Refugees of Calais: A New Communique

Since the authorities are giving no more signs of life and making no further proposals as to where the refugees can stay, other than the food distribution center, the refugees are rekindling the debate with the following communique and planning a demonstration.

“WHY… ?

 We are the homeless migrants of Calais who have been occupying the food distribution center for the last week. All of the communities live there and have decided to unite to find a solution for our situation. We have tried to meet with authorities for this purpose, but they have broken their promises and have failed to respond to the demands we have made. We are homeless here and we want to be given the possibility of living dignified lives in safe places in Calais, where we can stay temporarily on our way to England.

Why is it that we are in this situation? Who can help us to find a solution? We were living in poverty and war in our countries and now, we find ourselves once more in even worse poverty. The authorities told us at the beginning that we had less than 48 hours to vacate these premisses, or they would evict us by force, although we came here to flee violence. Is this just? We want an end to the violence against migrants!

We came here for freedom and that is what we are trying to find… we want to reconstruct our lives and not to die here slowly. We want to be given to be given the chance to live where we want! We request as well a meeting with the British government, with whom we would like to discuss our situation. We want to be heard!

We are human beings, not animals!

THIS IS WHY WE ARE ORGANIZING A DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY, JUNE 7TH

Starting from Rue Lamy in front of the food distribution center at 2:00 pm

We want:

  • Houses in Calais for all the migrants who wish to go to England and for asylum seekers who are forced to live in the street
  • Houses with decent hygienic conditions: toilets, showers, garbage collection
  • Houses where we can come and go whenever we like, in order to be able to continue trying to cross to England
  • Houses protected from police controls, harassment and evictions
  • Access to three meals a day
  • Negotiations between France and the United Kingdom to allow people access to British territory.