CALAIS, France, 17 September 2003 — Nine months after the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp near the Channel Tunnel, the dream of a new life in Britain is still luring asylum hopefuls to France’s northern coast.
Paris and London declared victory last December in the fight against illegal immigration with a deal under which France shut Sangatte and tightened port security in return for a British pledge to toughen up its asylum law.
Red Cross-run Sangatte had become a base for nightly attempts by asylum-seekers to risk their lives stowed away on trains and lorries passing through the Channel Tunnel.
While only a trickle compared to the total 67,000 immigrants who passed through Sangatte, the 200 or so Sudanese and Kurdish immigrants now sleeping rough in and around the nearby port of Calais show the problem is not licked completely.
“My goal is to get to Britain because I know we’ll be better treated,” said Tarek, a young Turkish Kurd. “There, they will give us the minimum to live on, we’ll be treated like humans rather than wild animals as we are here,” said Tarek, adding that he slept at night in a public park in the center of Calais.
At least Red Cross-run Sangatte offered water, toilets and food. Now, the mainly Sudanese and Kurdish immigrants must fend for themselves and tensions between the two groups are palpable. Police say brawls between the two communities are a daily occurrence. The Sudanese accuse Kurdish gangs of making them pay to get into the parts of the port where it is easiest to sneak onto lorries boarding the ferries.
Police earlier this month raided a disused rail shed in the port, arresting 57 Sudanese there and transporting them to refugee centers outside the Pas-de-Calais county.
“I think they took the Sudanese away to calm things down,” said Jacky Verhaegen, a worker for one of the local humanitarian groups offering food, clothes and showers to the immigrants. With Sudan in the midst of civil war and Turkish Kurds in a fight for autonomy, France can deport neither group back home. An asylum application here is possible, but often plunges the claimant into a losing battle against bureaucracy.
In any case, the vast majority of the refugees see Britain as their goal, citing family links, a preference for the English language and a perception that jobs there are plentiful.
With neither Sudan nor Turkey on an extended British list of “safe” countries, most of the immigrants in Calais could in theory apply for asylum in Britain - once they have got there.
At its peak, Sangatte housed some 2,000 refugees mainly from Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. France acknowledged the existence of the camp had poisoned its relations with Britain.
“The closure of Sangatte improved the situation massively. There is nothing in the numbers to indicate the problem is returning to anything like it was when Sangatte was open,” said a British Home Office spokesman. “The French are working closely with us. The figures for people being stopped at the Calais side are down 62 percent against this time last year.”
True to their agreement with Britain, the French authorities insist they are doing all they can to stop them. “I’ve told the police to make their presence felt, to step in and make arrests wherever necessary,” said Cyrille Schott, prefect of Pas-de-Calais. “Let’s bear in mind the number of migrants is nothing like that in the Sangatte period. But yes, the influx has not stopped completely.”
Calais town hall is unhappy with the presence of humanitarian groups at the port, arguing that their hand-outs of food and other aid are exacerbating the problem by encouraging newcomers.
But with winter approaching, the groups say they cannot simply abandon the refugees to the elements. “In a few weeks, it’ll be raining regularly,” said aid worker Joel Loeuilleux.