Five Eritrean migrants have filed complaints of police violence against a CRS company in Calais, saying they have suffered multiple "aggressive actions" , we learned on Thursday from concordant sources.
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In an open letter published on the Facebook page of the association Utopia 56, the Eritrean community of Calais denounces “insults”, “gassings” and “beatings” on the part of a CRS company between the 26 and the March, 31st. “They accelerate in their vehicles while driving in our direction, as if they wanted to crush us. They also took people with them to places far from Calais and beat them until they lost consciousness, ” they write.
Five men, aged between 20 and 30, filed a complaint for "intentional assault and battery , " Louise, a volunteer with Human Rights Observers (HRO) in Hauts-de-France, told AFP, confirming information from France. 3 Nord Pas-de-Calais. The Boulogne-sur-mer prosecutor's office confirmed to AFP these five complaints, stating that the IGPN (the "police force") had been seized of the investigation. Antoine Nehr, coordinator for the association Utopia 56 in Calais, denounced "a hostile policy of exhaustion" which "worsens in the context of a health crisis" . "It is unfortunate to arrive there today" , he deplored, stressing that the associations were less numerous in Calais since the beginning of the confinement.
Between 650 migrants, according to the prefecture, and a thousand, according to associations, currently live in Calais in the hope of reaching England, mostly people from Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iran. Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, at least 260 migrants have been “sheltered” in accommodation centers in the department in order to be able to confine themselves. But others refuse to leave the premises. On Wednesday, clashes broke out between Sudanese migrants and law enforcement, who were trying to evacuate their camp. Two CRS and a gendarme were injured by projectile jets, we learned from the prosecution. An association aid vehicle for migrants was burned by migrants.