Eviction
Ongoing evictions in Calais and Grande-Synthe, achieving nothing but destitution and fear.
“Eviction” is defined as the act or process of officially forcing somebody to leave land or property. In Northern France, this is an almost daily occurrence, happening in plain sight. These evictions range in scale, from removing two people who are rough sleeping under a bridge, to the mass expulsion of thousands of people from the Calais Jungle. Men, women and children are routinely and systematically disrupted in order to prevent them reaching the UK, or to prevent another large camp forming on the shores of the Channel.
This cyclical, disruptive strategy by the French and British states achieves very little, if anything, as the examples below will display.
Grande-Synthe
Grande-Synthe is a town just outside of Dunkirk, and hosts a large Kurdish refugee community.
On October 23rd 2018, French authorities carried out a large scale eviction in Grande-Synthe. This was a particularly poignant eviction as it was carried out one day before the two year anniversary of the Calais ‘’Jungle’’ Eviction. The headcount in GS was roughly 1,700 persons. Approximately 40 buses arrived to take people to accommodation centres and hotels across France.
Refugee Info Bus compiled information packs to ensure that the displaced community in Grande-Synthe were aware of their rights and the process which they would be involved in.
Human rights observers on-the-ground that morning witnessed OFII employees splitting up a man from his sister, brother-in-law and their children.
Observers also witnessed one police officer telling people they would be taken on buses to accommodation centres across all of France. However, within a couple of hours, we received reports that at least one bus had taken its passengers straight to a detention centre.
Whilst we believe that no-one should be living in the streets and woods of Calais and Dunkirk, they deserve to be informed of upcoming evictions. People have a right to information, to make an informed decision. Instead, families are left confused and sometimes separated.
This chaotic process does nothing to build trust between marginalised populations and local authorities.
In the weeks following, 700 people returned to the area, once again showing that these distressing tactics do not even achieve their objective, and merely cause unnecessary fear, distress and resentment. For people who may have considered France a safe country in which to claim asylum, this systematic, state-sanctioned cruelty will do nothing to endear them to the idea.
During this period, tents and sleeping bags were confiscated each night in an attempt to prevent people from re-settling around Puythouck, Grande-Synthe. A small camp of roughly 300 displaced persons was formed in a Jesuit farm nearby. On Tuesday the 13th November this camp was evicted, with buses taking people to accommodation centres and hotels, less than a month since the last.
And again, on Friday November 16th there was a small Mise a L’abri for families. Single men were angry that they were not allowed go on the buses.
People will be arriving back in GS before this article is published, and the cycle will continue.
Time and time again, strategies implemented by the French state have failed to ensure that people have appropriate access to accommodation, food, water, healthcare and legal information. Reports from an eviction in September 2018 saw buses driving families around Northern France for hours without food or water, before dumping them at the side of the road in soaking wet weather without access to shelter.
This unending stalemate leaves everyone involved trapped in a cyclical nightmare of destitution and fear. This needs to stop.
With a drastic drop in temperatures as we hurtle towards winter, these continuing evictions, systemic destruction of belongings and confiscation of tents and sleeping bags is leaving a large number of displaced people sleeping rough on the streets with no form of shelter.
Calais
In the past two weeks, Help Refugees’ Human Rights Observers team has witnessed 17 evictions across sites where refugee communities are living. That is 17 evictions in 14 days. The evictions in Calais differ from those taking place in GS, as most sites experience more than two evictions per week and there is no option to get on a bus to accommodation centres or hotels. People are moved on with no place to go, occasionally detained but released hours later, and have their shelter and belongings removed, solving nothing for anybody.
It is easy to turn away and accept that these evictions are happening, or to think that people deserve to be treated this badly because they’re not from Europe. However, the amount of money being spent by France and the UK on these futile operations is astronomical. Just think how many homes could be built, how many children educated, how many lives richened, for the millions spent on deterrence in Calais alone.
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