Evacuation of the Calais “jungle” in June 2018. -

M.Libert / 20 Minutes

  • Two senators from the North were outraged after visiting a migrant camp near Dunkirk.

  • They accused the state of abandoning migrants "in appalling conditions".

  • The prefect of the North responded to them in a press release detailing the actions implemented by the government in favor of migrants.

Accused of abandoning "women and men exiled in appalling conditions" on the coast of Dunkirk, the representative of the State in the North, Michel Lalande, insisted on putting things right on Tuesday.

In a press release, the prefect assumes the dismantling of camps and claims the implementation of "unprecedented" means.

Patrick Kanner and Martine Filleul, Socialist senators from the North, went to visit, on Friday, a migrant camp located in Grande Synthe, near Dunkirk.

At the end, they shouted their indignation on social networks and wrote a written question to the government which was to be asked on Tuesday.

Besides denouncing the "inhuman conditions" in which "300 to 400 men, women and young children" live, the senators wondered about "the government strategy" aimed at dismantling the camps to avoid "the points of attachment".

No fixed reception point on the coast

This strategy, precisely, the prefect of the North, Michel Lalande, does not see it the same way.

It recognizes "the evacuation of migrant camps, methodically and systematically".

He assumes "his resolute opposition to organizing one and a fortiori several fixed reception points near the coast" as requested by the senators.

On the Dunkirk coast, the State abandons exiled women and men in appalling conditions.

I ask @Interieur_Gouv to implement a welcome policy that finally respects the dignity of the human person!

#GrandeSynthe pic.twitter.com/70bffRwQqL

- Patrick Kanner (@PatrickKanner) January 12, 2021

The prefecture insists on the number of places created to accommodate coastal migrants: 883 places on January 5.

A number "likely to meet the needs", assures the representative of the State.

He also affirms that each dismantling of a camp is accompanied by proposals for sheltering.

And also a few escapes to the border, a thousand in 2020.

According to the authorities, the points of fixation located on the coast are conducive to the exercise of the criminal activity of smugglers.

An activity which generates disturbances to public order as well as insecurity for the people remaining in the camps.

But it is also "to avoid the reproduction of situations of unworthiness that we have known in the past" that the Prefect intends to continue the dismantling.

Lille

North: Neither minors nor adults, these young migrants have no right to anything

Lille

Migrants in Calais: More than 9,500 attempts to cross to England in 2020

  • Migrants

  • Society

  • Dunkirk

  • Refugees camp