It is an absolute tragedy “, he said. “On the French side, I think we cannot go on like this, accepting to be the subcontractors of Great Britain.”
According to him, France and the United Kingdom must find an alternative solution. “This alternative solution is the opening of legal migration channels for a number of people who are in need of asylum or who have to join their families who are on the other side.”
“We must especially not reduce this drama to the issue of smugglers”, for her part, estimated Delphine Rouilleault, general manager of the association France Terre d’Asile, “because it is refusing to see the real and deep causes of the situation”. “We need to understand why these smuggling networks are thriving. The real issue is the closure of legal migration routes.”
She believes that this drama highlights “the desperate situation in which migrants find themselves ” but also “the incredible risks they take to reach England”. She believes he “must be forced ” the country to “to assume their responsibilities”.