France offers accommodation to migrants in Calais after hunger strike pressure

The French government will “systematically” offer accommodation to migrants at the Calais migrant centre  after three activists staged a collective hunger strike for 23 days.

Two activists and a priest continue their hunger strike at St Pierre church in Calais to call for the Calais immigrant evictions to stop during the winter months. © RFI/Marie Casadebaig

"We will systematically offer accommodation, which will be mainly in Pas-de-Calais, in Hauts-de-France, but not in Calais," said Didier Leschi, head of the French Office of Immigration and Integration (Ofii).

Speaking to French newswire AFP, he said that the offer would be presented on Tuesday to local organizations via a government mediator.

This after discussions last week ended in an impasse.

He did add that evacuations of the Calais camps, which are ongoing, did not always include proposals to shelter migrants, even though that is the rule.

Father Philippe Demeestère, 72, chaplain of Secours Catholique, and activists Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein were on hunger strike to halt the camp from being dismantled in winter.

Leschi said that the state would have to beef up its accommodation offerings by several hundred places.

Welcome to the jungle

Although this is seemingly an appropriate solution, Leschi admits that the government fears that the “Jungle” will be re-established in Calais—the huge camp that was dismantled in October 2016, housing 10,000 migrants hoping to get to England, just across the Channel.

"This fear is linked to the scale of the flows: since the beginning of the year, there are almost 40,000 people who have arrived" on the northern coast," said Leschi.

"The state cannot knowingly allow an illegal departure base to be organized towards England, while people are risking their lives by crossing the Channel," he added.

• Priest on hunger strike in Calais to denounce police treatment of migrants

• Rights group accuses French police of 'enforcing misery' on migrants in Calais

However,  discussions last week did not provide any viable solutions, according to the hunger strikers, who are living on the steps of Saint Pierre church in Calais.

The hunger strikers have been calling attention to the inhumane living conditions in the camp, but also to the way migrants are evicted, without any of their belongings.

"We must give people the opportunity to recover their personal belongings before the shelter operations", said Offi head Leschi, adding that they will be given 45 minutes to assemble their belongings, and officials won’t ambush the migrants.

We denounce the words of Emmanuel Macron
saying that evictions are aimed at taking #exiles to reception centres.
In #Calais in 2020, 97.6% of evictions were not followed by effective sheltering, including in winter.#France #migrants https://t.co/bkpaQg5j8D

— fred062811 (@fred062811) October 27, 2021

An Ofii patrol will "pass by before each evacuation" to carry out an assessment, in collaboration with associations, he said, hoping that these points could be instituted by the end of the week.

Father Demeestère published an open letter on Monday in local paper La Voix du Nord, comparing the police actions against migrants to those of "soldiers of the contingent sent to Algeria".

"Today, still under the guise of obedience, you yourselves are making it possible for inhumane police operations to continue in Calais - you know very well that this is a dirty job, don't you?" he wrote.

He called on the police to "enter into resistance" so as "not to perpetuate barbarity here any longer".