Globe Live Media, Wednesday, January 27, 2021
As soon as they reach the Pas de Calais, on the north coast of France, some migrants manage to cross into the UK without difficulty, but others, with less luck, are trapped there for long periods.
“If I’m still here this summer, I’ll try to kayak across.” Bader, a Moroccan migrant whose name was changed at his request, arrived in Calais “just” three months ago, but he already has numerous failed crossing attempts behind him.
“I hid under a truck, but a dog (from the border police, ndlr) found me. And among goods, but a scanner detected me,” he lists.
He also tried to cross the English Channel, defying heavy boat traffic and violent currents, in a 3-meter canoe bought with some companions.
But the small boat capsized and Bader lost all his identity documents. He had to swim 2 kilometers to return to the French coast, where he survives in poor conditions.
“I have not been able to shower for a week,” this migrant who occupies an empty building with other colleagues tells GLM. “They just cut our electricity. We only had a heater and we made tea,” he sighs.
“Even at home, I have more space. The poor like us, our only place is underground,” concludes this 36-year-old man, who wants to go to Ireland, where he has “contacts to work.”
– “I have nothing” –
At the premises of Socorro Catolico, the only fixed place open during the day for migrants in Calais, a group of migrants removes moisture from their clothes with hair dryers. In the background a song by Bob Marley is heard. Others play ping pong. In the background a song by Bob Marley is heard.
In the middle of winter, having this place “is very important”, for a “physical but also relational respite”, underlines Juliette Delaplace, head of missions of the aid organization.
Between the almost daily evictions from the fortune camps and the prohibition of distributing meals to associations not authorized by the State in certain sectors of the city, the migrants remain in a state of survival, day after day, he estimates.
Two young Sudanese, who prefer to remain anonymous, say they have been in Calais since 2019.
Exhausted, one of them has just applied for asylum in France, something that many migrants cannot do because they registered in another European country when they first set foot on the continent.
“But perhaps I will keep trying to go to England, because at the moment I have nothing, no accommodation, no money, and it is quiet there, people don’t sleep outside like in France,” he explains.
For his friend, England is still the only option: “Even when I get old I’ll keep trying,” he says.
– Hierarchy among migrants –
“Some stay a long time, but there are also many newcomers,” including some who manage to cross immediately into England, says a volunteer at the reception center, through which hundreds of immigrants pass.
In 2020 there were more than 9,500 crossings or attempts to cross the English Channel in improvised boats, four times more than in 2019. The authorities have prevented 47% of these attempts, according to the French Interior Ministry.
According to the associations, this mode of crossing was launched by the Iranians and is widely used by migrants from the Middle East, with highly organized smugglers. But many cannot afford the thousands of euros that are often demanded, especially those from the Horn of Africa.
In Eritrea, but also in Sudan and Somalia, “emigration is a mass phenomenon, not only of the middle or wealthy classes”, unlike what happens in Iran or Syria, explains Roland Marchal, of the international research center Sciences Po in Paris.
Migrants ask their relatives for financial help, but it doesn’t always work, “that’s why their trips can be very long,” he explains.
For these migrants “there are also coyotes, but for them, most of the effort is focused on crossing the Mediterranean, after that they are homeless,” he says.
“But it is a matter of time … it will be organized. It is a very profitable criminal sector”, estimates Marchal.