On Friday, a top French official announced that up to 1000 refugees living in the make-shift camp in Calais would be evicted. The camp, unofficially referred to as the “jungle”, is estimated to currently contain around 4000 asylum-seekers.
Fabienne Bucio, Prefect of the regional French police prefecture, made the announcement telling Reuters, "I hope we don't have to make an eviction by force” but that “the conditions are there for us to do that and flatten part of the camp that gives Calais a bad image."
The announcement came on the same day that UK-based newspaper, the Independent, reported that there had been several incidents of violence against refugees in the Calais camps perpetrated by “organized thugs” over the past few weeks. The claims of violence were compiled and reported by the camp’s legal centre and British charity Care4Calais. Testimony stated that the police did nothing to prevent the attacks and also included allegations of violence at the hands of police. Many of the claims are corroborated by medical reports from Medecins sans Frontieres and Medecins du Monde. The legal centre plans to submit the report to the State Prosecutor.
Isabelle Bruand, Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional co-ordinator for Medecins du Monde, told the Independent:
“What we see now seeing is targeted violence: groups who are targeting immigrants in the area near the camp for no reason other than simply to beat them. We don’t know who these people are. Some people say they are beaten by civilians. Some tell us they are beaten by groups of the CRS [the French riot police] and other policemen.”
The police prefecture plans to bulldoze the area of the camp evicting people by as early as this coming week.
Fabienne Bucio, Prefect of the regional French police prefecture, made the announcement telling Reuters, "I hope we don't have to make an eviction by force” but that “the conditions are there for us to do that and flatten part of the camp that gives Calais a bad image."
The announcement came on the same day that UK-based newspaper, the Independent, reported that there had been several incidents of violence against refugees in the Calais camps perpetrated by “organized thugs” over the past few weeks. The claims of violence were compiled and reported by the camp’s legal centre and British charity Care4Calais. Testimony stated that the police did nothing to prevent the attacks and also included allegations of violence at the hands of police. Many of the claims are corroborated by medical reports from Medecins sans Frontieres and Medecins du Monde. The legal centre plans to submit the report to the State Prosecutor.
Isabelle Bruand, Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional co-ordinator for Medecins du Monde, told the Independent:
“What we see now seeing is targeted violence: groups who are targeting immigrants in the area near the camp for no reason other than simply to beat them. We don’t know who these people are. Some people say they are beaten by civilians. Some tell us they are beaten by groups of the CRS [the French riot police] and other policemen.”
The police prefecture plans to bulldoze the area of the camp evicting people by as early as this coming week.