The day after a shipwreck which left three people dead a few kilometers away, around a hundred people paid tribute to them on Thursday in Calais, “the lump in the stomach” for fear of “meet again next week”.
Two men and a woman lost their lives on Wednesday morning, 2 kilometers from Blériot-Plage near Calais, during an attempted clandestine crossing to England aboard an overloaded boat. The circumstances of the sinking remain uncertain.
After a record number of deaths, 55 since the start of the year, the long scroll on the ground listing the names of the hundreds of people who have died on the Franco-British border since 1999 has become too short. It must have been supplemented since September with several loose sheets.
“Their lives mattered. (…) I don’t know how we oppose a policy that generates death in a peaceful society”asked Juliette, resident of Calais and former association manager. “What actions are we taking to avoid meeting again next week? »she urged, a few days after the death of an Iraqi Kurdish infant in a previous deadly shipwreck.
“I am not a believer, but every evening, as soon as there is no wind, I pray”whispered Caroline Ndiaye, a 52-year-old from Calais, at the end of the ceremony.
“We all have a lump in our stomach”assures AFP Flore Judet, coordinator of L’Auberge des migrants.
“Nothing is in place for things to change”she added, regretting the hardening of political discourse and “criminalization of people”.
The year 2024 is the deadliest since the start in 2018 of the phenomenon of small boats, these makeshift boats used to try to reach England, with at least 55 deaths in shipwrecks and fatal stampedes.