Tribune. Following the tragedy of the death of Yasser, a young Sudanese, on September 28, and faced with the constant deterioration of the living conditions of people in exile in Calais, while the harassment to which they are subject is daily and the violence exercised by the State is always stronger, Philippe, Anaïs and Ludovic began a hunger strike since Monday, October 11 at the church of Saint-Pierre-de-Calais (Pas-de-Calais).
For several years, associations, activists and exiled people have been warning about the inhuman situation in Calaisis. We witness daily forms of psychological and physical violence against exiled persons: expulsions every 48 hours or even every day; confiscation and destruction of personal effects; increase in anti-distribution orders for food and water; humiliations; assault and battery by the police …
Human consciousnesses get used to everything, even the intolerable
And the escalation of violence does not stop. Two weeks ago, new measures were put in place. On four occasions, the State has laid rocks on a distribution site in Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais) preventing any access to associations to distribute basic foodstuffs to exiled people. Bans then multiplied in all places where people lived, making distributions illegal.
Since the 1990s, this no-reception policy has resulted in more than 300 deaths. On September 28, Yasser was run over by a truck. He wanted to join his dream, England with the hope of a better life.
Awaken the intelligences
Faced with this alarming observation, the State was arrested but no satisfactory response was given. No dialogue being possible, three Calais residents decided to start a hunger strike which took effect on October 11 in Calais with the following expectations:
– the suspension of daily evictions and dismantling of camps during the winter break;
– during this same period, the end of the confiscation of tents and personal effects of exiled persons;
– the opening of a reasoned citizen dialogue between public authorities and associations not mandated by the State, relating to the opening and location of distribution points for all the goods necessary to maintain the health of exiled persons.
Human consciousnesses get used to everything, even the intolerable. This hunger strike aims to wake up intelligences, and to make heard again the scandalous and truly unimaginable character, in a country like France in 2021, of the condition to which people exiled by the public authorities are voluntarily reduced.
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