Slideshow: Migrants Stranded in Calais

The European Union’s immigration commissioner is accusing European leaders of failing to protect people fleeing conflict in North Africa.

The International Organization for Migration estimates a million people have poured out of Libya alone since the uprising began. Almost all of them stay in neighboring countries such as Tunisia, but thousands have headed north to Europe in search of stability and a better life.

They haven’t got any official papers, no money and the only roof over their heads is full of holes. But the migrants who have traveled thousands of miles to get to Calais still grasp at shreds of dignity. So Thursday, they are trying to clean the derelict buildings they are living in – in the only way possible.

Five men surround a huge pile of burning garbage, trying to control the flames and avoid the acrid smoke. Plastic bottles and bags, scraps of filthy clothing, broken furniture leftover from months of living in squalor are now turning to ash.

“Africa House” is the unofficial name for the former factory where between 100 and 200 people are squatting.

Even with Thursday’s housecleaning, much of the space is still filled with rubbish.

Areas are divided according to nationality. Eritreans, Somalians, Sudanese are grouped close to each other.

At lunchtime, though, everyone gathers together near the port. A long line forms next to a kiosk where volunteers hand out small portions of pasta and a baguette wrapped in plastic. It is not standard French cuisine, but it is food and it disappears quickly.

After finishing his meal, Yohanes sips a cup of coffee and talks to friends. He has been in Calais for two months, trying to make it just a few more miles across the English Channel into Britain.

He admits he has tried to cross the channel five or six times but he has not been lucky, because he was caught by the border police as he tried to stowaway inside a truck.

Yohanes knows it is dangerous. Some people have died after hiding inside trucks.
Still, he says he is not afraid to try even if he risks dying.
.
“Yeah, because it’s no different,” he said. “I’m dying here as well. I’m dying here.”

Yohanes had been living and working in Libya after making the difficult journey from Eritrea years before, but when the uprising started, Yohanes decided to make a risky voyage across the Mediterranean in a rickety boat.

“It’s difficult to survive,” he said. “Even before the war we are not living a good situation. But you can live you can survive. But when they start fight so that’s so difficult to live in Libya so you don’t live, you don’t have choice.”

There are thousands like Yohanes. Since the beginning of the year, the International Organization for Migration estimates about 42,000 people crossed into Italy and Malta by boat. That is more than in all of the previous peak year in 2008.

The few who come as far north as Calais say they are trying to get to Britain because they don’t speak French or because they have relatives there.

In early June, the British minister responsible for domestic security toured a special screening area at the Calais port where immigration officers use sniffer dogs and motion detectors to catch illegal stowaways hiding inside trucks.

The day Theresa May visited, Buster the dog found and arrested one man. May says the numbers of illegal migrants trying to break in to Britain is way down from years past, but the issue is so politically sensitive; May is not letting down her guard.

“And we’re looking to build on our cooperation with the French in terms of dealing with illegal immigration — people coming through Calais,” May said. “What we want to do is secure our borders, that’s what the new coalition government is working on.”

May’s comments underscore how touchy immigration is; not just for Britain but for all European countries. For the migrants though, there’s little chance of going back either to north Africa or to the countries where they were born; countries that are also wracked by violence and rights abuses.

Another Eritean man who worked in Libya for two years says in the weeks after fighting broke out, rebels accused him of being a mercenary fighting for Gadaffi.

He says he feared they were going to kill him.

Standing by the side of the road, his eyes shift toward the trucks heading for the port. He hopes one of them will eventually carry him to a new life, far away from the violence in Libya.