Coronavirus: In Calais, associations denounce the total abandonment of migrants

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The associations which help migrants in Calais are raising a cry of alert. In the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, they had to fend for themselves to assist the 1,000 to 1,200 refugees who lived in tents in small camps hoping to cross to England. Nearly 300 of them have been sheltered in a reception center since the beginning of the month, but outside they are still numerous and food is becoming increasingly scarce.

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With our special envoy to Calais, Alexis Bédu

The three volunteers from the Utopia 56 association distribute water, a hot dish, and hydroalcoholic gel. With the cold, hunger and now the virus , many migrants decide to return to their country. Like this Ethiopian: " I spent a lot of time in Europe you know. I made eleven different countries, in six of them, they sent me back by plane to Italy , he says. It's been nine and a half years now, I still have no paper, no housing, no work… ”

As if to say "fed up" he runs his hand over his head. With the arrival of the coronavirus epidemic in France, it had however been sheltered by the prefecture in a nearby center. " In this house, you last a maximum of one week. It was good at first, but we were new in a room, ”he explains.

Confinement obliges, the associations reduced their manpower and the provisions are running out. Tuesday evening, they could only feed around fifty people.

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• France
• Immigration
• International Migration
• Refugees
• Humanitarian
• Coronavirus

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