French Police Accused of Further Migrant Abuse in Calais

A HUMANITARIAN organisation has made further allegations against French police of abusing migrants in the northern port city of Calais.

The Human Rights Observers (HRO) group alleges that French police have been increasingly engaging in aggressive evictions with the intention of ruining the hope and spirits of migrants camped around the northern city of Calais.

In 2020, 973 evictions were carried out – doubling the number from 2018. Violent incidents recorded during these evictions include a tent being dragged by a tractor with a migrant still inside, an Eritrean man being seriously wounded when a rubber bullet was fired at his face from a 10 metre distance, and teargas being indiscriminately fired into camps.

Activists from the HRO told the Guardian that these acts of violence are “like torture” to migrants, many of whom have fled warzones in Africa and the Middle East to find a better life in Europe.

“These constant evictions are part of a policy by the French government to wear down asylum seekers, to fatigue them and take away their hope. It’s like torture.”

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