REPORTER: Fanou Filali
It's chaos on Calais' docks. Men are fighting for food. Today the group of volunteers who usually feed these asylum seekers has arrived late and tension is high.
VOLUNTEER, (Translation): They are really upset because we're late as if we owe them. They'll calm down.
The presence of these foreigners in Calais has become a source of great friction between France and the UK. In France, asylum seekers are not detained, and Calais has become a staging post for those trying to sneak into Britain. They try their luck on the ferries, trucks, cars and trains that cross the Channel. For many asylum seekers, the UK is a land of opportunity where work will be easy to find. They'll put up with any hardship in order to reach their final destination. These men are a headache for the police. The authorities in Calais have adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to the problem. They offer asylum seekers temporary visas if they get out of town but if they don't, there's always police harassment. Harassment the police aren't keen on seeing filmed.
POLICE, (Translation): Turn off your camera. You'll come with us to the police station.
Gilles Gaudiche is the principal adviser to the deputy head of police in Calais. He doesn't usually come to the docks but today he's here to count the foreigners before a meeting tomorrow with his boss.
GILLES GAUDICHE, (Translation): We prevent them from reaching the border. The British authorities won't let them in so we stop them from entering illegally from this side. We prevent it from becoming an issue for the UK and for us, or a problem with the public.
Michel Heuze is Gaudiche's boss. As Calais' deputy head of police, he wants to keep the asylum seekers away from his patch.
REPORTER, (Translation): What do you have to say about the asylum seekers?
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): The problem is they aren't asylum seekers. They are illegals. Let's name them accordingly.
MAN, (Translation): No, they are immigrants. Foreigners without a... you're right. They're not illegals, they're foreigners in irregular situation.
MAN, (Translation): Not all of them.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): Most of them.
MAN, (Translation): No. Some have permits. Some have permits.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): They're not all bandits. People in irregular situation can't just do as they wish. Or there's no sovereign state. Or we have to change the law and that's a different matter.
REPORTER, (Translation): Who's that bus for?
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): It's a bus for those who want to seek asylum. But we take them away from Calais. Sure... they want France's protection. Whether they get it in Gueret, in Draguignan or in Forbac, they'll get it anyway.
Ali is from Afghanistan. He's been in Calais for three months.
ALI: Everything is a lie. It is not true. How it is there that Europe is good for European people, not for us. So you must stay in your country.
Ali came to Europe because he loved Western culture, but he's been shocked by the harsh reality of life here.
ALI: Because I like so much music Michael Jackson, Shakira, and another famous singer, and when I was a child, I learned American music. It's funny, the people think I'm crazy. But slowly, slowly, I think I'll go to a crazy hospital... because I lost my everything.
Ali arrived in Calais hoping to make it across the Channel, but people smugglers stole his money. Now he's stuck here, living in what he calls the best squat in town.
ALI: This is the door of my bedroom. We want it, we hear it, here is democracy. Here living here like animal, like human. We want living free. Pride is very important for us from other things from money, from car, from house, but now this is our life. Other people looking at us like animal. They're thinking we're animal.
Mireille Lecoustre is one of a handful of volunteers sympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers. The migrants call her mummy. Volunteers like Mireille help provide the services badly lacking here.
REPORTER, (Translation): Where are we going, Mireille?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Now I'm driving home... I'm taking this man to my place so he can have a shower.
REPORTER, (Translation): How many people come to you every day for a shower?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Five... five every day.
Only a few weeks ago, Mireille was arrested by the police. They warned her she could face jail if she was found harbouring illegal immigrants.
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): How long have you been in Calais? Two, three days in Calais? Iraqi? It's hard to let them go.
They're like my children. I've known them for a long time. It takes courage to try to get through. They're here in Calais... chased by the police for a few months. They have atrocious lives. It give me goose bumps. We have to let them go to England. We're all human beings...
Mireille keeps an album with photos of the men she's helped. Many of them have made it to their final destination.
REPORTER, (Translation): Once in the UK, do they contact you?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Yes, they call me and say mummy... luck. They say their names. I say good luck. That's it, then they hang up.
Back at the dock, a delegation from the socialist party has arrived to meet the police. Among them Rene Barras, a senior party member and a great defender of the volunteers' work in Calais.
RENE BARRAS, (Translation): If it weren't for them, some people would have died...
He's angry about letters the police sent to volunteers, accusing them of people smuggling activities.
RENE BARRAS, (Translation): When I hear people smugglers, when I hear that someone may help another person get to the UK, I'd go even further and say, if I lived here, if I had the means to help someone, for free, join his family in the UK, I'd do it without qualms. It may be illegal, its humane.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): You're strategy is a fine line, a compromise between humanitarian aid, which is indisputable, and supporting a structure that backs up people smugglers and mafia networks.
The police are convinced it's safe enough for most of these immigrants to go home. The police say those who have applied for asylum can stay at a shelter outside Calais. One of the volunteers is trying to convince people to take up the offer. There are few takers. These men have come here with one goal - to make it to the UK, and they're not going to be put off by the offer of a bed for the night. Out of the 100 asylum seekers here, only five have agreed to leave Calais. Tonight, the others will try their luck across the border.
It's chaos on Calais' docks. Men are fighting for food. Today the group of volunteers who usually feed these asylum seekers has arrived late and tension is high.
VOLUNTEER, (Translation): They are really upset because we're late as if we owe them. They'll calm down.
The presence of these foreigners in Calais has become a source of great friction between France and the UK. In France, asylum seekers are not detained, and Calais has become a staging post for those trying to sneak into Britain. They try their luck on the ferries, trucks, cars and trains that cross the Channel. For many asylum seekers, the UK is a land of opportunity where work will be easy to find. They'll put up with any hardship in order to reach their final destination. These men are a headache for the police. The authorities in Calais have adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to the problem. They offer asylum seekers temporary visas if they get out of town but if they don't, there's always police harassment. Harassment the police aren't keen on seeing filmed.
POLICE, (Translation): Turn off your camera. You'll come with us to the police station.
Gilles Gaudiche is the principal adviser to the deputy head of police in Calais. He doesn't usually come to the docks but today he's here to count the foreigners before a meeting tomorrow with his boss.
GILLES GAUDICHE, (Translation): We prevent them from reaching the border. The British authorities won't let them in so we stop them from entering illegally from this side. We prevent it from becoming an issue for the UK and for us, or a problem with the public.
Michel Heuze is Gaudiche's boss. As Calais' deputy head of police, he wants to keep the asylum seekers away from his patch.
REPORTER, (Translation): What do you have to say about the asylum seekers?
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): The problem is they aren't asylum seekers. They are illegals. Let's name them accordingly.
MAN, (Translation): No, they are immigrants. Foreigners without a... you're right. They're not illegals, they're foreigners in irregular situation.
MAN, (Translation): Not all of them.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): Most of them.
MAN, (Translation): No. Some have permits. Some have permits.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): They're not all bandits. People in irregular situation can't just do as they wish. Or there's no sovereign state. Or we have to change the law and that's a different matter.
REPORTER, (Translation): Who's that bus for?
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): It's a bus for those who want to seek asylum. But we take them away from Calais. Sure... they want France's protection. Whether they get it in Gueret, in Draguignan or in Forbac, they'll get it anyway.
Ali is from Afghanistan. He's been in Calais for three months.
ALI: Everything is a lie. It is not true. How it is there that Europe is good for European people, not for us. So you must stay in your country.
Ali came to Europe because he loved Western culture, but he's been shocked by the harsh reality of life here.
ALI: Because I like so much music Michael Jackson, Shakira, and another famous singer, and when I was a child, I learned American music. It's funny, the people think I'm crazy. But slowly, slowly, I think I'll go to a crazy hospital... because I lost my everything.
Ali arrived in Calais hoping to make it across the Channel, but people smugglers stole his money. Now he's stuck here, living in what he calls the best squat in town.
ALI: This is the door of my bedroom. We want it, we hear it, here is democracy. Here living here like animal, like human. We want living free. Pride is very important for us from other things from money, from car, from house, but now this is our life. Other people looking at us like animal. They're thinking we're animal.
Mireille Lecoustre is one of a handful of volunteers sympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers. The migrants call her mummy. Volunteers like Mireille help provide the services badly lacking here.
REPORTER, (Translation): Where are we going, Mireille?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Now I'm driving home... I'm taking this man to my place so he can have a shower.
REPORTER, (Translation): How many people come to you every day for a shower?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Five... five every day.
Only a few weeks ago, Mireille was arrested by the police. They warned her she could face jail if she was found harbouring illegal immigrants.
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): How long have you been in Calais? Two, three days in Calais? Iraqi? It's hard to let them go.
They're like my children. I've known them for a long time. It takes courage to try to get through. They're here in Calais... chased by the police for a few months. They have atrocious lives. It give me goose bumps. We have to let them go to England. We're all human beings...
Mireille keeps an album with photos of the men she's helped. Many of them have made it to their final destination.
REPORTER, (Translation): Once in the UK, do they contact you?
MIREILLE LECOUSTRE, (Translation): Yes, they call me and say mummy... luck. They say their names. I say good luck. That's it, then they hang up.
Back at the dock, a delegation from the socialist party has arrived to meet the police. Among them Rene Barras, a senior party member and a great defender of the volunteers' work in Calais.
RENE BARRAS, (Translation): If it weren't for them, some people would have died...
He's angry about letters the police sent to volunteers, accusing them of people smuggling activities.
RENE BARRAS, (Translation): When I hear people smugglers, when I hear that someone may help another person get to the UK, I'd go even further and say, if I lived here, if I had the means to help someone, for free, join his family in the UK, I'd do it without qualms. It may be illegal, its humane.
MICHEL HEUZE, (Translation): You're strategy is a fine line, a compromise between humanitarian aid, which is indisputable, and supporting a structure that backs up people smugglers and mafia networks.
The police are convinced it's safe enough for most of these immigrants to go home. The police say those who have applied for asylum can stay at a shelter outside Calais. One of the volunteers is trying to convince people to take up the offer. There are few takers. These men have come here with one goal - to make it to the UK, and they're not going to be put off by the offer of a bed for the night. Out of the 100 asylum seekers here, only five have agreed to leave Calais. Tonight, the others will try their luck across the border.