French soldiers were filmed this Sunday morning having fun with their 4×4 near a refugee camp before getting stuck quite pitifully. The Army has opened an investigation.
The facts were reported by a photojournalist in Calais, Louis Witter. This Sunday at the end of the morning, a 4×4 of the Army, dedicated to the Vigipirate missions, was filmed making peaks of speed, skids and turns on itself in reverse. A drift, as connoisseurs of motorsport say, but done in the middle of a refugee camp.
“On several occasions, Vigipirate’s vehicle occupied by armed soldiers passed through the puddles and in front of the tents on this vacant lot at the exit of Calais where approximately 500 people live ”, describes Louis Witter on Twitter. The scene was already enough to bewilder: the army in full recreation skidding on muddy terrain, under the gaze of migrants coming out of their tents to observe this curious spectacle.
“Inadmissible scene”
The story did not end there. The soldiers on the maneuver sank. Literally. The brown craft, an ACMAT VT4, ended up getting stuck in the muddy earth. The soldiers then got out of their vehicle to push him. Without success. They would have dared a “Don’t you have shovels?” for refugees. A military truck then arrived to pull the 4×4 using straps. After several failures, the vehicle was extricated.
The exiles present there mobilized to help. Some have dug with the means at hand: their flip-flops, says Louis Witter. The CRS present on the spot would not have lifted a finger, which would have caused some tension with the soldiers.
In a few hours, this detailed and documented account caused a lot of reaction on Twitter. “A car from the Vigipirate plan decides without any embarrassment to play it Fast & Furious. Bad luck, it looks like the French remake ”, jokes for example the account of the Auberge des Migrants, an association which works with exiles in Calais.
The prefecture of Pas-de-Calais confirmed to AFP that the facts took place this Sunday in Calais and that they concern a vehicle of Vigipirate. “The sentries are there on a mission to secure Calais and the coast. They have a mission of protection and the fight against terrorism ”, recalled Emmanuel Cayron, director of the prefect’s cabinet.
For once, the usually quiet Army quickly commented on the subject. Under the journalist’s publication, she was moved in a message posted from her official account of this “Inadmissible scene” and indicated to have “at once” opened a command investigation.
This episode especially highlights the “Disconnection (with) the daily life of migrants”, reacted to AFP Nikolaï Posner, communications coordinator for the association Utopia 56. He added : “At the same time, you have several shipwrecks at sea this morning, with 16 children who came back soaked”.
At the end of the day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces issued a press release in which it condemns “firmly” facts. He recalled “The requirement of exemplarity which is imposed on the soldiers of the French armies” and considers that the driver of the vehicle “Behaved completely inappropriately by engaging in dangerous maneuvers”. It evokes “Sanctions”, Who “Will be decided according to the responsibilities” established.