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Iraqi Kurd-refugees at French port dream
of England
5.10.2007
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October
5, 2007
CHERBOURG, France ,-- Like dozens of other
dreamers camped out near the port of Cherbourg, Amir
has tried many times to reach the "English Eldorado"
by secreting himself under a ferry-bound lorry.
But each time he is caught, and forced to start all
over.
On this night they are about 40 in number, including
three women and a child of 12. Like Amir, they have
come thousands of miles to live in this makeshift
camp made of tarpaulin and wooden pallets.
Most have come from Iraqi Kurdistan, and some from
Iran and Afghanistan. They live on the hot meals
handed out each evening by local charities.
"What we want is work. In England they give you a
roof over your head and you can work on the black.
Here we get nothing," Amir, 28, complained.
Ahmed is one of the few to have asked for asylum in
France, but it has been refused. "If I go somewhere
else in Europe, they bring me back to France. And if
I go back to Iraq, I am killed. So what do I do? I
am going mad," he said.
He also is trying his chances at the ferry port. |
Iraqi Kurds await their chance at the camp in
Cherbourg AFP |
It is a risky business, and costly. Some say they
have paid 8,000 euros (11,300 dollars) to middlemen
-- the notorious "passeurs" who control the
clandestine people traffic -- as well as 300 euros
just for the privilege of staying in the camp.
Despite the closure in 2002 of the Sangatte Red
Cross Centre near the port of Calais -- from where
hundreds of immigrants tried to make it to England
-- there are still plenty of people willing to
chance their arm at a crossing.
They are distributed along the many ports along the
Channel coast, all looking across at the English "Eldorado",
says Father Paul Gaillard of the Itinerance charity.
Most have no legal existence. They are regularly
detained, but released because French law bans the
deportation of people to countries at war or where
they may be at risk of their lives.
They are in a kind of "legal no-man's land",
according to Cherbourg's Socialist mayor Bernard
Cazeneuve.
As they have the right to make only one demand for
asylum in the EU, most prefer to wait until their
theoretical future arrival in Britain. In the
meantime they are in limbo.
"They are ghosts. They are the disastrous
consequence of the Sangatte agreement (the deal to
shut down Sangatte concluded between the French and
British governments)," says Father Gaillard.
In Cherbourg fights have broken out in recent months
between immigrants and lorry-drivers, who risk heavy
fines if they are caught with an illegal hidden on
their vehicles.
In September the authorities sent a detachment of
CRS riot police to improve security at the port,
where by the end of the month some 40 attempts to
break in had been recorded.
On Wednesday a local court ordered the eviction of
the immgrants from their camp. But like on previous
expulsions, they will most probably simply move to
another site.
Campaigning groups denouce a "vast hypocrisy", and
call for the creation of proper accommodation so
that the immigrants can escape the clutches of the
all-powerful "passeurs". For the mayor of Cherbourg,
"a complete overhaul" of European asylum law is
needed to resolve the problem.
AFP
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