ASCS on the Frontiers of Europe. Updates from the France-Great Britain border
For the project Borders of ASCS, Davide Pignata and Emanuele Selleri spent a few days in Calais, a border area in northern France. For the past few months the Scalabrinian fathers have opened a mission in this city. Here is David’s testimony.
Boulders in the town of Calais, wanted by the municipality to prevent people on the move and associations from stopping there.
The green areas bordering the Calais River are covered with large boulders. Similar stones are also found on sidewalks and in some corners of the city. They are there to prevent people on the move from pitching a tent and spending a few nights. These large gray rocks imposingly indicate a leitmotif we have often found in Calais: “we don’t want to see migrants here.”
In 2022 we are seeing far more crossings of the English Channel than in past years. By the end of November, more than 40,000 people had crossed the Canal in small boats [1]. However, this is not an indication of a less restrictive policy toward the migrant population at the border. On the contrary, cooperation between French and British border police is increasingly close and efficient[2]. Getting on a train, truck or large ship to cross the English Channel and thus arrive in Britain seems to have become almost impossible. In fact, both the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel are bordered by barbed wire walls that run into the mainland for miles.
The only way to cross the sea tongue remains to pay thousands (5,000 pounds each)[3] to a smuggler to be transported by dinghy. Despite the price, crossing is not easy: controls with cameras, helicopters and drones are very effective, so it is complicated to be able to travel undetected. Even when one is able to evade the controls, the safety conditions of an inflatable boat trip are very precarious. It was just a few days ago that yet another announcement was made of the death of four people in the cold waters of the Channel, due to a boat anomaly[4].
Those who are turned away, along with those who fail to leave, remain stranded in cities such as Calais, Grande-Synthe, and Dunkirk. Here, the logic of “not wanting to see” concretized by those stones is found in the small and large scale. The huge Calais Jungle, where more than 8,000 people were living while waiting to cross the border, was closed in 2016. It has now been replaced by a natural reserve where the favorite activity is bird watching, facilitated by panels describing the redevelopment process carried out after the camp was dismantled. From shacks to wild bird nests.
In the small staircase the “not wanting to see” becomes apparent next to Marie’s house[5], in the two-meter-high wall that her neighbors erected after she began distributing food in her garage 3 times a day to people on the move[6].
Alongside the “not wanting to see” represented by local and national institutions, there is the “failing to see” of Marie and her husband, Father Philippe, and people from civil society who spend every day alongside the migrant population.
The Scalabrinian fathers recently arrived in Calais. Their delicate and courageous pastoral mission is to “see,” to notice the needs of those who are there, and to take care of them all, without forgetting or leaving anyone behind. It is a work of attention.
[1] Cf. BBC, How is the UK stopping Channel crossings and what are the legal routes to the UK?
[2] Cf. POLITICO, France, UK to reach migration deal as soon as Monday: Report.
[3] Cf. BBC, Four people dead after migrant boat started sinking, December 14, 2022
[4] Ibid.
[5] The volunteer’s name was deliberately changed.
[6] Distribution of food takes place in private places, such as a garage precisely, because distribution of food on the streets is prohibited, you risk a fine of €200.
