After the ‘jungle’. 150 new police deployed against refugees sleeping rough in Calais.
The new French minister of Interior Gérard Collomb has announced new repressive measures: zero tolerance for camps and squats, more CRS and gendarmerie for extra 150 police. Refugees however continue to arrive, including many unaccompanied minors and, increasingly, women. People are sprayed with CS gas in their sleep, often hit with truncheons especially on the arms and legs, blankets and tents are destroyed or sprayed with CS gas rendering them unusable. Riot police (CRS) go and attack them once, twice per night or early in the morning.They are forced to move out the areas where they sleep, and where they keep returning in ever worsening conditions. Only one meal per day is allowed, for one hour from 6 pm and the associations who help the migrants have been even prevented from giving water. Lunchtime distributions have moved to a church, where police have no access since it is on private ground belonging to the Church; however people have been arrested outside so many are afraid to go there. No eat and no sleep. Most people present in Calais now are from Afghanistan, there are many Eritreans and Ethiopians and very few Sudanese and others. It is impossible to know how many people there are, with so many coming and going and hiding but several hundreds.
In Dunkirk the situation is similar: no camps allowed and people, including families with young children, sleep out with only blankets and sleeping bags. Only police are less violent. However people are often moved by police from the woods where they camp- roughly 300 people mainly from Iraqi Kurdistan but there are also many Afghans.
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