Several hundred people, mostly associative activists, left-wing parties or trade unionists, demonstrated on Saturday in Calais in support of migrants and the two pro-migrant activists who have been on hunger strike for 34 days, noted journalists from the AFP.
Read alsoMigrants: the Ministry of the Interior in the Calais quagmire
“
No human is illegal
”, “
borders kill
”, “
migrants, exiles, regularize
”, proclaimed the banners and placards brandished in the procession, which traversed the main axes from the place Crèvecoeur. It is in the Saint-Pierre church, located on this square, that the Jesuit chaplain Philippe Demeestère, and the associative activists Anaïs Vogel and Ludovic Holbein had started a hunger strike on October 11 to denounce the "
inhuman
"
treatment.
inflicted on migrants on the Hauts-de-France coast, and demand a moratorium on the dismantling of camps.
Philippe Demeestère, 72, has started eating again after a 25-day strike, but his two companions are continuing their action.
Like the strikers, the demonstrators demanded an end to the evacuations, deploring the
regular
“
destruction
” of the personal effects and tents of the exiles during the dismantling.
In the procession, where many wore flags and badges CGT, FO, LFI, or EELV, were also present the LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens and the European deputy EELV Karima Delli.
"
We ask for the opening of a dialogue between the State and associations not mandated by the latter,
" said Anaïs Vogel in the procession.
Despite the sending of a mediator at the end of October by the government, the head of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii) Didier Leschi, "
nothing has changed
" in Calais, regretted Ludovic Holbein . “
Evictions and ill-treatment continue
”. On November 10, after several meetings with associations and strikers, Didier Leschi called on them to stop their strike.
“
We have addressed the issue of migrants' personal effects, putting an end to surprise evacuations.
They now have a deadline to collect them.
We have responded to the request for a citizen dialogue
”, with a committee that brings together associations and state services, listed the government envoy in particular.
He also announced the opening of a "
temporary reception center
" for the night.
But the migratory pressure is not easing on the coast, from where 22,000 migrants have managed to reach England on board small boats since the start of the year, according to London.
Three migrants were reported missing Thursday, bringing the human toll of this migratory route to three dead and four missing since January.
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