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We need your support to continue this lifesaving work JANUARY 13, 2016—The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began work today on a new site for refugees in the northern French community of Grande-Synthe, where the lack of adequate shelter for refugees has left thousands of people out in the cold “There are now more than 2,500 people in Grande-Synthe sleeping in appalling “They must be offered shelter and a more acceptable living environment.” turned to MSF because the town council’s requests to the government for help were left unanswered and the number of new arrivals was increasing fast While there were 800 people sleeping in rough conditions at the site at the beginning of October their number has risen to 2,500 in recent weeks Most are Kurds waiting to cross to the U.K. including many families with about 250 children Entirely funded by MSF and costing the state nothing installing 500 winterized tents (each accommodating five people) MSF will also continue to provide medical care it was delayed as authorities raised concerns about technical issues this risk is all too present at the current site where the only way for the refugees to keep warm is with wood fires and makeshift heaters MSF has treated refugees at the site for burn injuries.The technical aspects were finally resolved to the satisfaction of all those concerned on January 11 the refugees will be accommodated on a voluntary basis and will be free to come and go as they please “We view this as essential,” Jincq said “We’re not setting up a camp to shut the refugees in but to offer them a space to help them get through the winter in more decent and humane conditions.” Haiti violence pushes MSF trauma hospital to its limits South Sudan: MSF strongly condemns deliberate bombing of its hospital .. © Médecins Sans Frontières 2025 Federal tax ID#: 13-3433452 Unrestricted donations enable MSF to carry out our programs around the world we will reallocate your donation to where the needs are greatest Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly Discover our governance and what it means to be an association Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world Read through our annual financial and activity reports and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards Visit this section to get in touch with our offices around the world Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict and where MSF teams respond to different diseases around the world and the challenges we face in providing treatment Learn about the different contexts and situations in which MSF teams respond to provide care including war and natural disaster settings and how and why we adapt our activities to each Learn about our response and our work in depth on specific themes and events Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration health policy and the environment in which aid operates This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences other renowned international medical institutions Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection The Intersectional Benchmarking Unit collects and analyses data about local labour markets in all locations where MSF employs people To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff policy makers and academia to exchange ideas inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF Around 2,500 people live in very bad conditions in Grande Synthe some just a few months old and pregnant women the camp’s population has stabilised at around 2,400-2,500 people since mid-December single skin tents that do not give enough protection from the winter weather – temperatures have reached as low as -6 degrees already People burn wood to try to keep warm and we have treated some burns caused by standing too close to the fires The camp also has rubbish everywhere and is infested with rats The sanitation situation is wholly inadequate We expect more toilets to be added soon but the number will still fail to reach minimum standards The camp is on land which is prone to flooding gets incredibly muddy and turns into an open sewer ruining the small amount of personal belongings that people have with them and making it almost impossible for people to stay warm and dry In recent weeks the police have banned any materials that would improve the shelters being brought into the camp There was a one day reprieve on 11 January when the authorities allowed people to bring in some materials to improve conditions – the same day that the go-ahead was given for the new camp the City of Grande Synthe has been hosting refugees at the Basroch camp They come here because there is a gas station along the highway where trucks stop that people can climb on in order to reach England The influx of refugees this summer is due to the port of Calais being sealed off where it is now impossible to cross through to England because of increased security at the port of Calais and the Eurotunnel site which includes strict security measures such as devices that detect heartbeats Others arrived after being expelled from Teteghem camp in Dunkirk which was dismantled for example Germany but each person comes because they want to reach Britain The Grande-Synthe camp is mostly populated by Iraqi and Iranian Kurds where there are Eritrean and Sudanese communities there are no people of African origin in Grande Synthe The majority of people in Grande Synthe are either from active conflict zones were discriminated against in their own country It is impossible to make improvements at the current site The mayor also wants to use the land to build a new eco-development  The 2,500 people who are at the camp are in danger in poor conditions and exposed to subzero temperatures Faced with the influx of migrants and refugees in his borough the mayor asked the French government for help to improve the appalling conditions MSF is now forced to compensate for the deficiencies of the state Because improvements are not possible at the site more appropriate place to set up the temporary camp Land that can accommodate 2,400 people was identified by the mayor and is now being rented by MSF The mayor said that he felt he had to act because he feared waking up to the news that a child had frozen to death which will be built by MSF with support from the municipality of Grande Synthe is to provide people with acceptable conditions that allow them to maintain their health and dignity as well as toilets and showers in sufficient numbers to meet minimum humanitarian standards The tents will be appropriate for winter and heatable which can be used for cooking or for children to play in Work started on the site as soon as MSF got permission installation of water and sewerage pipes as well as electricity cables We will also need to prepare and install the toilets and showers - there will be 126 toilets and 66 showers Will even the most vulnerable have to wait for a month The sub-prefecture has promised to provide 300 places in temporary accommodation for vulnerable people Will people be forced to live in the new camp it is imperative that people come to the camp on a voluntary basis Representatives of the people living in the existing camp will be invited to the new site to see the conditions and so that MSF cultural mediators can explain how the transfer will happen The mayor was keen for the move to happen in one day and for people who do not want to be moved to be moved by force We have now agreed that the move can take several days leading up to a fixed end date for the transfer to be completed People will be able to come and go as they please by day and night Are there any rules that the local authorities have asked MSF to comply with We have to comply with the standard fire regulations as set by the local authorities The site is also between a motorway and a railway and the city council is going to build safety barriers on either side of the camp The state would not give the local authority permission to go ahead with the camp unless these measures were put in place.  How many people can be accommodated on the new site The new site is designed to accommodate 2,500 people in 500 tents which each have a capacity for five people The mayor has already said he will not accept additional tents MSF will continue to provide assistance to refugees MSF estimates that the labour and materials needed to build the camp will cost two million euros The city council expects to pay around 400,000 euros for construction of the two security barriers The French government is not paying anything but the mayor will ask the State to reimburse any money that they spend MSF is working independently of the state and is not a subcontractor – we make our own decisions about where we work and use our own resources to do so It has a capacity of 1500 dormitory style beds in containers MSF will not manage the site and we are not aiming to run the camp this will be handed over to another organisation which will sign an agreement with the local authority MSF will continue to provide medical services at the site Volunteers and associations currently working at Grande Synthe will also be involved at the site Will this new camp encourage people to come to northern France MSF is responding to an emergency and pulling people out of appalling conditions  We are creating a camp for the same number of people Offering people conditions that meet basic humanitarian standards has no effect on their decision to leave their homes The appalling conditions in Grande Synthe are already having significant negative impact on people’s health and not responding is not an option for MSF What will MSF do if people refuse to go to the new site MSF will work with the refugees to provide information about the new camp and the improved living conditions People will be free to make their own decisions and MSF will assist them wherever they go Your donations pay for millions of consultations At least 10 people injured as prefect of French region says fire has left ‘nothing but a heap of ashes’ We're working to spread asylum seekers more evenly across UK, says No 10Read moreA large fire has devastated the Grande-Synthe migrant camp outside the northern French city of Dunkirk Firefighters said at least 10 people had been injured on Monday night in the blaze at the camp which was home to between 1,000 and 1,500 people living in closely packed wooden huts “There is nothing left but a heap of ashes,” said Michel Lalande “It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before.” Fire rages through the Grande-Synthe migrant camp Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/GettyEarlier on Monday at least six people were wounded in scuffles and a knife fight between Afghans and Kurds Riot police intervened and that led to further clashes between security forces and 100-150 people One of the injured migrants was knocked over by a car on a road outside the camp and was in critical condition A huge plume of smoke rose from the camp into the night sky and was visible from several miles away “Many of the cabins have burned down or are still on fire more than half the camp has been destroyed,” a spokesman at the regional prefect’s office said adding that 165 people had been taken to makeshift shelters nearby as the fire continued to rage in the early hours of Tuesday Médecins Sans Frontières said 600 people were missing after they were evacuated from the camp said on Tuesday 1,500 people had been displaced by the fire Torre said while 900 evacuees had been given alternative lodging with associations or in local gymnasiums about 600 migrants were unaccounted for and their whereabouts unknown The incident will again focus attention on the UK government’s immigration policy as it tries to negotiate Britain’s exit from the European Union has said immigration could increase even after Britain leaves the EU raising the prospect that migrants could continue to gather in northern France for years to come French officials said in mid-March that security forces planned to start dismantling the camp after clashes at the site The population of the Grande-Synthe camp has swelled since the destruction last October of the Calais refugee camp French firefighters stand near debris a day after the blaze Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/ReutersFor more than a decade France’s northern coast has been a focal point for refugees and migrants trying to reach the UK with French authorities repeatedly tearing down camps in the region There have been several violent incidents at the Grande-Synthe camp with police intervening last month after five men were injured in a fight migrants from Grande-Synthe had tried to block the nearby highway with tree trunks and branches to try to stop the traffic and clamber on to vehicles in the hope of reaching the UK Agence-France Presse and Reuters contributed to this report une enseignante tuée avec ses parents par son ex-compagnon violent en 2014 dans le Nord Une femme battue si souvent menacée de mort qu'elle était persuadée que son compagnon finirait par la tuer elle avait trouvé le courage de porter plainte résume avec émotion et colère Cathy Thomas en évoquant ce féminicide qui a fait au total trois victimes Isabelle, la sœur de Cathy, professeure de maths de 49 ans, et ses parents, Roland, 73 ans, et Marguerite, 69 ans, ont été pris en chasse puis abattus froidement par Patrick Lemoine, le 4 août 2014 à Grande-Synthe (Nord). Un « triple assassinat qui aurait pu être évité », selon Cathy qui a assigné L'audience se tient ce lundi après-midi devant la 1 re chambre civile du tribunal judiciaire de Paris. Un rendez-vous très attendu par Cathy Thomas, privée d'un procès d'assises à la suite du suicide de Patrick Lemoine en détention « Rien n'a été fait pour protéger ma sœur et pour empêcher cet homme violent de passer à l'acte » son ex-compagnon devait pourtant être jugé devant le tribunal correctionnel pour violence sur conjoint le 13 août 2014 la justice avait décidé de le placer sous contrôle judiciaire avec interdiction d'entrer en contact avec sa victime Une mesure insuffisante et pas assez stricte Le double meurtre de Montigny-lès-Metz (2/2) Crime story raconte chaque semaine les grandes affaires criminelles « Il aurait pu être placé en détention provisoire, même s'il n'avait pas de casier comme on nous l'a expliqué. Cet homme avait étranglé Isabelle Thomas au point de lui laisser une marque de 10 cm, c'était plus une tentative de meurtre que des violences. On aurait aussi pu lui imposer le port d'un bracelet électronique », estime la pénaliste spécialiste des violences faites aux femmes ce contrôle judiciaire aurait dû être révoqué car M poursuit Me Isabelle Steyer pour qui une accumulation de dysfonctionnements a conduit au drame l'enseignante se rendait en voiture à la plage en compagnie de ses parents chez qui elle s'était réfugiée après avoir fui son domicile de Vieux-Condé (Nord) où elle avait vécu avec son ex-concubin se rappelle sa sœur qui n'oubliera jamais leur dernier contact Isabelle me disait On ne voit plus Patrick » Un mauvais pressentiment qui s'est tragiquement concrétisé L'ex-concubin violent et possessif n'avait pas renoncé à mettre ses menaces à exécution il prend en filature Isabelle et ses parents L'enseignante compose le 17 dès qu'elle l'aperçoit 4 minutes et 34 secondes glaçantes pendant lesquelles la famille supplie les forces de l'ordre d'intervenir On leur conseille de filer au commissariat situé à moins d'1 km dit encore Cathy Thomas qui considère que sa sœur n'a au final « jamais été prise au sérieux » elle aimerait pouvoir prendre la parole au cours de l'audience le ministère public comme l'avocat de l'agent judiciaire du Trésor (c'est-à-dire l'Etat) estiment tous deux qu'il n'y a pas dans cette affaire de lien de causalité entre les dysfonctionnements allégués et les crimes le jugement a été mis en délibéré à l'issue des débats Profitez des avantages de l’offre numérique in CalaisPublished: Invalid Date WALKING through the many migrant camps of Grande Synthe I'm struck by the scenes in front of me Rotting food and piles upon piles of litter line the edges of the camp. I'm only 15 miles from Calais yet it feels a million miles away from civilisation While Sir Keir Starmer convened 40 nations for a Border Security Conference hundreds of migrants here were queuing up to scoff a hot meal dished out by volunteers in a converted car park lined with tents entire migrant families emerge from their tents in the forest to snag the best snacks snapped up from the supermarket down the road plugged their phones into a communal diesel generator or played football in the fields a mile from the same beaches they dash across to launch their death trap dinghies Of the migrants who can speak English, most tell me that they‘ve chosen the UK because it will treat them far better than France There aren’t asylum hotels here Many more are only in camps because they know someone – a relative or a brazen influencer flaunting their taxpayer-funded four-star hotel on social media – who has already made the crossing a Yemeni who claims he was forced to flee the Houthi rebels He had already spent a year coming to France so I asked him what was so bad that he had to risk his life for Britain Ali, at 40, is much older than most asylum seekers. He’s tried to get on a boat twice but the police slashed it before it could launch He says the British government will treat him better than the French government with the difference worth enough to risk his life in the Channel which has all too often turned into a floating graveyard I have lots of friends who have crossed who tell me they are in hotel accommodation” “They send me messages telling me to come.” We already know that social media is the one-stop shop for migrants Some smugglers will, sickeningly, dish out discounts if you film your crossing and post it online you quickly learn that mobile phones are essential He is well-mannered but doesn’t know much English He does know how to ask for a SIM card, which he needs to message his family - but also the gangs that will facilitate his crossing People smugglers will use big group chats to message co-ordinates directing would-be migrants to a beach spot in the middle of the night It is there that they hide among 15-foot sand dunes and wait for high tide to jump into the water Others use World War Two bunkers to stay out of view of police cars and heat-seeking drones that buzz above the coastline Some parts of the 100-mile shores are so inaccessible to cars that by the time guards arrive nobody is better off because these camps exist most tell me that they‘ve chosen the UK because it will treat them far better than France Both British and French authorities are stretched to their maximum levels and the spiralling number of small boat crossings cost the taxpayer billions of pounds a year in hotel bills and migrant allowances everyone who leaves this camp knows that if they get on a boat and don’t make it to Britain Or their boat capsizes and they drown - like eight others this year alone already have By JACK ELSOM CHANNEL arrivals are up 31 per cent since Labour came to power despite their election pledge to smash the criminal smuggling gangs The continuing influx will only add to the eye-watering burden on taxpayers to house and process illegal migrants Last year the government spent £5.38billion on asylum seeker accommodation and support - and 8,000 more migrants are in hotels since Sir Keir Starmer became PM Since January a whopping 6,642 people have made the perilous journey from France across the busy shipping lane That far exceeds the 4,644 who had arrived by the same point last year Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is now in a race against time to prove her decision to axe the Rwanda deterrent - and divert the money into a Border Security Command - is working On Labour’s watch 29,884 have now come to Britain which is more than the 22,648 in the same period under the Tories The number is likely to pass the 30,000 milestone tomorrow after more boats were seen crossing the Channel The Government boasts of ramping up deportations to the tune of 19,000 people since coming to office Yet critics say the majority of those are voluntary returns where foreign offenders are given assistance to return home just 3 per cent of the 153,000 small boat migrants have been deported 112,187 asylum seekers were taking some form of government accommodation and subsistence Some 38,079 of these are in taxpayer-funded hotels up from 29,585 in June and costing around £4.5million every day The number of asylum claims last year rose 18 per cent to 108,000 in the highest annual haul since records began However the proportion that were granted fell from 67 per cent in 2023 to 47 per cent The strain of small boats on the nation’s finances comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves makes swingeing spending cuts and tax hikes Rob Bates from the Centre of Migration Control said: “Our quality of life is in freefall and every corner of society is being walloped by the Labour government Imagine the good that could be done to our society were these billions to be redirected to helping our own homeless and needy “It is a national shame that our asylum system has taken priority over everything else and is a situation that must be brought to an end immediately “There must be no more asylum applications processed the system must be frozen and the backlog cleared by removing every single individual who entered our country illegally France has long been accused of not doing enough to stop small boat crossings despite being given £500million since 2023 under a deal signed by Rishi Sunak Until recently the Home Office published the number of migrants Calais cops had prevented from leaving their beaches which were often well below the amount that made it off The prevention stats have not been disclosed for months with the government blaming errors in the way the data is compiled On a visit to Calais last month Ms Cooper hailed an agreement directing £7million of existing funds to stronger law enforcement in France Her French counterpart Bruno Retailleau also pledged to begin intercepting small boats in shallow waters which has proved successful in neighbouring Belgium Mr Retailleau said: “We need to rethink our approach so that we can intercept the boats.” Currently French police use knives to deflate the dinghies when they are on the beaches Ms Cooper’s Borders Bill will also give authorities powers to arrest migrants who refused to be rescued by the French because they want to get to Britain She will also give police “counter-terror style” powers to seize laptops mobile phones and financial assets from suspected people smugglers The Tories say Labour lacks a deterrent like the Rwanda plan to dissuade would-be migrants from flocking to Britain It has emerged ministers are considering the possibility of processing asylum claims in one of the Balkan states Sir Keir’s spokesman said: “There isn't a silver bullet to solve this problem We've always said that we'll take a pragmatic approach by looking at what works and we'll consider the widest range of options to secure our borders “And the best deterrent to these crossings is preventing people from making these life threatening journeys in the first place while sending a clear message to anyone arriving here illegally that you'll be processed and returned quickly Some don’t care about the risk. Mustafa, from South Sudan tells me he’ll get on any boat he’s offered because it could be his only chance Badar, from Syria green-jacketed volunteers had begun the daily ritual of trying to empty and wash out the muddy roadside ditches that have become bins Tomorrow they’ll be filled up with the same junk and their unwillingness to give up on coming are proof that the prime minister’s pledge to “smash the gangs” has become as leaky as Britain’s broken borders Some 30,000 migrants have landed in Dover since Labour took office and the stream doesn’t seem to be stopping the camps that litter Grande Synthe are only ever getting busier Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/ The fire broke out on Monday night following a fight between Kurds and Afghans in the camp Six people had been injured earlier in the day and local media reports more people were injured in the fire The camp was "reduced to a pile of ashes," the Chief Constable for the Nord county told reporters, according to French newspaper Liberation "It will be impossible to put the huts back where they previously were," he said The camp used to house a majority of Kurds before a recent surge of migrants from Afghanistan whose arrival has led to rising tensions between the camp's inhabitants The Grande-Synthe camp has been housing most of the migrants hoping to pass through to the United Kingdom since the infamous Calais camp was shut down last year migrants are hoping that the close proximity to the Eurotunnel in Dunkirk will give them the chance to reach Britain Last week, some of them tried to block the highway near the camp with tree trunks and branches in an attempt to stop the traffic and get onto the trucks and cars that were headed to Britain, reports Reuters and blocked highways also to some extent led many British people to vote to exit the European Union One of the main slogans of the Leave campaign was that Britain had to "take back control of [their] borders." Immigration has been one of the main issues of the French presidential campaign People in France — and the rest of Europe — have grown increasingly hostile to the huge wave of refugees that has been coming to the continent over the last few years Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has made this issue the focal point of her campaign. She tweeted about the Grande-Synthe fire that "Massive and uncontrolled immigration leads to chaos and violence It is urgent to put France back in order." The French are voting in less than two weeks in the first round of the elections on April 23 The second round of voting will take place on May 7 Grande-Synthe - Between 7 and 9 March 2016 Grande Synthe municipality and various partner organisations helped the 1,300 migrants in the camp in Basroch to move to the new site known as the “Linière” the municipality began dismantling the old camp most of them transported in buses hired by the municipality women hanging out washing and people having tea in the big hall after months of being confined in tents and mired in mud,” comments Angélique Muller migrants had subsisted in tents better suited to camping surrounded by rat-infested piles of rubbish Mud was everywhere and conditions were not only shameful but dangerous too The move came after a long process during which MSF’s teams of cultural mediators worked with the migrants to explain how they would be moved and what life would be like at the new site “The migrants felt dehumanised; they couldn’t take anymore Any tension was liable to quickly degenerate into violence The migrants’ main concern was that entry to the new camp would require finger-printing which is definitely not the case,” Muller adds originally intended for 2,500 people (the number of migrants present in January 2016) Whereas all the families and children have moved into the 270 that have already been built some migrants are being temporarily put up in heated tents while waiting for more to be ready – around 20 are assembled every day MSF is financing the 2.6 million euros it costs to construct the shelters from its own funds MSF is not running the camp and its management has been assigned by the municipality to UTOPIA 56 There will be no identity checks at the camp entrance and migrants will be free to come and go as they please Local and international agencies that provided relief and assistance in Basroch camp will continue to distribute food and essential items They will also be involved in building community facilities such as schools and kitchens to further improve the camp “Improving living conditions for the migrants had become a real humanitarian emergency In view of the authorities’ refusal to acknowledge the reality and their lack of assistance They don’t want a new camp and they still contest the grounds for opening it,” laments André Jincq “Setting up humanitarian camps in Europe can only be a temporary solution for people fleeing from conflict or unstable zones; migration policies and practices must break with the inhumane methods many countries are implementing to dissuade thousands of people who have no other choice than to continue their exodus to re-build a future for themselves.” MSF will shift its focus back to delivering medical care The organisation has moved its mobile clinic from Basroch into a building set aside for it and partners Médecins du Monde Gynécologues Sans Frontières and the French Red Cross Among the makeshift tents near the French beaches we ask what drives people to make the perilous journey in small boats and what could prevent more deaths Read moreDetails of the 27 people, among them seven women and three children, who drowned in the Channel on Wednesday have been very slow to emerge their anonymity itself an indication of their desperation The first to be named was a Kurdish woman from northern Iraq The 24-year-old had travelled through Germany and France to join Mohammed Karzan in the UK paying people smugglers thousands of euros to get across the Channel in the absence of other possible routes Karzan said that he had been in continuous contact with his fiancee and was tracking her GPS coordinates “After four hours and 18 minutes from the moment she went into that boat,” he said along with her 26 fellow passengers in their “paddling pool” boat asks the question: what prompts these people to get into a dinghy in the freezing sea in darkness in order to chase the distant lights of the UK One answer lies in the makeshift camps near the Dunkirk beaches from where it seems that many of those who died had slept before setting out Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin who was killed while attempting to cross the Channel.At Grande-Synthe between the dual carriageway to Calais and the docks there are a couple of hundred people living along a disused railway line under tarpaulins or in pop-up tents pitched on mud or gravel sidings I wrote in my notebook: how much more hostile can an environment be had been cleared from a large site up the road a few days before as part of the local police policy of “continuous removal” Their tents had been trashed and many of their few belongings lost or stolen that clearance was just the latest in a long history in a journey that had started 3,000 miles south-east The people I speak to in their halting English give blank smiles when they tell you how many months or years they have been here is sitting under the trees out of the rain He lists the countries he passed through to get here from Iraq: Turkey he answers by making undulating wave motions with his hands tells me with a smile he has booked his passage – “Three thousand euros!” He arrived here a week ago from Afghanistan When I mention Wednesday’s tragic events he just shrugs The majority of those camping out in the rain and mud are young men small children bundled up in coats and hats holding tight to the shiny plastic of their few toys Adil and Sarah have four children with them under the age of six They sit around a smoky fire of damp sticks between the railway tracks trying to mark out some space of their own On Friday afternoons some charity trucks pull up with the offer of a hot meal and a cup of tea Watching people jostle for children’s shoes or wait in line for the promise of a duvet in the rain The camp at Grand-Synthe has no running water or sanitation. Photograph: David Levene/The ObserverThere is much talk of the so-called “pull factors” of coming to Britain In Grande-Synthe the push factors look far more urgent If you are living in a child’s tent with no running water and little food Having been forced out of home and everywhere else Certainly no one who has spent any time around these camps is surprised by last week’s tragedy Anna Richel is a local representative of the charity Utopia56 which offers legal and practical help to refugees in Grande-Synthe they have been forced to operate a 24-hour emergency line for those who get into distress in inflatable boats on the Channel they had received at least 20 alerts on that line with a mayday signal and a pin location to enable Utopia56 to alert the coastguard: “Sometimes the boat is sinking She sees no sign that the winter will halt these attempted crossings “They take a lot of risks because they don’t have solutions.” She and her colleagues don’t attempt to dissuade people from using the boats “because we know that is what they will do anyway – we just try give to them the most information to stay alive There are many stories of that imperative being enforced by the trafficking gangs Local reports suggest a 23-year-old Iraqi Kurd was shot twice in the leg by traffickers on Wednesday after refusing to get on a dinghy and was taken by ambulance to hospital As of last week 31,500 people were believed to have left the coast in a bid to get to the UK since the beginning of the year In the face of the latest tragedy – thought to be the biggest loss of life in the Channel since the war – politicians in the UK and France have been competing to imply that the blame lies elsewhere in reporting that five people had been arrested for people-smuggling in the current case [among “1,500 arrested this year”] was at pains to emphasise that the fifth smuggler arrested had “a German licence plate” and had “bought zodiacs [dinghies] in Germany.” Our own prime minister didn’t even finish a full message of condolence before employing the “but” that implied the culpability first of the criminal gangs, then of the French police and government. In the shameful politicking of his tweeted letter to the French president Johnson’s talked of “maritime patrol operations” and “ground sensors and radar” and “unmanned aircraft flying under joint insignia”; military solutions to a humanitarian crisis “Boots on the ground” are one thing that the people in Grande-Synthe are desperate to escape Karwan Tahir holds a life jacket he intends to use when he gets the opportunity to make the crossing across the Channel to the UK Photograph: David Levene/The ObserverA couple of times was mayor in Grande-Synthe from 2001 to 2019 In a conversation on Friday he explained how he saw the tragedy “as the direct consequence of the militarisation of the border between France and the UK: of the brutalisation and harassment of exiles on the French side and the inhuman hardening of the immigration policy of Johnson’s government to reassure the British of Brexit.” closing legal routes to asylum – have created the system that allows the smugglers to exist the only humanitarian camp for refugees in France to accommodate more than 1,000 Iraqi Kurds The camp had wooden huts and sanitation and medical care and schooling for children After a number of attempts by the French government to dismantle it it was eventually evacuated in 2019; the huts were destroyed and people were shipped to different parts of the country only to quickly return or be replaced by others “the population of Grande-Synthe was with us … in solidarity” in spite of the obstacles put in their way by governments human beings still take care of other human beings For those now engaged with that effort in Grande-Synthe the past week was the worst in years of bad weeks At the railway encampment on Friday the British charity Care4Calais tried to fill some of the gaps in people’s lives It bought a generator with sockets to charge mobile phones set up an ad hoc barbershop on chairs in the mud and a table with children’s games Several teenage boys sat down and lost themselves for a while with coloured pencils; one drew the face of his girlfriend back in Iraq Care4Calais was established by Clare Moseley six years ago She sees the shifting population at Grande-Synthe as a barometer of the world’s crises “Bad things happen elsewhere and people end up in here,” she tells me She believes harsher approaches will only exacerbate the situation “Some of these people have been in places where they didn’t eat for days they’ve already made that decision to cross to Britain.” Her decision to create her charity was prompted by reading an article about the deaths in the Mediterranean in 2015. She was working in a corporate job at Deloitte at the time, she says, with little interest in foreign affairs. “But I just thought: how can people be drowning in the sea in Europe in 2015?” She came down to Calais and saw the state of the camps thinking: “we must do better than this.” Since Wednesday’s tragedy she says she has done 20 interviews with the British media and she didn’t hear mention of a different approach in any of them “As usual everyone was talking about ‘how do we stop them coming in?’” she says “Most people have got used to the idea of thousands of desperate people drowning each year in the Mediterranean If we ever get used to the idea of people drowning in the Channel then I think we are absolutely lost as a country.” The camp is beside a disused railway line. Photograph: David Levene/The ObserverFor some people, reading reports of the tragedy the surprise was that so many women were on the boat. Frances Timberlake helps to run the Refugee Women’s Centre in Dunkirk which helps hundreds of women with “essentials and psychosocial support for gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health” “to suggest it is only young men making the crossings where there are nearly always women and children involved.” The charity’s work has got harder in the last year as the French police have stepped up their eviction operations People go further in their attempts to hide in the woods and dunes but also “staying put is increasingly not an option On the ground women – like Amin – are not making comparisons about different government policies they just want to rejoin their families or their partners.” If the government has its way even more legal routes to asylum will be closed to such women, increasing the likelihood of desperate journeys across the Channel. The forthcoming nationality and borders bill is advertised in words that will send a chill through any beating heart Even internal Home Office documents acknowledge its measures could in fact “encourage [people] to attempt riskier means of entering the UK” MSF did not even get the courtesy of an acknowledgement that the letter had been received contrary to the government’s apparent belief “it’s certainly not illegal to seek asylum … by their own statistics two-thirds of people who come to the UK will be found to be refugees The bill basically criminalises anyone who tries to come to the UK irregularly while at the same time closing down all legal routes from within Europe.” On the dual carriageway outside Grande-Synthe there is one of those hangar-sized French Auchan supermarkets selling a dozen varieties of everything In the supermarket car park there was a bizarre divide between shoppers picking up their Christmas trees and groups of young men and families from the camp I wondered what a reinvented Dunkirk spirit might look like one that included these great survivors of impossible journeys rather than thinking of ever harsher ways to shut them out Until we collectively start to imagine what that might look like one thing is certain: many more people will take the risk of those 27 who lost their lives last week This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began work today on a new site for refugees in Grande-Synthe “There are now more than 2,500 people in Grande Synthe sleeping rough in the mud They must be offered shelter and a more acceptable living environment,” says André Jincq The work will take about a month to complete during which 500 winterised tents (each accommodating five people) hot-water showers and sufficient latrines will be installed “We worked with Grande-Synthe town council to get this programme started,” explains Jincq The mayor turned to MSF because the council’s requests to the government for help were left unanswered and the number of new arrivals was increasing fast While there were 800 people sleeping rough at the site in Grande-Synthe at the beginning of October Most are Kurds waiting to cross to the U.K and among them are families and 250 children – some very young it took time to get started with the authorities advancing technical constraints MSF provides medical consultations at the camp and has treated refugees suffering from burn injuries the technical aspects were finally resolved to the satisfaction of all those concerned during a meeting on 11 January attended by the sub-prefect We’re not setting up a camp to shut the refugees in but to offer them a space to help them get through the winter in more decent and humane conditions,” insists Jincq Emmanuel Macron’s government has been ordered to take much more decisive action to meet its climate targets – or face being fined The unprecedented injunction handed down on Thursday by the country’s highest administrative court means the government is legally bound to do all it can to cut emissions before the end of March next year Greenpeace and the climate campaign group Notre Affaire à Tous began legal action against the government for not meeting its national European and international climate commitments The coastal town is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by a warming world France has a target to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels Lawyers representing Grande-Synthe argued that the government was legally bound by the target as well as its duties under the Paris Agreement and said current policies were not sufficient to meet them The cities of Paris and Grenoble also added arguments to support the case The Council of State issued a first ruling in November 2020 which stated that France’s national and EU climate goals are binding This was unusual because French political tradition normally considers long-term commitments to be “soft law” The court gave the government extra time to prove that its climate policies will effectively allow France to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 a weaker goal than the 55 percent target the European Union set for itself last year The government argued climate goals were not binding and said its proposed “Climate and Resilience” bill which is currently going through parliament is ambitious enough to meet the 2030 emissions target But the draft law has been criticised for not being strong enough by various national bodies France’s equivalent to the UK’s Climate Change Committee and members of France’s citizen’s assembly on climate change The Council of State agreed and gave the government nine months to take more decisive action The period will coincide with campaigning for the French presidency the elections for which are due to take place in April next year If judges consider not enough has been done by then they could impose a financial penalty on the government which would increase the longer measures are not implemented lawyer for the city of Grande-Synthe and co-founder of law firm Huglo Lepage Avocats said she was delighted with the decision for two reasons: “Firstly the Council of State has recognised the impossibility of achieving the old objectives essentially those resulting from the new objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent it recognises that the climate and resilience law is largely inadequate the commitment made in 2018 by the commune of Grande-Synthe and its former mayor allow France and the Council of State to go down in the history of climate justice at planetary level I am proud and happy to have taken part in this” A report yesterday by France’s High Council on Climate found two thirds of the French population are already highly or very highly exposed to climate risk and concluded that France needs to double the rate of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to reach at least a reduction of 3 percent by 2021 The French government has been approached for comment The Grande-Synthe action is supported by Affaire du Siècle (Case of the Century) a separate climate litigation case led by a coalition of organisations alongside 2.3 million signatories They want France’s national low-carbon strategy to be revised to compensate for high emissions over the 2015-18 period A hearing in this case is expected to take place in the autumn The verdict could see the judges of the administrative court of Paris order particular measures and fines Climate campaigners in France have been heartened by the recent success of climate litigation cases across Europe German chancellor Angela Merkel responded to an April decision by the Federal Constitutional Court that the country’s climate targets were insufficient by announcing stricter goals Stay up to date with DeSmog news and alerts private equity firm KKR contributed to the president’s swearing-in ceremony Despite widespread public support for clean energy and climate action Nigel Farage’s party is running on an aggressively anti-net zero ticket The would-be mayor has claimed that carbon dioxide “is not pollution” Newsletter Website by SeriousOtters Subscribe Donate You don't have permission to access the page you requested. What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. children are forced to play in the mud as a sanitation crisis looms I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice In front of a tent pitched beside a growing mound of rubbish, a small boy takes refuge in the only amusement available: kicking a discarded tin can through the thick mud. As he pauses to stare at the world around him, half the biscuit on which he has been munching breaks loose from his small fingers, and flops into the muddy slime below. Here, it seems, everything gets swallowed by the mud. The thin strips of corrugated metal laid down in the boggier areas are half walkways, half futile gestures. They collect large puddles of muddy rainwater, but are marginally more navigable than the quagmires either side. Some of the tents are so thin you would think twice about taking them on a summer camping trip, and when the area floods, which it does regularly, the water can rise well above ankle height. This, though, is not the Calais Jungle of notoriety. This is not the refugee camp where medical aid workers worry about infections like scabies. This is not the place from which, as reported by The Independent last month, the British aid volunteer Rob Lawrie tried, and failed, to smuggle out the four-year-old Afghan girl Bahar Ahmadi – after being so struck by her plight that he was willing to commit “a crime of compassion”. This place, they tell you, is far worse. This is the camp at Grande-Synthe, a small town next to Dunkirk – used by just 800 refugees two and a half months ago, now home to 2,500, and growing by the day. Non-governmental organisations trying to deliver medical aid to the occupants are talking of “a real catastrophe”, “a sanitation emergency”. The camp has only two drinking water stations and 26, mostly chemical, toilets – roughly one per 100 occupants. In a normal refugee camp, you would expect one for every 20 people, as a bare minimum. “It is truly exceptional to see a camp like this,” says Mathieu Balthazard, co-ordinator of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team at Grande-Synthe. “I have seen a camp in Ethiopia which had mud like this, but here it is worse: there is less organisation. “It is becoming more and more shocking every day.” Everyone mentions the number of children. Grande-Synthe is “home” to dozens of under-fives. About 10 children a week need treatment for colds, or in the case of the 10-month-old baby seen by Mr Balthazard, diarrhoea that lasted for two weeks. You watch the boy’s eyes turn to the visible remains of his biscuit, half hidden in the mud. You are reminded of Mr Balthazard’s words: “These conditions really help the germs that spread diarrhoea. There is so much rubbish around, kids are bound to pick it up or end up playing in it.” His name is Mohammad Faiq, aged four. When Isis approached his village in Hawija, Iraq, he and his Kurdish family fled to what they claim was an unwelcoming Turkey. They crossed to Greece in a dilapidated boat, and pushed on through Europe. From the family tent comes the sound of constant wailing. Mohammad’s one-year-old sister Maily has a fever, caused, they suspect, by the cold and damp weather. “She was crying all night,” says her mother Shahen, 28. The family have been here 65 days – In Grande-Synthe, everyone seems to count the days, almost as if counting down a prison sentence. “I cry every night,” says Shahen. “I never imagined I would see a place like this.” We squelch on. As feet pass over it, the rug outside Gona Ahmed’s tent merges with the mud. Mrs Ahmed, 32, is alone with her four children Ariena, three, Brwa, five, Balen, eight, and Karina, 10. Her husband Mohamed, a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, is in an Iraqi hospital after being blinded in one eye and losing his right arm fighting Isis. We are asked not to enquire further about what happened when Isis overran her village, for fear of distressing her further. Mrs Ahmed’s friends talk of her and her children being forced to watch the beheading of a fellow villager. We ask, instead, about the camp. Her face crumples. “Is there any hope the UK will take us? I just want to be able to tell my children there is hope for them.” There is, of course, another side to the story of Grande-Synthe. It can be seen across the road from the camp, in what was once a quiet housing estate, but now has a police riot squad van parked at its entrance, as a steady stream of refugees wanders through the suburban streets. It can, perhaps, be seen more menacingly in the first round of this month’s French regional elections. In Grande-Synthe, the far-right Front National got 43 per cent of the vote. There is also little doubt that Grande-Synthe’s sudden population explosion owes much to refugees – and people smugglers – reckoning that security improvements around the Channel Tunnel make the port of Dunkirk a better option for sneaking into the UK. But there are glimmers of hope. The town council and MSF have a plan to shift the camp to a new area and provide enough heated tents for 2,500 people. And today, just before they were due to announce their plans at a press conference, the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve invited Grande-Synthe’s mayor Damien Carême to Paris for talks. The two are meeting tonight. It remains to be seen what action will ensue, and whether it will assuage the anger of aid workers like Jean-François Corty, the director of domestic programmes for Doctors of the World. “This is France,” he said, before news of the mayor’s meeting with Mr Cazeneuve. “The sixth richest country in the world. We have capacity to provide food and clean water for people fleeing war.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Homeless families prepare for night on streets refusing to sleep in cramped sports halls they say are unsuitable for children Several hundred refugees travelling with young children were involved in a protracted standoff with French riot police as chaos reigned in the aftermath of a devastating fire at the Dunkirk camp where they were living On Wednesday evening families were preparing to sleep on the road outside the ruined camp spreading blankets at the feet of armed riot police who were barring the entrance to the Grande-Synthe camp which was almost entirely destroyed in the fire on Monday night so accustomed to the heavy-handed behaviour of local police that they barely noticed their presence Around 1,500 people were made homeless in the blaze and most lost belongings had spent Tuesday night in the overcrowded Victor Hugo sports hall in the centre of Grande-Synthe which had been opened as emergency accommodation by the town authorities But they were refusing to sleep there again complaining that there were very few toilets and the space was not suitable for families with children Mohammed Mohammed Photograph: Amelia Gentleman/The GuardianIt was a mark of their desperation that they hoped conditions would be better in the camp than in the cramped sports hall was sitting on the road by the line of police He said the family would be staying all night waiting for the police to relent and let them into the site There’s no space for the children and no one can sleep there was very little prospect of secure accommodation Only around 50 of the camp’s 300 wooden huts survived the fire which followed an outbreak of violence between camp residents of different nationalities late on Monday One of two buildings housing the children’s centre also caught fire Even the brown plastic municipal dustbins in the road leading to the camp were melted by the heat was tasked with explaining to residents that the camp was no longer habitable and was never going to be reopened “No one can enter the site,” he told the crowd “You have to go back.” But the families could not be persuaded to leave wrapped their children in sleeping bags and duvets and waited for the police to let them through The obvious answer is: because they hope to reach Britain. But this is only true of a small minority – just 6% of those crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, and even fewer of those travelling through Hungary and the Balkans, a 2016 survey by the International Organization for Migration found Many around Calais and Dunkirk may not have had the UK as their intended destination. Studies by the Refugee Council and the Home Office suggest the role of the people smugglers arranging their travel is often a more significant factor some migrants also perceive France as inhospitable Of those who always aimed to reach Britain, research shows the main motivational factors are the presence of family members State benefits are not thought to be a factor French authorities said they had provided accommodation in five sports halls for all the estimated 1,500 residents of the site who were displaced by the fire dozens of migrants could be seen sleeping on the roadside near the cemetery in Grande-Synthe A coach left the Victor Hugo sports hall on Wednesday lunchtime, taking around 70 people to accommodation centres in northern France Local officials said these families would be given advice on how to apply for asylum in France and offered a place to sleep for several months The authorities had planned to remove the remaining displaced people by the end of the week but they had not anticipated such resistance Many of the refugees have family in the UK and were wary of being moved from the coast of France to other accommodation centres They said they would rather remain in Dunkirk even if they had to live among the ashes of the camp “We don’t know where they will take us from the sports hall,” Mohammed said He was hoping to travel to the UK and join his brother in Northern Ireland Many others were determined to stay in Dunkirk which is heavily populated with people smugglers so they could continue to try to make their way illegally to the UK Initially, the fire provided a useful solution for local authorities to the problem of worsening conditions in the camp. It had become severely overcrowded after the closure of the Calais refugee camp which was becoming notorious for its violence 1:01Blaze burns down French migrant camp outside Dunkirk – videoFrance’s new interior minister said during a visit to Grand-Synthe that he would not allow the site to be rebuilt or reopened and that better solutions needed to be found to the problem of large numbers of people arriving on the French coast in the hope of getting to the UK But despite their determination to close the camps, the authorities are struggling with how to support the people who continue to make their way towards the French coastal ports in their hundreds. a 16-year-old resident of the Dunkirk camp from Laghman province in Afghanistan has been given family-reunification approval by the Home Office to join his father in east London but has not yet been given details about how or when he will be transferred to the UK Kamran had been sleeping alongside 40 other Afghans on the floor of the kitchen in the camp because there were not enough spaces in the huts for all the residents he has been sleeping on the floor of another sports hall in Grande-Synthe “We lost everything: clothes, shoes, mobile phone, mobile charger. Now I have just this shirt I’m wearing – everything else was burned,” said Kamran, who has been supported by the refugee charity Safe Passage “I want the UK government to bring me to the UK as soon as possible He said he was traumatised by having witnessed the violence and the blaze “This week the camp burned down; I worry I might get caught in a fire Lisa Veran from Doctors of the World, which is providing medical support to refugees in Dunkirk, said staff had treated a number of migrants who were injured in the fighting in the camp. She said she believed that several hundred men from Afghanistan had left the city and were sleeping rough near the coast, afraid to return to the city because of ongoing tensions with the Kurdish community. ‘Forced evictions don’t affect the underlying issues that cause people to risk their lives crossing the Channel,’ says charity Hundreds of people, including several families and pregnant women, have been evicted from a refugee camp in France – reigniting fears it could spark another spike in Channel crossings French police surrounded the Espace Jeunes du Moulin in Grande Synthe at about 7am on Tuesday and began escorting people on to waiting coaches amid a rise in crossings to England About 1,000 people are thought to have been living in the gym and camping in the grounds of the site including 73 families – many of whom had young children The clearance comes after a court order was issued – reportedly in a bid to stop people smugglers coming into the gym and targeting their victims as well as to stem violence in the area Single men were taken out first and then families some of whom were allowed to pack up their belongings before leaving Some refugees told aid workers they did not yet know where the coaches were taking them. It is understood one may be heading to Brest in the west of France. French police said they carried out the evacuation due to concerns over security and hygiene, according to Associated Press (AP). Officials told AP the refugees were being taken to temporary shelters and allowed to apply for asylum. Border Force and immigration officers were seen observing the process. The Home Office said its staff were invited by the French authorities to attend as part of its work with the UK to tackle the number of attempted boat crossings. Over the weekend staff were sent to the camp to warn people of the risks of crossing the Channel in small boats, the department added. Charity workers say the evictions are pointless as many will make their back to Dunkirk or Calais and resume their quest to get to the UK. Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said: “Continual forced evictions don’t affect the underlying issues that cause people to risk their lives crossing the Channel; even the total destruction of the Calais Jungle in October 2016 has not stopped this from happening. “What they do is to further abuse some of the most vulnerable people in society – people who are already severely traumatised and who are desperate to protect their families. “The men, women and children that we talk to every day do not want to take these risks; all they want is for their asylum claims to be heard.” A spokeswoman for Refugee Rights Europe added: “Unless legal pathways are opened up for people to access the UK asylum system, they will continue to take life-threatening risks in order to cross the channel, and the presence of a few Home Office representatives in the margins of turbulent evictions trying to convince desperate individuals otherwise, appears completely pointless.” Last week, families living in the camp told how they fled violence in Iraq and were trying to get to the UK so their children could have a safer life. Most are staying there while they make the almost daily attempt to travel to the UK by any means available. The wave of Channel crossings has continued over the last week after warnings refugee camp clearances in France would prompt more attempts. Press Association contributed to this report. reigniting fears of spike in Channel crossings","description":"‘Forced evictions don’t affect the underlying issues that cause people to risk their lives crossing the Channel,’ says charity view of stands from the field image © julien lanoo covered seating image © julien lanoo pedestrian bridge image © julien lanoo pedestrian bridge over cycling track image © julien lanoo terrace accessed via bridge image © julien lanoo stairs and elevator image © julien lanoo cycling storage near the track image © julien lanoo view of the field from upper deck image © julien lanoo opening through fabric panels to access clubhouses image © julien lanoo clubhouse corridor image © julien lanoo interior of clubhouse image © julien lanoo general stadium seating below clubhouse corridor image © julien lanoo sun filtering through the stretch-mounted micro-perforated fabrics image © julien lanoo changing facilities image © julien lanoo client: ville de grande synthe area: 2.433 m2 SHON budget: 4.064.389 EU program: 617 seatings / 2 clubhouses / locker rooms / offices / multipurpose room / sauna / fitness room. schedule: delivery september 2011 architect: olgga architectes (alice vaillant, guillaume grenu, nicolas le meur) consultants: sogeti engineering / abe acoustique happening now! partnering with antonio citterio, AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function, but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style, context, and personal expression. Text description provided by the architects. Upon its Grand Opening September 4, 2011, the Stadium du Littoral, constructed in Grande Synthe, is the first facility north of Paris integrating five athletic disciplines under one roof. Designed by OLGGA Architectes, this athletic complex includes stadium seating for 617, two club houses, locker rooms, a community recreation room and administrative offices. © Julien LanooThe project was elaborated from a simple parallelogram monolith, responsive to the specific technical requirements established by the client. This compact form is “hollowed out” in key places to accommodate bleachers and club houses. These excavations respond to the desire for high-visibility manifest in each sport. The stadium is not mono oriented toward a specific field, rather it opens itself onto all athletics in their collective. © Julien LanooThe base, the roof and the covered terrace form a single, unified entity. The subdued choice of materials, and their inherent characteristics guarantee the durability of the structures and ease of maintenance. The base of the Stadium, in sealed concrete, houses the collective rugby and soccer facilities as well as administrative offices, sauna and weightlifting rooms. The satiny appearance of the seal creates an ever-changing appearance, depending on the amount of sunlight. © Julien LanooWith privacy and comfortable spectatorship for club members, these club houses are ideal places for conviviality and discussion. Between these two programmatic elements, a spacious covered terrace offers an inspiring view of the site. The space is devoid of structural constraints. The load-bearing structure, cleverly hidden behind the canvas, takes the backseat to the simple graphic purity of the event-canvas. The metal superstructure hovers and allows light and air to penetrate. The terrace is a communal space for everyone. This terrace is accessible directly from the stands or via the pedestrian bridge that cantilevers the track to the north of the site. This complimentary access point allows the public to enter the building without disturbing cycling competition under-way. The stands are nestled in the lighter-colored excavated portion, bestowing the ensemble with a singular elegance. © Julien Lanoo700 sqm of photovoltaic panels built into the roof produce electricity sold back to the grid. This strategy allows for a significant reduction in operating costs. Additionally, 40 sqm of solar panels cover 50% of hot water energy requirements. © Julien LanooThe system for energy production will soon be completed by the installation of a wind turbine to the north of the site. The Stadium is also equipped with a rainwater storage system. A cistern of 8 m3 capacity provides water for toilets and cleaning. At full build-out, the Stadium Littoral will become a carbon positive leader in the family of public projects that produce more energy than they consume. © Julien LanooText provided by OLGGA Architects You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Suzanne Moore witnesses the sheer will to survive of people living in a lawless and disease-ridden camp near Dunkirk But to describe this as a camp is wrong. This is a swamp. There are no basic facilities. None. It’s a field of mud and tattered tents. I am surrounded by people waiting to see a doctor holding little tickets, eyeing each other with suspicion. This, at least, is better than where I have just been, where I found Afghans sleeping in a ditch. Read moreThe people I am with are worried about the children they have seen there; “unaccompanied minors” with scabies Ali babbles to me non-stop about how he is all right but there are more and more women and children A boy of seven pulls out his prize possession to show us – a tiny fire truck Some show me on their phones images of them getting out of flimsy dinghies – their witnesses to trauma As they have journeyed from Syria or Eritrea They connect them back to where they have come from and to a world they are now locked out of Political rhetoric has successfully dehumanised these people as someone else’s problem. We don’t want them, the French don’t want them. Money has been spent on building higher, flesh-ripping fences. So here they fester. Human detritus. Ali regards getting to England as “like an exam. A challenge. I have failed five times. But I will do it.” Every night, people try different ways to get over the wire or into the trucks. Cars with British licence plates are around; people smugglers emanating threat. A grinning young man emerges from the doctors’ tent, his arm in a sling. He has broken his shoulder. “I don’t sleep so good.” At home he was a pharmacist. Many of the injuries the doctors treat are the direct result of attempts to reach the UK. But the way these people are forced to live is also making them ill. Respiratory and stomach infections are everywhere, as are rats, mice, scabies. The conditions of these “camps” don’t meet any basic UN humanitarian standards. At the main camp, called the Jungle, the Doctors of the World clinic, which is basically three sheds, has been broken into and looted. Everything here is dangerous. Fires start as candles tip over. Trapped, desperate people do desperate things. The cold and fear get inside your bones. Read moreA doctor chats to me between consultations: “They [the refugees] become weaker and weaker The immune system falls.” He puts his hand to his chest: “I don’t know how to say it in English Some can speak of their trauma and depression tells me how refugees turn up at the clinics he runs here twice a week I check them over but they don’t have cardiac problems.” Doctors of the World tries to help through its mobile psychosocial service shows me drawings produced by some of her refugee patients Some draw the violence where they have come from Amid the squalor in the main camp there is still kindness A Syrian man makes us chai in his “shelter” He has sciatica and the cold is making it worse Bakir explains that one of the things he was least able to cope with was a Syrian shot several times by rubber bullets: the patient told him he wished he’d stayed in Syria because he “would have died in dignity not in this humiliation” The Jungle is a shantytown with its own economy We talk to a woman from Basra with three small children Calais migrants: life in the Jungle GuardianAs more people arrive who are rushing through 80 consultations a day some with “surprise pregnancies” as a result of the sex work their “protectors” are forcing them into Lawless and disease-ridden these camps may be but they are still full of people whose sheer will to survive is astonishing who still dream of a life better than this No one who witnesses this could categorise the inhabitants into deserving asylum seekers and undeserving migrants All the words of the politicians are meaningless when you see that One man hovering around the medical tent beckons me over and asks me to write something down “Just write it down please.” Is there anything else he wants me to write He simply wants to be acknowledged as a fellow human being The rain falls on my notebook until the letters blur I wonder if he will ever get better or ever be warm again This humanitarian disaster is just one hour away from us but campaigners warn Dubs scheme closure would leave minors facing ‘daily risk’ of abuse leaving hundreds of lone children facing a “daily risk” of exploitation in Dunkirk and Calais Charities in France say they have been told by French authorities that only nine more children, who have already been identified, will be transferred to the UK under the Dubs scheme for unaccompanied child refugees The Home Office has refused to confirm whether transfers will continue from France but the Guardian has already heard reports of highly vulnerable children going missing after being told that they stand no chance of getting to the UK legally said the discontinuation of the scheme means there is no way to persuade children to engage with authorities they are just playing around with figuresLord Alf Dubs“I was visiting a children’s centre in northern France last week with UK politicians and we were told by the people running the centre that they can’t suggest the Dubs route to kids any more because there will be no more transfers from France to the UK we met two Eritrean minors in Calais who said they left the centre when they were told that the Dubs route was closed for now returning to the streets and camps to try their chance.” said he intended to challenge the Home Office to keep the routes open from France “I will be putting in a question to the government about this on Monday in the Lords I was in Calais a week ago and it was quite clear there is a desperate need there for safe routes,” said Lord Dubs “My understanding is that this is a Home Office decision so on and are saying the French quota is full They should take children who are in urgent need not make it about sub quotas and arithmetic The Home Office originally set an arbitrary cap of 480 children for this scheme and I challenge this in any case We know there are local authorities offering to take more children.” children and families are living in rain-soaked flimsy tents alongside large groups of men Children play in rivers of mud while hundreds of teenage boys are at constant risk of sexual exploitation Charities say the poor conditions and increasing police violence are pushing children into the hands of abusers and exploiters Hayley Willis of the Refugee Youth Service in Dunkirk a charity that currently has 250 minors on its books said she sees indications that they are being exploited every day “I have a background of working with sexually abused children Children who have no money suddenly have an iPhone or new trainers or they are moved from one camp to another We hear: ‘I’m lucky to share a tent with an older guy.’ We hear this daily “We had several children who would have been available for the Dubs scheme They have been in Europe since early 2018.” Many young people in Dunkirk and Calais are trying to reach family, but it is a very lengthy process. Lawyers say it is now “almost impossible” because of the burden of proof the Home Office requires. Willis said children often go missing from children’s homes because they don’t believe they will ever reach family in Britain unless they travel illegally. “Many of our minors – around 20% of our current children – have family in the UK. We want the children to stay in France but they go missing because it takes too long to apply legally. They are not kept up to date with their case, the accommodation is very poor. Sometimes there are not spaces for them.” In February, said Willis, 54 young people being tracked by the youth service entered the UK illegally. “When we know they have got to the UK we report them to the NSPCC and the child trafficking advice centre. Four children were recently rescued from exploitative situations after we notified authorities. There is nobody else doing this.” Staff at the Refugee Youth Service try to build trust with young people so they can track them as the move on. Salar is 17 and, like most of the refugees in Dunkirk, is from Iraqi Kurdistan. He has family members in the UK with whom he wants to be reunited. While most of the boys are sleeping in the camp’s appalling conditions, Salar has chosen to claim asylum in France so that he can travel lawfully. Frustrated at the process already, he is considering trying to get on a lorry instead. He has a British passport and has been there 20 years I talk all the time with him and he tells me [to] wait Salar said his aunt has offered to pay a smuggler Other boys sleep in the squalid conditions of the emergency camp in Dunkirk Since the Calais refugee camp was destroyed in 2016 local authorities and the British and French governments are determined not to allow a permanent camp of any kind to spring up again emergency winter accommodation provided by the local city council said the dire conditions were contributing to young people becoming targets for predators beep their horn and offer boys food and drinks for sexual favours Our teams had this reported from the people we support multiple times This is in a context where the police recently covered food in teargas A week later they cut all their water jerrycans This situation is a recipe for exploitation – it exists at every level Charities have also collected evidence of water jerrycans being cut by police and chemicals being poured into refugees’ tents The Guardian contacted the sous- préfet of Calais with the allegations but they did not respond a number of organisations defending human rights in northern France lost a court challenge over the refusal of local authorities to provide food and water to refugees Allen believes there should be basic support for people who arrive in Calais and that the poor conditions are not stopping people coming to northern France All you will do is make it increasingly dangerous what are they going to have to do to get across The Home Office refused to confirm whether transfers from France are being stopped they said only that the scheme is still open across Europe: “We remain fully committed to relocating 480 children under section 67 and are determined to deliver on that Over 220 children are already in the UK and transfers of children continue “The UK has made a significant contribution to protecting vulnerable children providing protection to more than 34,600 children since the start of 2010.” The figure of 480 in total has been set by the Home Office but was challenged by lawyers in the UK high court Safe Passage wants the government to make a new commitment to resettle 10,000 vulnerable and unaccompanied children from Europe and conflict zones over the next 10 years and are collecting pledges from councils who are willing to take children in said after he visited Calais last week that the council would be willing to find places for more children if the government provided financial support who are now missing out on the chance to reach the UK safely We will do that if the government will provide the funds Then us and other councils can do what we want to do Facility in Grande-Synthe will provide shelter drinking water and sanitation to meet minimum UN humanitarian standards The first purpose-built camp in France to provide proper humanitarian-standard shelter to refugees who are currently sleeping rough is to open near the port of Dunkirk next month Médecins sans Frontières is completing a camp of wooden structures that will provide heated shelter showers and sanitation to meet minimum UN humanitarian standards About 2,500 people including more than 250 children – many of them Kurdish families fleeing violence in northern Iraq – are sleeping rough in appalling conditions on mud-soaked land in the town of Grande-Synthe Flooding and rats are rife amid freezing temperatures and doctors have had to treat outbreaks of scabies and measles as well as respiratory infections The conditions in Grande-Synthe – once described as France’s “forgotten” refugee scandal – are far worse than in the Jungle camp at Calais and were described by one MSF official as “the worst I’ve seen in 20 years of humanitarian work” approached MSF and asked the organisation to construct temporary shelters saying he was exasperated by what he deemed to be the inaction of the French Socialist government The new temporary site will open in March specifically for those rehoused from the nearby Grande-Synthe slum Calais — After three people were confirmed with measles in the ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is to take part in a vaccination campaign against the disease in camps in Calais and Dunkirk two refugees (an adult and a nine-year-old child) and one volunteer have come down with measles while three other cases have been confirmed at Calais’ central hospital There are also reports of two children with measles symptoms in Grande-Synthe camp The campaign is being organised by the French Regional Health Agency the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Agency (EPRUS) Measles is a highly infectious disease which carries the risk of serious complications Teams launched an awareness-raising campaign on 26 January to alert refugees to the importance of being vaccinated – especially important in this situation where camp residents are predominantly young and living in a very insecure situation and available to adults and children aged six months and over The campaign will take place at four sites around the Calais camp The first vaccinations will be carried out today by EPRUS at Jules Ferry centre for women and children Next week the campaign will be extended to Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk MSF teams will begin vaccinating people on 2 February. MSF has been working in the Calais camp since September where it runs a clinic providing general medical care A community celebrating Black voices Beautycon is a global platform that brings together beauty enthusiasts and industry leaders to explore the latest trends and conversations shaping the future of beauty I have to turn away to hide the tears in my eyes as he realises that this camp is likely to be his home for the foreseeable future donate money to the crowdfunding page if you can or fill up a van with tents Arabian Business: Latest News on the Middle East, Real Estate, Finance, and More Culture & Society > “Hell on earth is here”: the squalid conditions facing Arab refugees as they spend winter in a makeshift camp in France women and children fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Asia have converged in recent months on a vast forest clearing to set up their tents As thousands of migrants prepare for falling temperatures in the “jungle” of Calais on France’s north coast refugees in another makeshift camp just 35 kilometres away are coping with even more squalid conditions as the winter freeze sets in a small town adjacent to the port city of Dunkirk Click here for a gallery of images of the camp Pouring rain and harsh winds from the nearby English Channel frequently turn the land into an ocean of mud “We believe some 3,000 people are surviving here in atrocious sanitary conditions,” Samuel Hanryon of charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told Reuters on Tuesday That figure compares to around 4,000 for the “jungle” in Calais most of them hope eventually to reach Britain where better job opportunities and the more familiar English language are big draws the same that we see in Calais,” Hanryon said But he added life for migrants in Grande-Synthe was far worse than in the “jungle” with only around 30 toilets and two drinking water stations He said around 200 children were probably in the camp “Hell on earth is here,” Jutiyar his brothers and mother have been in Grande-Synthe for two months after travelling from Iraq to France Sometimes all the tents fly away because of the wind and at night we can’t sleep because of the freezing cold.” They chose Grande-Synthe after hearing life in Calais would be “too difficult” Officials in Grande-Synthe did not immediately comment on the camp France opened a migrants’ shelter made of converted shipping containers in Calais an initiative aimed at bringing some order after months of clashes and worsening conditions in the area Security around train tracks to the Eurotunnel and around the port of Calais has been reinforced since last October to prevent migrants from jumping onto trains and vehicles heading for Britain or attempting to walk through the tunnel This has led to frequent clashes between migrants and the police with 500 heated tents and larger sanitary facilities will open next month in coordination with MSF It will be located in another area of Grande-Synthe and has been designed to accommodate up to 2,500 people But that will not stop some from pushing on Several migrants said they still hoped to reach Britain vowing to embark on lorries from the nearby Dunkirk port I can settle there and work as a carpenter,” Moji Click here for video footage of interviews with the refugees Plumes of smoke were sighted near the plant's HF2 blast furnace at 9pm on Monday leading to concerns that the blast furnace itself had caught fire and Malo-les-Bains were dispatched to the steel plant The six fire brigades arrived as reinforcements to the firefighters already on site making up a total of 46 firefighters battling the flames the fire was not in the blast furnace but instead broke out on scaffolding tarpaulins ArcelorMittal's management confirmed in a statement that the fire had broken out on the scaffolding surrounding the regenerative heat exchange which is in the process of being dismantled The fire did not spread to the blast furnace which restarted at around 2am on Tuesday morning A HUGE blaze has ripped through a French migrant camp reducing it to "a heap of ashes" with at least 10 people injured. The fire destroyed the Grande-Synthe camp outside the northern French city of Dunkirk late on Monday, a regional chief said. The camp was home to some 1,500 people, living in closely-packed wooden huts, and had recently seen an influx in arrivals. "There is nothing left but a heap of ashes," Michel Lalande, prefect of France's Nord region, told reporters at the scene as firefighters continued to battle the flames. "It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before." Lalande claimed the blaze had been started after a fight on Monday afternoon between Afghan and Kurdish migrants, which he said left six injured with knife wounds. which saw clashes between security forces and more than 100 migrants One migrant is in a critical condition after being hit by a car on a highway outside the camp Later a massive plume of smoke rose from the camp which was visible from several kilometres away Officials linked the fight with the fire that broke out hours later but stressed that an investigation is needed to determine the fire's cause Police refused to comment on the clash and the fire Firefighters worked to contain the flames lapping the night sky and devouring the fragile shelters of migrants who were evacuated bit by bit to local gymnasiums "I lost all my documents," said an Iraqi migrant who identified himself only as Albidani "I just have only this paper that says I'm a refugee in France." He said Kurds and Afghans had clashed before the fire erupted "We don't know exactly for what they fight" but just look at what happened today French officials announced in mid-March that security forces were planning to start dismantling the camp following clashes at the site The population of the Grande-Synthe camp has swelled since the destruction last October of the squalid "Jungle" camp near Calais People smugglers were regularly spotted at the camp offering passages to Britain for up to a thousand euros in cash The camp in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe was set up a year ago by Doctors Without Borders The neat rows of wooden shelters replaced a squalid makeshift tent camp nearby rife with traffickers preying on migrants Humanitarian groups said the original camp was filthier and more dangerous than a huge makeshift camp in Calais that was dismantled by the state in October For more than a decade France's northern coast has been a magnet for refugees and migrants trying to reach Britain with French authorities repeatedly tearing down camps We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 Hundreds of refugees have disappeared after they were evacuated from a camp in northern France due to a fire Charities made an urgent appeal for donations to help people made homeless by the fire There was particular concern about the fate of around 120 unaccompanied children many of whom had been staying at the camp as they tried to travel to the UK to be reunited with family members France (Reuters) – French police began to remove over 1,800 people from makeshift migrant camps near the northern port city of Dunkirk on Tuesday as they renew efforts to stop people from congregating in the region to attempt illegal crossings into Britain The operation is aimed at giving vulnerable families shelter and stamping out people-trafficking the regional prefect’s office said in a statement Migrants would be rehoused in shelters in the area and surrounding regions President Emmanuel Macron promised earlier this year not to allow another camp to mushroom in nearby Calais after the previous government dismantled what become known as the “jungle” in late 2016 Police have intervened several times since to forcibly remove people from the Grande-Synthe suburb of Dunkirk a focal point for migrants for several years and increasingly so since the destruction of the Calais shanty town Wooden huts erected in Grande-Synthe by local authorities and aid organisations as part of a humanitarian camp were mostly destroyed in a fire in April 2017 Other makeshift camps have sprung up since The prefect’s office said Kurdish trafficking rings had sprung up there which the state was committed to eradicating Powered by PageSuite