PARIS: Four migrants were fighting for their lives on Friday after being shot during a giant brawl in Calais, in what the French government called an “intolerable” escalation of violence in a port that serves as a gateway to Britain.
Twenty-two people were hospitalised with injuries after three fights across the city on Thursday that drew in hundreds of the migrants camped out in the hope of stowing away on trucks bound for England, according to officials.
Four Eritreans, who were shot in the neck, chest, abdomen and spine at a food distribution point, were still in critical condition on Friday. A fifth who was also shot was not facing life-threatening injuries.
Police were searching for a 37-year-old Afghan, a suspected migrant smuggler, over the attack but the prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Boulogne-sur-Mer said witnesses reported seeing several people fire shots.
“It’s a bit hazy,” an official at the prosecutor’s office said.
A number of other migrants sustained stab wounds in the other melees sparked by the incident.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who visited the scene, said the recurring brawls had become “intolerable for the people of Calais and the migrants” and told those with dreams of Britain to stay away.
His remarks came as the UN’s migration agency reported at least 90 people were feared dead off the coast of Libya after their boat capsized.
The violence in Calais comes two weeks after President Emmanuel Macron visited the city with a message of zero tolerance on migrants setting up camps like the sprawling “Jungle” which was razed in 2016.
He later met with Prime Minister Theresa May, who agreed to pay more to stop migrants reach England’s shores. Crucially, Macron did not seek to renegotiate a controversial 2003 deal effectively pushing Britain’s borders back onto French soil.
Collomb blamed the tensions in Calais on smugglers who reportedly charge as much as 2,500 euros ($3,100) to sneak migrants onto trucks crossing the Channel by ferry or through the Eurotunnel.
Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said her town was confronted by all-out gang warfare. “There will be people here at their wits’ ends faced with this increasingly violent presence among a certain number of migrants, who it is plain to see are organised in gangs,” Collomb told reporters after spending the night in Calais.
“We know there are gang leaders ... and it is these networks we must dismantle,” the minister added.
Promising to ease the pressure on Calais, where Britain’s southern shores can be seen on a clear day, Collomb said that within two weeks the government would take over control of food distribution from local aid groups and conduct the handouts outside the town. — Reuters
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