In Calais, a war on food is added to the war on showers

The war of the showers continues, and this week again the police were present in front of the showers set up by the Secours Catholique, checking and arresting the people arriving or leaving, usually minors (see here, here, here, here and there). The variant of the arrest at the exit of the showers is undoubtedly the summit of the humanity that one can expect in Calais: the minors are arrested clean, retained a few hours at the police station, then put on the street, an hour on foot to return to Calais and able to sleep outside.

Summary of recent days:

“Wednesday, February 15th:
An employee of the association, a journalist from Libération and 7 young people were arrested for a few hours: they went to the showers.
Wednesday 22nd February:
14 people were arrested and went to the showers.
Friday 24th February:
The 25 people who were washed had to give their identities in order to access the showers.
Wednesday 1st March:
While the Minister of the Interior is visiting Calais, the control and arrest of 14 minors at the exit of the showers. ”

The escalation continues this week with a municipal by-law explicitly targeting food distributions to Exiles and banning them in flowery terms to the Dunes Industrial Zone, which included the “Jungle of Afghans” in 2009 Close to what was the largest shantytown of France, razed at the end of October – beginning of November 2016.

It is true that the mayor of Calais does not break any records in terms of the quality of her municipal management, and that it is the issue of “migrants” that gave her from 2014 access to people’s TV sets. It is for her a matter of political survival to continue to exploit this vein.