A group of Syrian asylum seekers who had blocked a gangway at a ferry terminal in Calais, France have ended a 3-day standoff with French authorities on Friday evening.
According to Maël Galisson, the coordinator of Migrant Services Platform, the group of 60 Syrians, who had climbed on top of a ferry terminal roof,
“are very disappointed because they were hoping to go to Britain and find a better life…But they realized that they would not be able to leave and that staying on the roof was futile.”
“These are Syrians who have come from cities in Syria like Damascus and Dara’a to escape from the Syrian conflict,”
One of the Syrian asylum seekers has said earlier,
“We are here for one or two months and the French government and police have treated us very badly, and shown no interest in resolving our situation… They have systematically expelled us from our homes and put us on the street. We are here for one thing, and that is to ask for asylum in England.”
Tarik, a 19-year-old engineering student from the southern Syrian city of Deraa had said,
"We thought that France was the country where human rights are respected… But we live outside like dogs, hunted down by the police, we see we are not welcome, how can we seek asylum here?"
Another of the group told reporters,
"We just want to appeal for asylum in the UK. We don't hold any hope from the French government. We hope that the British government will show some of the humanity it is famous for. People are desperate. The two people on the roof threatening to jump are proof of that – one has lost two brothers, he has nothing left to lose. I'm so worried about my family back in Aleppo but they wanted me to go."
Through the Calais Migrant Solidarity group, the demonstrators added,
"We demand one person from the UK Home Office comes here to speak with us, and to see our situation. We have the right to claim asylum in England, but how do we get there? There is not a legal way to cross."
However the UK Border Force responded with a spokesperson saying,
"The responsibility for legal and illegal migration in France is the responsibility of the French authorities... We work very closely on matters of border security with the French authorities to maintain the integrity of the controls."