In the Nordtwo camps of migrants were evacuated on Tuesday near Dunkirk. The area concerned was home to some 700 exiles hoping to reach England by sea, we learned from the prefecture and the Utopia 56 association for supporting migrants.
“A sheltering operation took place” in “two camps located on the private domain of the large seaport of Dunkirk”, indicated the prefecture. In total, “130 people were referred to accommodation centers”, she said.
A previous operation in early June
“Smugglers were also arrested” during this operation, “which took place in good conditions”, mobilizing “gendarmes, police, social service providers from the State as well as teams from the large maritime port”, added the prefecture without further details. “The objective of these shelters is to protect the lives of migrants and to put an end to makeshift camps where they are under the control of criminal networks,” she noted.
According to a representative of Utopia 56, about 700 people (mostly Iraqi, Iranian, Sudanese and Eritrean Kurds) resided in the area, which is dotted with camps and where security forces regularly evacuate before the exiled do not resettle there precariously. Thirteen suspected smugglers were arrested there and several weapons and ammunition seized in early June, as part of an investigation opened after a series of shootings that left three dead and around twenty injured since 2022.
Many of the evicted people, whose tents were seized, were trying to resettle in the surrounding area at the end of the afternoon, added the representative of Utopia 56. Among them families and “about fifty unaccompanied minors”, said he put forward. According to him, migratory crossings, slowed down by bad weather in early August, “resumed” from the northern coast of France, but “with very short weather windows” due to the persistence of unfavorable weather conditions.
The prefect of Pas-de-Calais for his part announced on July 19 the arrival of an additional CRS company to stem this migratory traffic, the day after departures of migrant boats in broad daylight under the eyes of tourists. In 2022, around 46,000 people crossed the strait to reach the English coast. Five died and four disappeared in these dangerous crossings, according to the count of the maritime prefecture.
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