In Calais, one more wall in the world

The construction of a security barrier around the port of Calais has provoked strong reactions. While migrants are being prevented from entering Europe and lives are being lost at sea off the coast of Spain, Italy, Greece, etc., in Calais, they are being prevented from leaving. And they are held in a geographical and legal impasse. To justify this paradox, the European Union relies on the response to an alleged external “threat” and on the fight against trafficking in human beings. ^[1]European Pact on Asylum and Immigration, September 24, 2008, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_persons_asylum_immigration/jl0038_fr.htm . In France, associations are mobilizing to denounce European security immigration policies and the reception reserved for migrants ^[2]Joint call from civil society associations “No to the “wall of shame” in Calais”, December 2014, www.migreurop.org/article2557.html.

The situation of migrants in Calais is deteriorating. At the start of 2015, there were nearly 2,500 migrants there. ^[3]Migrant service platform, www.psmigrants.org/site. Mostly from Eritrea, Sudan, Iraq, Libya or Syria, they are fleeing war, dictatorship or arbitrariness, in search of protection in Europe. However, they are designated as clandestine criminals, against whom States are developing effective means of combat. The United Kingdom, after refusing to sign the Schengen agreements on free movement within the European Union ^[4]To find out more about the Schengen area, see the study carried out by Yves Pascouau, European Policy Center: … Continue reading, plans with the help of France the construction of a 4 meter high security barrier, bristling with barbed wire, on the French port. The purpose of this wall is to prevent migrants from embarking to England. These migrants are thus stuck in a geographical and legal impasse. It is often impossible for them to submit an asylum application in France due to the “Dublin Regulation”; European text according to which the first State crossed by a migrant is responsible for his asylum request, and which tends to make European States located on the borders of the European Union responsible for the majority of asylum requests submitted in Europe ^[5]See on this subject the study carried out by Cimade: www.lacimade.org/poles/defense-des-droits/rubriques/2-droit-d-asile-?page_id=2951. States therefore pass the buck, block legal crossing routes and define rules whose losers are migrants and the arbiters are drones and other surveillance technologies. The long absence of support from public authorities In Calais, there has been a lack of support for migrants in accessing public services for more than 10 years. In December 2002, the emergency humanitarian accommodation and reception center administered by the Red Cross since 1999, known as the Sangatte center, was closed under pressure from the British ministry of David Blunket. The French Minister of the Interior at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, ordered its dismantling and nearly 2,000 migrants found themselves in conditions of exclusion in Calais and on the neighboring coast. According to his current counterpart, Bernard Cazeneuve “ The Sangatte situation was a humanitarian disaster, a wake-up call for migrants » ^[6]Europe 1, August 29, 2014, http://bcazeneuve.overblog.com/2014/08/matinale-europe-1-29-aout-2014.html. Public authorities therefore think about the management of migratory flows based on the assumption that if we receive decent accommodation, the number of migrants will multiply. And yet, the closure of the Sangatte Center did not slow down the number of arrivals in Calais, but rather accentuated the health, social and political problems. Several associations (Salam, Auberge des Migrants, Emmaüs France, Médecins du Monde and Secours Catholique) ^[7]On this subject, see the sites of Salam: www.associationsalam.org/, L'Auberge des Migrants: www.laubergedesmigrants.fr, Secours Catholique: http://pasdecalais.secours-catholique.org/, Emmaüs… Continue reading then took over to provide material assistance to migrants (food, sleeping bags) and to denounce this situation of distress. There are enormous needs in terms of access to daily necessities (access to food aid, health care, accommodation, legal aid services, etc.). Every day, a few employees and volunteers organize the distribution of the evening meal, which is the meal of the day, at 5:30 p.m. in a vacant lot administered by the Nord-Pas-De-Calais prefecture. All these associations are carrying out exemplary work of solidarity so that migrants stop living in precarious and unjust conditions, but the task is titanic. Timid progress against the precarious situation of migrants? The opening of the Jules-Ferry Center, made available to the State by the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, on January 15, 2015 constitutes the beginning of a concrete response in the political struggle to allow migrants to escape precariousness and live with dignity. The management of this day reception center is entrusted to La Vie active, (an association which manages 70 accommodation establishments in Pas-de-Calais) in partnership with Calais associations working with migrants. However, the first arrangements of this project, whose permanent buildings will not be opened until the end of winter in April, still seem inadequate. It is planned to only accommodate women and children during the night. The president of Emmaüs France, Thierry Kuhn, is worried about this and explains that “ the day care project does not envisage the principle of accommodation or simple shelter for all others. It is likely that they will set up tents near this center, effectively creating a gigantic wild refugee camp » ^[8]Le Monde, December 18, 2014, http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/12/18/demandons-au-hcr-de-creer-un-camp-de-refugies-a-calais_4542755_3224.html. Indeed, this center is built on the Tioxide site, 7 kilometers from Calais and the large surrounding camps. It is not certain that migrants will go to this remote center every day for a hot meal. In addition, if the Auberge des Migrants and Salam are responsible for distributing meals in the center, they will no longer ensure the preparation of dishes entrusted to a catering company. However, the industrial management of this meal will be expensive, whereas until now, the food used mainly came from donations. For these associations, the industrial production of food can only be successful as part of a global project to care for migrants and should be accompanied by more profound transformations. Which would be, to begin with, to identify those really responsible for managing the Calais problem, which is neither local nor national, but European. “ As long as European governments do not get involved to allow a decent reception, the problem will only be displaced each time. », declared Caroline Huygens, Belgian activist and member of the migration group of Javva, an association active in Calais. It is a question of confronting the institutions and political actors concerned with their responsibilities and of denouncing the symbols which adjoin them. The operation of the Jules-Ferry Center is financed by the French State to the tune of 3.5 million euros. England is mobilizing nearly 15 million for the construction of the security barrier around the port of Calais ^[9]Médiapart, September 24, 2014, http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/claude-calame/240914/calais-des-murs-contre-limmigration. Through these measures and the difference in cost they represent, France and England perpetuate the idea that migration and insecurity are linked. Securing and controlling European borders: a juicy market The project to build the wall around the port of Calais mobilizes a large financial sum, which participates in the market very popular with private surveillance and control agencies. Thus, the issues of border management go beyond the security rhetoric of the European Union. On the one hand, they benefit the defense industry, which opens up new perspectives and infinitely multiplies its possibilities for intervention in the civil domain. On the other hand, to European states which exploit migration for economic purposes. As the philosopher Étienne Balibar explains, Europe creates ultra-precarious workers. The so-called illegal immigrants are the clearest example; the illegality of their status allowing their overexploitation ^[10]Étienne Balibar, “What is a border?”, http://exil-ciph.com/htdocs/ressources_dwnld/textes/B/BalibarFrontiere.pdf. “ Each society produces its foreigner and each in its own way », writes the English sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Wouldn't immigration then be the scapegoat for our capitalist system in crisis, the culprits of which are the financial systems and their political supporters? In this way, we observe a trend towards the privatization of tasks which traditionally fall under the sovereign functions of States and fall to transnational agencies including Frontex, the European agency in charge of border management. With the “help” of the latter, the European Union concludes readmission agreements with the countries of origin and transit; it closes borders, builds walls, detention centers, sets up sophisticated surveillance technologies and breaks solidarity mechanisms. Thanks to the military and technological means made available to it by States, Frontex organizes control operations during which interceptions of boats take place off the European coasts and expulsions of "illegals" who have not even had the opportunity to file an asylum application. It thereby violates the international obligations of European States in terms of the protection of human rights, particularly freedom of movement and the right to asylum, at sea and on land, enshrined in particular by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. man and the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees ^[11]To find out more about Frontex, see the Frontexit campaign: www.frontexit.org/fr/. Review the causes and hold the actors of immigration policies accountable In light of the systematization of these violations, it is first of all a question of reviewing the causes at the origin of immigration. This is what Claire Rodier, lawyer at Gisti (Information and Support Group for Immigrants) points out when she declares that “ we should stop ignoring the obvious correlation which exists between the maintenance or increase of resources of some, in the North, and the reduction in income of others, in the South, and refuse to see that this induced impoverishment is a source of migration » ^[12]Claire Rodier, “Freedom of movement: a right, what policies? ", http://ldh-toulon.net/Claire-Rodier-instaurer-la-liberte.html. The journey of migrants is complex, in particular because they become illegal when crossing borders, as this is defined as such by European policies. Hence the importance of rethinking the security analysis of the migration phenomenon and revising the strategy of the Frontex agency. France and all European countries must together, and with respect for human rights, review the regulations on asylum and immigration and denounce the “Dublin Regulation”. It is also urgent to build reception centers capable of receiving all arrivals and offering them the necessary social services in decent conditions. Obligation incumbent on the Member States of the European Union under the “reception directive” according to which the latter “must provide material reception conditions which make it possible to guarantee a standard of living adequate for health and to ensure subsistence of applicants » ^[13]Article 13 of the European Union directive of January 27, 2003, establishing minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers. As long as Europe does not change its migration policy, the French government should work with humanitarian and non-governmental associations, and more particularly with those responsible for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in order to put in place the accommodation for all migrants in Calais, including those covered by the “Dublin Regulation”, and guarantee humane treatment for asylum seekers. Indeed, a recent report from the NGO Human Rights Watch cites allegations of police violence against migrants. This report calls on the French government to put an end to and investigate the latter, by virtue of its positive obligations to protect individuals enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Human Rights. policies (ICCPR), to which France is a party ^[14]www.hrw.org/fr/news/2015/01/20/france-les-migrants-et-les-demandeurs-dasile-victimes-de-violence-et-demunis. Anaïs Carton Volunteer at Magma

Attachments