The police began on Tuesday the dismantling of a camp of about a thousand migrants in Grande-Synthe (North), against a backdrop of tension between Paris and London around the issue of migration and contestation of the treatment reserved for exiles on the French coast.
"On my instruction, the police are evacuating the illegal migrant encampment at Grande-Synthe this morning," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted.
"Thank you to the police and gendarmes mobilized, as well as to the agents of the prefecture of the North who ensure their shelter", he added.
This operation is being carried out at a time of diplomatic tensions between Paris and London on the migration issue.
To read also "This is my last chance": in Calais, the desperate attempts of migrants to cross the Channel before winter
Gérald Darmanin also spoke on Monday with his British counterpart Priti Patel, but according to his entourage, this dismantling was "planned on this date independently" of these exchanges.
“It was earlier,” we insist.
According to the prefecture of the North, the evacuated camp is "the main one" of Grande-Synthe and it shelters "about a thousand people".
Migrants must be taken to centers "where accommodation places have been identified in the north and other regions".
"State abuse"
According to the office of the socialist mayor of Grande-Synthe, Martial Beyaert, nearly 1,500 people, mostly Kurds, live in the dismantled camp, located on a former industrial wasteland.
“We have to find a solution for these people, especially since we are going to arrive in winter.
The state prevents them from going to sea and the state prevents them from staying here, it's a vicious circle, ”he pleaded.
"The State attacks people who have nothing, without ever working on the causes", regretted Anna, coordinator at Grande-Synthe of the association Utopia 56.
For years, migrants have flocked to the Hauts-de-France coast, to towns like Grande-Synthe or Calais, in the hope of going to the United Kingdom, where they think they can find work, without being dissuaded. by the successive and almost daily dismantling of their camps. The migratory pressure is not easing: according to the United Kingdom, 22,000 migrants have managed to reach England on board small boats since the beginning of the year. The human toll rises to three dead and four missing.
The treatment of migrants is constantly denounced by associations that come to their aid, as well as elected officials.
A parliamentary commission of inquiry on migration is due to present a report on Tuesday, in which it concludes that "France is in state mistreatment" towards migrants on its soil, according to its president, the deputy Sébastien Nadot, of the Libertés group and Territories (LT, bringing together elected representatives from the center-left and the center-right).
"No lessons to be received"
In Calais, two activists have been on hunger strike since October 11 to denounce the “inhuman” treatment reserved for migrants and to demand a moratorium on dismantling.
The government sent a mediator there to try to calm the situation, without success.
The mayor of Grande-Synthe had also written in early November to Gerald Darmanin to ask him to appoint "urgently" the same mediator for his municipality.
But he did not receive a response.
The issue of migrants has also fueled tensions between London and Paris for several months.
These increased further last Friday, after the number of illegal crossings hit a record high the day before with 1,185 migrants having made it to UK soil, who called the situation "unacceptable".
Gérald Darmanin replied on Monday that France had "no lessons to receive from the British".
They "must stop mistaking us for domestic politics punching balls," he told CNews.
“We are neither their collaborators nor their auxiliaries.
"