The police evacuation of the migrant camps in Calais has started. The main reason is a scabies epidemic affecting a quarter of the refugees. A health heresy for medical associations.
The situation in Calais is deteriorating. About 700 foreigners, mostly of Syrian, Afghan and Eritrean origin, fleeing conflicts, violence and persecution, have settled in the city of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Among them, some 550 have set up makeshift camps in and around the port of Calais, having sought asylum in France or waiting to cross to England.
They live in catastrophic sanitary conditions which have favored the development of a scabies epidemic. However, on Wednesday May 21, the associations learned with amazement of the decision taken by the services of the Prefecture of Arras: to combine at the same time medical care and the eviction of the land on which the exiles have since found refuge. Several weeks. This measure took effect on Wednesday, the day the police began to evacuate these migrant camps. This operation took place in a tense atmosphere. “No accommodation solution was offered, except for minors, in a leisure park more than 100 km from the camp”, confides Cécile Bossy, coordinator of Médecins du monde on site, contacted by why actor.
Have the authorities really taken steps to deal with the cases of scabies?
Cecile Bossy : In fact, for several weeks now, we have been calling on the ARS, the institutions and the government to talk about the deplorable hygienic conditions in the camps in which the migrants survive (no toilets, no showers, no water) . Then, an epidemic of scabies which had been suspected for some time appeared on April 25 in the camp of Eritreans and Sudanese. In reaction, the prefect yesterday organized a treatment of people in completely “hellish” conditions. So that you understand, there were tables, water, and boxes of stromectol stacked up. Nothing more, no privacy had been planned. In addition, only people who wanted to came to seek treatment. In the end, few people came forward because there was no more information or prevention available to migrants. Because of this somewhat strange course (without a shower, nor decontamination of clothes) the migrants did not believe that it was an episode of treatment. They understood that the authorities were preparing an eviction. Thing that happened the next day.
In your opinion, because of the scabies epidemic, it was necessary to maintain these refugee camps?
Cecile Bossy : Treating people at the same time as evictions is not possible. This is the first thing that shocks and challenges us. Afterwards, the place in which people live is unworthy so we were not necessarily against this expulsion. But it had to be done in a correct way with proposals for accommodation and shelter for these people. Today, migrants find themselves on the streets, on the opposite sidewalk in hellish conditions. They will roam the streets with everyday endangerment. Especially since most of them haven’t even taken the scabies treatment.
Are untreated people at risk to their health?
Cecile Bossy : Scabies are not dangerous, they are not an urgent and vital problem. But the next question is the risk of superinfection given the conditions in which people live. Staying with this infectious disease is never good for them because there can be complications. In addition, there are women, minors, but also children who are concerned. All of these people are very fragile.
In addition, there is a risk that the epidemic will spread as people are on their own. It is something that we also denounce. However, just yesterday, these people were in a well-identified place and a simple protocol would have sufficed to treat them. Instead, the state chose to set in motion a process of repression.
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