Migrants in Calais: the two volunteers suspend their hunger strike
Philippe Demeestère, Anais and Ludovic started their hunger strike on October 11.
© AFP / Denis Charlet
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
They had not eaten for 38 days to denounce the "inhuman" treatment inflicted on migrants who flock to Calais.
Beside them, a 72-year-old priest, Philippe Demeestère, who had started eating again after 25 days.
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Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein, from the Faim aux frontières collective, put an end to their action.
They announced it during a press conference: "
We are no longer able to fight through the hunger strike
", explained the two volunteers.
The two activists appeared very distressed by the outcome of their mobilization.
One said of his fatigue and his anger: “
We are not listened to.
The dialogue is closed
”.
The other, Anaïs Vogel, with tears in her eyes, said she was "
ashamed of the politicians who (...) govern
".
Mediation but little progress
A mediator had been dispatched to Calais, the head of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii), Didier Leschi, to try - unsuccessfully - to calm the situation.
By underlining the radical nature of the mode of action chosen, he felt that it did not promote a calm dialogue.
"
From now on, a constructive dialogue must continue
", he added, specifying that he would return to Calais "at the
beginning of December
".
A rally made up mostly of associative activists, left-wing parties or trade unionists, demonstrated on November 13 in support of the strikers.
A parliamentary commission of inquiry on migration called on the state to abandon the policy of "zero point of fixation" on the northern coast, in view of the "massive" consequences on the daily life of migrants.
On November 16, the main camp at Grande-Synthe was evacuated.
A majority of them have been "sheltered", "away from the coast", in "accommodation centers distributed in the North" and in France, according to the prefecture.
🎥 A large encampment of around a thousand migrants was evacuated smoothly today in Grande-Synthe, in northern France.
Nearly 600 people were "sheltered" and 35 suspected smugglers arrested #AFP pic.twitter.com/jKNiWV7sqD
- Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) November 16, 2021
New record for Channel crossings aboard small boats
Many boats in difficulty were reported on the night of Monday 15 to Tuesday 16 at the Gris-Nez regional operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS), the Channel and North Sea prefecture reported.
Following the increase in these attempts to cross the Channel, the brand Decathlon has also indicated that it is withdrawing the kayaks from sale in the north of France "
which could endanger the lives of people. using as part of a crossing
”.
► See also:
France: HRW denounces the “degrading treatment” of migrants in Calais
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