"For 20 to 30 minutes, they destroyed everything without explaining why they were there, or what they were doing."

The largest living site in Calais, located in front of the hospital, is regularly subject to evictions conducted by the police. In July, HRO documented five evictions during which policemen took tents and other materials, and forced inhabitants to leave the living site, during operations that can sometimes take up to multiple hours. The location of the eviction described in this testimony is the living site "Hospital", a place where people of all ages, genders and situations live.  

Ibrahim (modified name), 21 yo, has been living in Calais for 2 months. In July, he experienced an eviction by the police. He recalls what he went through and how it affected his day-to-day life.  

Testimony collected on August 3rd, 2023 in English, without a translator.

“Police came to Hospital about two and a half weeks ago. In Hospital, there are people of all ages, genders and situations. That morning, I was in our living space with my friends. It was about five of us. A group of policemen arrived and were then met by a second group a bit later. They were about 10 or 12 in total and we did not understand what was happening, nor what they were saying.  

They began taking what we had and breaking things. We tried to talk to them, to explain that we needed to get our things back, but they pushed us and took the tents. We were not able to try and stop them: they are policemen and could become violent if we tried anything.  

For 20 to 30 minutes, they destroyed everything without explaining why they were there, or what they were doing. It’s really painful because each time, we have to find tents and everything else again. We have nowhere to go, no home, we have nothing left. We are not allowed anywhere else in the city, so the jungle is the only place where we can live. 

But we are always living in fear. Every day, we take down our tents because the police may come at any moment. I wake up really early every day, as soon as I hear any noise. Today, for example, I woke up around 6 AM, because I heard a sound and thought that the police were coming. After that, I couldn’t go back to sleep. This week they didn’t come, we don’t know if they will come next week: they come with no warning, take our stuff, and we have to start from the bottom up again. So we hide the tent, find another mattress… It’s painful, it’s really tough.  

Instead of helping people, they choose to traumatise already traumatised people. A lot of us here have been through really difficult journeys to come to Europe, but no one cares about it.  

So now, they want to evacuate us of this “jungle”, of the place that we live in. Do they think that we love it here, or that we enjoy it ? There are no sanitary units, no toilets: nothing. We live in a tent, there’s water, and it's very cold. Nobody would willingly live in those conditions. If we brought a cop here, I don’t think he would even last a day.  

No other place is offered to us, nobody is providing us with a solution to get out of here. Instead, they just want to move people. But where will they live?"