In 2021, more than 28,000 migrants crossed the Channel in makeshift boats to reach the United Kingdom, three times more than in 2020. Despite the increase in the number of people risking their lives and people with lost their lives trying to cross the Franco-British border, the route and current living conditions of migrants remain unknown to most French people. While the civilian population is generally aware of the dismantling of the Calais Jungle in 2016, it seems less aware of the ongoing violations of the human rights of migrants in the makeshift camps in Calais and Grande-Synthe.

 

In such a context, mixing disinformation because of the electoral stakes and silence on the part of the media, it seemed important to us to go to Calais and Grande-Synthe to understand the situation of exiled people. Indeed, convinced that the best information is that collected at the source, we build our actions on in-depth field studies, by meeting crisis actors in France and abroad and by collecting testimonials and life stories. This year, we have chosen Calais to demonstrate that there are also humanitarian crisis situations in France which remain worrying despite the silence to which they are subject.

 

Our team, made up of 7 volunteers, thus left for 8 days in the North of France to observe, carry out interviews and collect information with the aim of reporting on the situation and helping to raise awareness, in particular, of a student public then the general public, via feedback. Our team, thanks to the help of other volunteers from the association, thus met during this week nearly fifteen actors on site in Calais and Grande-Synthe. The diversity of the actors met allowed us to realize the situation of people exiled in Calais and Grande-Synthe through different prisms (humanitarian, media, political, etc.) and themes (food security, gender, childhood , right of asylum, access to water and hygiene conditions, access to

care, etc).

 

In order to cover these themes as well as possible and to meet as many actors as possible, we divided into two teams in the field. Here is our week's schedule:

 

- Saturday 16 and Sunday 17: We left on Saturday at 10.30 a.m. from Aix-en-Provence, to arrive around 9 p.m. in Peuplingues, near Calais. Sunday was reserved for planning the week, developing questions for our interviews and discussing our expectations for this field study.

 

- Monday 18: In the morning, 3 volunteers met with the SALAM association of Grande-Synthe to carry out food distribution in the camps, and the rest of the team went to meet the inhabitants of Calais to carry out a micro- pavement. In the afternoon, the volunteers stayed with the SALAM association while the rest of the team met with several NGOs to understand and discuss the situation of migrants in Calais and Grande-Synthe. The associations present were Platform of Support for Migrant.es, Secours Catholique, Refugee Info Bus and Utopia 56.

 

- Tuesday 19: In the morning, 4 volunteers met the journalist Edouard Odièvre, while the 3 other volunteers who had not been able to carry out food distribution the day before met the SALAM association of Grande-Synthe. In the afternoon, the volunteers in distribution stayed with SALAM, and the other members of the team joined the WoodYard association. The whole team met at the end of the afternoon to meet a civilian with more legal knowledge of the situation in northern France.

 

- Wednesday 20: In the morning, 4 volunteers met Sister Braillon, a nun committed to Secours Catholique, while the others met the volunteers of Calais Food Collective to prepare food parcels. In the afternoon, 2 volunteers went to the field to help Refugee Info Bus, and the other volunteers met the Mosaic association. At the end of the day, the team was invited by Secours Catholique to break the fast with the exiles.

 

- Thursday 21: In the morning, 3 volunteers discussed with the coordinator of the Auberge des Migrants, an umbrella association that brings together several NGOs in a hangar. The other part of the team went to attend public court hearings targeting exiled people. In the afternoon, 5 volunteers went to meet the inhabitants of Grande-Synthe to get the locals' feelings about the situation of exiles, while 2 other volunteers tried to meet public and police authorities to also get their opinion (in vain).

 

- Friday 22: Throughout the day, 5 volunteers went on a mission to the premises of the Care4Calais association. At the same time, the other 2 team members met with a volunteer from the Refugee Women's Center to discuss gender issues in migration. In the evening and at night, 2 volunteers were able to go on a mission to the camps with Utopia 56.

 

- Saturday 23: We left Peuplingues at 9:30 a.m. to arrive in the early evening in Aix-en-Provence.

 

In summary, this field study had a strong impact on the 7 volunteers who were able to participate directly in the field study. Thanks to this project, we were able to learn a great deal about the situation of exiled people on the northern coast, but we were also able to identify the humanitarian and political issues that explain the complexity of this context. Among the main issues identified during our study, we can cite: 

 

• A policy at the French borders making the living conditions of migrants very precarious: dismantling every 48 hours, destruction of primary resources, police violence...

 

• A flawed and dysfunctional European migration policy (Schengen), to the detriment of the dignity of exiles

 

• The activities of the associations on site obstructed: orders prohibiting food distributions, repeated fines against volunteers, tensions with the police...

 

• The disastrous living conditions of migrants: the needs remain too great despite the humanitarian aid already present, and crossing the Channel is too dangerous

 

• Repeated psychological trauma: migrants arriving in Calais and Grande-Synthe have experienced many traumas to arrive in France, which continues to worsen with the treatment in the camps by the border policy and the tensions that may exist in the camps (which become micro-villages, made up of many origins)

 

• The invisibilization of the situation by the media and local politicians, despite the persistence of the violation of the human rights of exiles and the existence of concern about the living conditions of migrants by the local population

 

• The strong presence of non-governmental organizations with very different beliefs, modes of action and funding, which can sometimes lead to a lack of effectiveness and credibility in the field

 

From the diversity of points of view that we were able to obtain, each volunteer was able to build a critical reflection on what he or she was able to see and hear during this week. If a general feeling of revolt is emerging through the team, our various meetings and discussions have motivated us to analyze the issues that we have identified this week. The impact on our team is all the stronger as we have been able to carry out real humanitarian activities, constituting a great opportunity in our future careers.

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Reesah would particularly like to thank:

 

• All the associations and journalists named above, for agreeing to meet with us during our stay;

• The people of Calais and Grand-Synthoise, for agreeing to give us their feelings about this humanitarian crisis;

• The Solidarity and Development Fund for Student Initiatives (FSDIE) of the University of Aix-Marseille, for its essential assistance in carrying out this project. It is thanks to his trust and support that the team was able to carry out its work;

• All the people who participated in our crowdfunding kitty, for their financial help;

• All the volunteers of our association, who helped us build this project.