“Twenty CRS and gendarmerie vans are mobilized to destroy and expel a camp of exiles near Dunkirk”, denounced, this Thursday morning, on Twitter, the association Utopia 56. An operation confirmed by the prefecture at the beginning of the afternoon, once “the evacuation of several illegal camps of migrant people” was completed.
According to the State services, the dismantling of the camps, installed on several plots of land located in the town of Mardyck, was done “in application of the decision of the Dunkirk judicial court” and “taking into account the unworthy living conditions and dangerous” for the people residing there.
“Consolidation of the electric battery sector”
The prefecture specifies that “219 people have accepted shelter this day”, “away from the coast, in accommodation centers and hotels spread over the entire North and Hauts-de-France department. -France “. On the side of Utopia 56, of which several volunteers were present on the spot, there is talk of a “man hunt to catch all those who try to take refuge in the forest”. The association even denounces a kind of blackmail exercised on migrants: “If you don’t get on the bus, you will be arrested”, reportedly heard from a police officer an activist from Utopia 56.
After the police operation, “a private company mandated by the state services” took charge of dismantling the camps and removing tents and belongings “unclaimed” by the migrants. “The evacuated site must be the subject of an environmental study with a view to its industrialization and the consolidation of the electric battery sector in Hauts-de-France”, specified the prefecture in a press release.