The French Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, spoke of a “degree of violence never known before”.
Several parts of Calais witnessed the clashes in different areas of the city between hundreds of migrants, with a dramatic toll: 22 people had to be hospitalized, including five migrants who were shot.
One of them was shot in the back of the neck, a police source told FWM.
The others suffered many injuries including injuries caused by knives, according to the prefecture. Two policemen were also injured.
As urban guerrilla scenes between migrants in Calais made the headlines, a judicial source commented “we returned to a situation that is very similar to that of 2015, the year of creation of the ‘Jungle’, dismantled in October 2016.
“Not one day is the same in terms of violence,” the source added.
The first brawl broke out around 15:30 between a hundred Eritrean migrants and thirty Afghans, in a place close to the hospital, in the center of the city where distribution of meals take place, according to the prefecture. Gunfire from an Afghan national is said to have caused this clash, justifying the rumour that smugglers were present.
Four migrants, between 16 and 18 years old and of Eritrean nationality, were critically wounded by gunshots, said the public prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Then around 16:00, a second brawl took place about 5 km away, in Marck-en-Calaisis, where “a hundred African migrants armed with sticks wanted to attack about twenty Afghans”, the prosecutor said. Police had to protect Afghans who were attacked by 150 to 200 Eritreans, according to the prefecture.
Then in the late afternoon, new violence erupted in the industrial area of Calais, not far from the site of the former “Jungle”.
“The Afghans came for a meal distribution on rue des Verrotières and came across a strong African presence, and there were skirmishes that resulted in people wounded with iron bars,” the prosecutor said. Six migrants were wounded, including one who was seriously injured.
Collomb visited Calais on Thursday night, at the scene of one of the brawls, to meet the police, firefighters and members of the French Office of Immigration and the integration.
“We have reached an escalation of the violence that has become unbearable for the people of Calais and the migrants (…) This is a degree of violence has never before been known.” The minister pointed to the main cause of the violence, the presence of smugglers on the site of the old “Jungle”.
A Calais police operation to remove squatters on Thursday morning coincided with the violence.
The minister said that “those who want to stay here illegally – it’s not possible,” according to Le Monde.
The mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart said she demanded that Collomb “expel the troublemakers”.
Despite a promise by French President Macron that the public “will no longer see anyone on the streets” by the end of 2017, hundreds of migrants are still on the streets living in makeshift shelters.
