- Title: FRANCE: Calais migrants stage protest against alleged police violence
- Date: 5th September 2014
- Summary: CALAIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 5, 2014) (REUTERS) TRUCKS ENTERING CALAIS FERRY BOUND FOR DOVER, UNITED KINGDOM TRUCKS WAITING IN FRONT OF DOOR CLOSING DEMONSTRATORS WITH CALAIS CLOCK TOWER IN BACKGROUND DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING BANNERS READING (English): "WE HAVE NO PLACE TO SLEEP", "STOP BEATING US" AND "WHERE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS" MAN SHOUTING SLOGAN (English): "STOP POLICE VIOLENCE
- Embargoed: 20th September 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA7Y0YPAY078FZ1RLX4KPHR5RGE
- Story Text: Dozens of illegal migrants in the French port city of Calais protested on Friday (September 5) over what they said was police violence and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, days after more than a hundred were foiled in attempts to storm a ferry bound for Britain.
Some 200 migrants gathered in central Calais chanted "No to police violence" and held up signs reading, "Where are our human rights?"
The northern town just over the English Channel from Dover has long been a magnet for illegal migrants trying to reach Britain.
But local authorities say their numbers have shot up by 50 percent in the past few months to around 1,300 as migrants have flooded in to Europe fleeing humanitarian crises in the Middle East, and northern and eastern Africa.
Without formal accommodation, migrants living in makeshift camps dotted in and around the city have grown more desperate in their attempts to board trucks, cars and boats to Britain, leading to increasingly violent clashes with police trying to stop them.
Migrants say they have little choice but to keep trying to reach Britain as Calais police expel them from each makeshift camp and beat those they catch on the run, while the city fails to provide for their basic needs.
A 16-year-old Eritrean girl named Rita showed Reuters a fist-sized bruise on her upper arm where she said police had hit her with a baton, while others reported having been beaten.
Aid worker Catherine Konforti, who works with an association Auberge des Migrants which provides supplies to migrants in the camps, said that stories of police violence are not unheard of.
"Every now and than we need to drive people to the hospital, sometimes because they got hurt jumping off trucks or running away from the police, sometimes because you know they have been beaten up by police or chased by the police. It happens, I don't think it's routine but it does happen and to tell you the truth, as much as I hate the fact that the police does it, and as much as I think that it's not right at all, it's understandable given the tension they are under," she said.
On Wednesday, more than a hundred migrants managed to climb over a fence in the port area and tried to storm a ferry. They were only stopped from boarding when the ship brought up its boarding ramp at the last minute and crew used water cannon to turn the migrants away.
Earlier in the week, groups of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants clashed in the streets of Calais for several days in a row injuring many, until a 'peace meeting' was held in a camp and the violence ceased, migrants said.
Many east African migrants, who braved deadly conditions crossing the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea before landing in Italy or Greece, said they had set their sights on Britain because they spoke English and believed authorities there were more forgiving with refugees.
"Some people think they can get some education chances in England, and that there may be a chance to get black jobs (on the black market) or something, some others think that England is economically something, they have their own goals and aims, and maybe they can get their papers so fast. So they have different aims and preferences," said a 30-year-old Eritrean migrant calling himself "John" to hide his identity.
Calais' centre-right mayor Natacha Bouchart has called on Britain to stump up millions of euros in funding for beefed up security in the port area, arguing that British interests are equally at stake.
On Friday, the deputy mayor of Calais Philippe Mignonet, called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to share the burden of immigration, saying that France was hosting a port which is in fact a impermeable border that does not allow people to leave.
"What we would like from Mr Cameron is first of all him to come over, to come here in Calais. He could really see why migrants are blocked in Calais. I think he has not understood yet or probably ignores on purpose that the English border is in Calais," Mignonet said.
Earlier this week, France's interior minister confirmed that the authorities in Calais could soon open a new centre to help the migrants who since the closure of the Sangatte camp roam the dunes of the northern town.
The new centre for migrants will provide support and advice -- although no accommodation -- to migrants away from the influence of smugglers, the ministry said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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