We went again on Sunday to Grande Synthe and Téteghem, the two remaining jungles near Dunkerque (Loon Plage no longer exists), and a we did a small distribution of clothes and food to cook.
Many people have left to escape police repression. Many people who were taken to deportation centres have now been released, some have returned.
Police harassment however remains very high. Téteghem jungle was raided again on Friday according to the migrants, and police in plainclothes keep going to the camps to count the people, usually at the time volunteers from local associations go there to give food – despite the associations having complained about it, as they do not want to be associated with the police or seen as accessories to police repression. People have been missing their meals for fear of the police.
People who called the emergency number 115 were told there are no bed spaces for the night. A middle aged man found a place in hospital after developing bronchitis, but he was dismissed after only two days and returned to the jungle. All the families with small children are indoors now – thanks to local volunteers, not thanks to the State; most women including one who is 8 months pregnant have left. There are still a number of very young teenagers, some unaccompanied.

In fact, there should be some places for the night now: the authorities suddenly decided to open two new emergency shelters – that are not opened yet, one in Téteghem one in Grande Synthe, and last Friday at 6 pm, out of the blue they called the associations, telling them to get the migrants to the new shelters – by 7.30 pm!!! The associations refused, as they say they are always there to help but they cannot do everything, from transport to accommodation to presence at night, and the shelters do not meet any standards however minimal: there are not even blankets.

People are suffering terribly in Téteghem and Grand Synthe. Not only they develop the usual illnesses from the cold, they also suffer from depression and mental health problems, and they keep saying that someone will die. Every time I leave Téteghem I am in shock and I just want to cry. I never thought I would see refugee camps like that in 21st century Europe, with the associations and local volunteers struggling to guarantee the mere survival of the people who are stuck there. Going to England has became more and more difficult, due to increased border controls. Adding to the other hardships, it is much colder than usual, even colder than last Winter, which renders the conditions of living in the camps almost unbearable. At the end of November there were 10 cm snow and temperatures below -7!

In Calais, Salam association is managing the BCMO, a disused gym that functions as emergency shelter; all other associations withdrew in protest: the place is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, has no toilets but ONE chemical toilet outside, no running water and people sleep on cardboard on the floor with just one blanket… Retrospectively, I think it was a good strategy: the point of the night shelter being totally inadequate has been made, and the migrants have been given some minimal shelter – even the BCMO, bad as it is, is better than sleeping out in freezing temperatures. In fact many migrants have moved to the BCMO from Africa House, from the Pashto jungle, and even from the Hazara jungle, in addition to the many Kurdish who have been sleeping at the BCMO since it opened. There are also some very young teenagers, the youngest is only 12. Unaccompanied minors and people who have applied for asylum in France should be given separate accommodation, according to the law, but there aren’t the provisions. The overcrowding at the BCMO, needless to say, is unbelievable. However, the French State has surprised everybody by allocating 100.000 euros to improve the BCMO. A small victory, but we wonder how such a structure can be improved: 100.000 euros seem a lot of money to buy a few mattresses and a couple of chemical toilets, and the BCMO should be closed all together and replaced with a structure more adequate, with more bed spaces and provided with showers and water taps people can use! and proper toilets inside- especially since the police have been arresting people outside the BCMO. Further, there is no place to go during the day, and people can get hypothermia, bronchitis etc. also during the day if they have to wander the streets from 9 am when the BCMO closes to 7 pm when it reopens, in the extreme cold. Since the money for the night shelter will be handed to the Town Hall- by the 10th of December, it will be in the hands of the Mayor, Natacha Bouchart, who has been very proficient, on behalf of the ruling party, in solving the ‘migrants problem’ in Calais by closing the ghetto further and making scorched hearth for the migrants by destroying their squats and camps.

Africa House, the largest migrant squat in Calais, is threatened with eviction and police keep raiding it on a daily basis, up to 6 times per day, beginning at dawn. Usually there are not many arrests, thanks to our warnings and watch out, but the harassment is very heavy - people can never sleep or rest; consider most people in Africa House are from Darfur, where there is a genocide; consider that people try every night to go to England, until they finally get a lucky chance, and they are going in the most dangerous ways, such as under trains and under lorries, and many people get hurt. The lack of sleep renders their journey even more dangerous.

Pointless repeated arrests have been used for years as a way to ‘persuade’ refugees and migrants to leave, but the situation has escalated to grotesque levels, in Calais and now also in Dunkerque. People can get arrested, released, arrested, released, up to three times per day! Most people come from countries at war such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea; they are already traumatised, they get arrested for no reason – also underage kids and people with papers- and they have to walk an hour or more to come back from the police station. Sometimes they are released immediately or after a couple of hours, sometimes they are kept for 12 hours or 24 in filthy overcrowded cells that don’t even have a toilet, just a stinky hole in the floor: they are traumatised again and again, as inflicting suffering is used as a mean to reduce the numbers of migrants

The most unlucky end up in the deportation centre of Coquelles. One of our friends cut his arm in detention, to avoid deportation. Most people are released from detention, usually after two weeks: France, unlike the UK, cannot deport people to countries at war. But people who have their fingerprints in other EU countries often get deported there.

Other Calais squats get lots of police attention too. We have been active at opening and distributing lots of new squats, where people can keep a bit warm and sleep in peace, at least until the police find them. They went again to raid the Palestinian squat... and they did not find anyone because the people had just moved house!

Our presence in Calais over the last year has been a great contribution, and it is very appreciated by the migrants. Levels of physical violence by police against migrants have decreased enourmously, thanks to us being in jungles and squats - with cameras, and exposing the situation.
It would be great to extend activities to Dunkerque too!

We desperately need warm clothes, waterproofs, blankets, sleeping bags, tents and men's shoes to distribute to the migrants. Plus socks, hats, gloves, scarves.