Calais: demonstration against the ban on the distribution of meals to migrants

Some 250 activists from associations and migrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, demonstrated on Saturday in Calais (Pas-de-Calais) in the rain to denounce the living conditions of the latter and the ban on distributing them. meals in the city center.

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Authorized by the sub-prefecture and entitled "Calais se lève", this demonstration called for by 70 charities began with a collection of clothes near the hospital center and the Virval camp where approximately 700 migrants are installed, before settling in head towards the city center.

On a banner at the head of the procession was written

and drawn barbed wire.

Followed by many police vehicles, the demonstrators calmly reached the town hall of Calais.

The demonstrators denounce the living conditions of migrants at the approach of winter and the ban on distributing meals to them in the city center, imposed by prefectural decree since September 10 on associations not mandated by the State.

Friday, the summary judge of the Council of State, seized by associations for the defense of migrants, refused to suspend this decree as a matter of urgency, noting that it only concerned a specific perimeter and did not prevent the associations from filling their missions elsewhere.

State services justify this ban by disturbing public order and the fact that these distributions would not allow proper compliance with social distancing measures.

They stress that the association La Vie Active, mandated by the State, provides for the water and food needs of migrants.

Thursday, Defender of Rights Claire Hédon denounced the "degrading and inhuman" living conditions of migrants in Calais.