French police cause misery for migrants: HRW

BSS :
French police are inflicting misery on the migrants in the northern port of Calais, routinely tearing down their tents and forcing them to wander the streets as part of a deterrence policy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Thursday. The 75-page report documents methods used by authorities to prevent the emergence of another major migrant settlement in Calais, five years after the demolition of the sprawling “Jungle” camp which housed up to 10,000 people at its peak.
Calais has for years been a rallying point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trying to smuggle across the English Channel toBritain. But faced with growing public anti-migrant sentiment, President Emmanuel Macron’s government has waged a campaign to prevent new camps emerging.
The tactics used by the police to keep migrants at bay include systematically tearing down the tents they set up in the woods, on waste land or under bridges, regularly confiscating their belongings and harassing NGOs trying to provide them with aid, according to HRW. “The authorities carry out these abusive practices with the primarypurposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving theirmigration status or lack of housing, or of deterring new arrivals,” it said.
NGOs estimate the number of migrants currently living along the northern French coast around Calais at between 1,500 and 2,000, including numerous families. Local authorities estimate that only 500 remain in the area.
Last week, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the eviction of a camphousing 400 migrants near a hospital in Calais, which was presented as a health and safety hazard. On that occasion the migrants were taken to temporary shelters but often they are left to wander the streets as they search for a new place to sleep.
The French government argues that the camps are havens for people smugglers, who command extortionate fees to help migrants cross to Britain, either in a small boat crossing the Channel in the dead of night or stowedaway on a truck crossing by ferry or through the Channel Tunnel.