Oissel (France) (AFP)
EELV MEP Damien Carême, traveling on Friday to the Administrative Retention Center (CRA) of Oissel, in Seine-Maritime, called for regularization "on a permanent basis" of foreigners on French soil.
The former mayor of Grande-Synthe (North) signed a forum last week to demand "the regularization of all people in the territory" and continues to demand the closure of the CRAs.
"What twists the guts is to see how there are grills on the windows outside and inside, barbed wire around the courtyards, it creates a climate of anxiety for people who do not know not what they will become, "explained the elected official to AFP, pointing to" health and humanitarian problems ".
"We can see all these people who are wandering, it's abominable," he insisted. "You could say that we are regularizing in a sustainable manner. This would relieve the administration, save public funds," added Mr. Carême.
Arrested by several associations (Cimade, Doctors of the World ...), the French MEP, who had to manage the thorny issue of the Grande-Synthe migrant camp, came Friday to verify "on the ground" the allegations of violence at Oissel's CRA.
The officials there told him that "a lot has been said" but that they "have made contact to try to improve the conditions. It is a work in progress," the MP told AFP. . He was also able to exchange views with selected people who notably told him about "problems asking for a pencil, paper, a lighter ..."
According to the information it has been able to collect, since the beginning of the containment the CRA has welcomed a total of 54 people, four of whom have been taken back to the border, "English, Dutch, Albanian and Romanian people".
Supervised by a hundred civil servants, the CRA of Oissel can accommodate up to 72 people. During confinement, it remained essentially empty, sometimes hosting only "16 people, families, to serve as a place of containment if a person arrived with the virus," said the elected official.
© 2020 AFP