Syrians Seeking Asylum Are in Standoff With French Police

Syrians Seeking Asylum Are in Standoff With French Police

By DAN BILEFSKY 7:36 AM ET

Dozens of Syrians who fled their country’s conflict have occupied a ferry terminal in the northern port of Calais, demanding to reach Britain.

By DAN BILEFSKY

Published: October 4, 2013

PARIS — A migrant association in northern France said Friday that several dozen Syrians were in a standoff with security forces in the northern port of Calais, with two threatening to jump off a ferry terminal roof, in a protest aimed at their efforts to seek asylum in Britain.

Maël Galisson, the coordinator of Migrant Services Platform, a migrant outreach group, said that about 60 Syrians who fled the conflict in Syria had been occupying a gangway at the Calais ferry terminal since Wednesday. When the police intervened Friday and sought to evacuate them, two climbed on the roof of the terminal building and threatened to jump unless their demands to reach Britain were met.

He said the police had retreated and were negotiating with the group, while British border officials were on their way to help find a resolution.

“These are Syrians who have come from cities in Syria like Damascus and Dara’a to escape from the Syrian conflict,” Mr. Galisson said by telephone from Calais, where he was observing the protests. “They have not had a warm welcome in France and so would prefer to go to Britain.”

Mr. Galisson said the migrants had been living in abandoned storage space when they were evicted by the police on Sept. 5. He said they had faced police harassment and were hoping to find a better life across the English Channel in Britain. Some of them have family members living in Britain, he said.

Migrant Services Platform posted a statement from the Syrian migrants in which they appealed for refuge in Britain. “We are here for one or two months and the French government and police have treated us very badly, and shown no interest in resolving our situation,” the statement said. “They have systematically expelled us from our homes and put us on the street. We are here for one thing, and that is to ask for asylum in England.”

An official from the French Ministry of Interior was not available for comment.

For more than a decade, migrants have come to Calais in hope of sneaking across the channel to Britain, which is viewed as a more hospitable destination for asylum seekers, Mr. Galisson said. He said that while it could take up to 18 months to get asylum in France, in Britain it could take half as long.

An influx of refugees from Syria has already put pressure on neighboring Middle Eastern countries, which have absorbed more than two million of them since the Syrian conflict began more than two years ago.

It has also been gathering force in Europe in recent months. In mid-September, the United Nations refugee agency said that boatloads of Syrians were crossing the Mediterranean and arriving in southern Italy. It said the new arrivals were gathering pace and that several thousand had arrived in August and September, including unaccompanied children.

COPY  http://www.nytimes.com