It’s a parenthesis that closes. A bubble from Ukraine, imagined by the shipping company Corsica Linea and financed by the French State, which explodes and leaves, distraught, some of those it had protected for more than two months. Opened on March 29, the reception center for Ukrainian refugees aboard the ferry Mediterraneandocked in the port of Marseille, is due to close its doors this Friday, June 10, disembarking and sending the few hundred people still housed there to other reception sites.
The epilogue was written from the beginning of this unprecedented experience which made it possible to accommodate up to 930 people, absorbing more than 60% of the refugees cared for in collective accommodation in the Bouches-du-Rhône. The company that had launched the idea of this floating haven, centralizing on the same site guarded day and night a housing and catering solution but also a complete offer of social, medical and employment support, had warned that his boat would no longer be available from June 10. The agreement that binds it to the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture ends on this date.
After a period of refurbishment, this 500-cabin ferry will resume service on the Marseille-Algiers line. A particularly awaited service at a time when travel between France and Algeria is once again widely open. “May will be the month of reorienting people to other devices. The families are informed from the beginning,” explained, a few weeks ago, Anthony Baracco, deputy departmental director of employment, labor and solidarity and pilot of the Mediterranean mission. A clear perspective that is struggling to materialize.
Liudmyla Czygoryskyna breaks down in tears when asked where she will be sleeping on Friday night. At 46, this jewelry saleswoman from Odessa moved to the ferry at the end of March. She knew the temporary solution but claims to have understood only the previous week that she had to leave the place. “The people who took care of us were great… But today, we are being pushed out,” she regrets. “They don’t want to leave, they feel protected. It’s a small Ukrainian village here,” explained in May Boris Mardariev, volunteer speaker who provided French lessons on the boat.
Concern and misunderstanding
“The ferry was an effective interim operational solution in its early days, but the consequences it entailed were poorly managed. The fact that the refugees have reorganized their social life on board has been totally underestimated. Some have educated their children in Marseille schools, others have found a job here,” judges one of the social workers intervening on the Mediterraneanwhich requires anonymity. “The question of rehousing should have been dealt with upon entry, but it was only really taken into account in mid-May. However, we cannot find solutions for 650 people in three weeks in a city like Marseille, where the reception offers are already saturated”, he observes.
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