Brussels, 20/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 January, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) NGO, stated in a press release that asylum seekers and migrants living in destitution in the port town of Calais have been subject to harassment and violence from the French police force.
“The abuses described to Human Rights Watch include beatings and attacks with pepper spray as the migrants and asylum seekers walked in the street or hid in trucks in the hope of travelling to the United Kingdom”.
Several thousand asylum seekers and migrants, most from Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, are living in makeshift camps or in the streets in Calais. In November and December 2014, Human Rights Watch spoke with 44 asylum seekers and migrants in Calais, including 3 children. Most interviews were conducted in groups. The migrants and asylum seekers described what appear to be routine abuses by police officers when they tried to hide in trucks or as they walked in the town.
On January 14, Denis Robin, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais department, told Human Rights Watch there were about 2,300 asylum seekers and migrants in the Calais area. As of mid-December, local nongovernmental organisations estimated that 200 women and young children were living in camps and that 50 women and young children were in a centre run by a local organisation. (SP)