Church charity flouts law by helping create new camp for UK-bound migrants in Calais
A CATHOLIC charity has enraged Calais officials by helping set up a new migrant camp just weeks after the infamous Calais jungle was razed to the ground.
A Catholic charity has enraged Calais officials by helping set up a new migrant camp
Officials have even blocked off the entrance to the French Christian charity Secours Catholique with a huge skip to stop migrants from having access to shelter, food and showers.
Discovering that hundreds of migrants had returned to Calais less than three months after the ‘Jungle’ tent camp was bulldozed, Secours Catholique officials ordered three portable cabins – kitted out with showers – which they planned to convert into temporary shelters.
Two portable cabins were delivered on Wednesday morning, but Calais officials put a huge skip in front of the entrance to the charity before the third one could be delivered.
Deputy Calais mayor Emmanuel Agius told the French daily Le Monde: “Secours Catholique lied to us. They told us that the portable cabins were going to be turned into stock rooms – not into migrant shelters.
Officials have blocked off the entrance to the French Christian charity Secours Catholique
Ex-residents of the Calais Jungle are still trying to reach UK
“What they did is illegal. Officials adopted a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against migrants in a bid to stop the flow of migrants to Calais after the notorious ‘Jungle’ camp was cleared in October, and warned that tented settlements and emergency shelters would no longer be tolerated.
Secours Catholique lied to us
“We did not close the ‘Jungle’ camp for nothing. We do not want a new migrant shelter – fitted out with showers – to open in central Calais. No means no!
"Charities must stop making a mockery of our ‘zero tolerance’ policy. We can’t go back to the way things were before the ‘Jungle’ was demolished."
The skip has been placed there to stop migrants from having access to shelter, food and showers.
But Bernard Thibaud, general secretary of Secours Catholique, said: “Migrants aren’t returning to Calais to take a shower, they’re returning to Calais because they’re determined to get to Britain.
“Not only has the government failed to fulfil its pledge to protect isolated child migrants, but it has also launched a virulent witch hunt against Britain-bound refugees.
Former Calais 'Jungle' camp
"Migrants are being harassed by police and treated like petty criminals. This has to stop.”
Vincent de Coninck, the head of Secours Catholique, also commented on the bitter tug-of-war between officials and pro-migrant charities saying: “Some migrants have scabies and are desperate for a hot shower. They need a place to rest. We wanted to give them a helping hand.”