Dozens of trucks blocking the A16 up to Calais to ask for the rapid evacuation of the migrant camp in Calais …
They want to shout their displeasure of the migrant camp in Calais populated than ever and regular incidents on port bypass. Exasperated, economic actors of Calais organise, since Monday morning, to demand the rapid dismantling of the largest migrant camp in France.
The profession of road hauliers
Aboard dozens of trucks, motor carriers in the region have left, around 8 am, Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk and Boulogne-sur-Mer, towards Calais, causing major traffic jams. Farmers have yet to join the procession to a blockage of the A16 motorway planned in the late morning.
“This event is to shout the profession of road hauliers” who have to deal with “acts of incivility we suffer every day. Today what is demanded is to have emergency measures to ensure that we can ride safely on the A16 ring road and the port, ” said David Sagnard, president of the National Federation of Road Transport (FNTR) Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Dismantle with “method” and “mastery”
On Friday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on the road to Calais reaffirmed the intention of the state to dismantle the “Jungle” the “as soon as possible” but with “method” and “control”.
Under a light rain, the two large convoys, supervised by law enforcement, driving at low speeds and received regularly at honking, support motorists and road roller in reverse.
Opérations escargot sur l’A16 pour exiger le démantèlement de la “Jungle” de Calais https://t.co/Ws3HIsXIRm pic.twitter.com/rSPVVVfQwC
— France 3 Nord (@F3nord) September 5, 2016
Their drop point: the A16 Paris-Ostend, they want to block to succeed. This line is especially used by European carriers to reach England via the port of Calais, the most popular port in France for passenger traffic, or the Channel Tunnel.
A human chain
Meanwhile, hundreds of people, mostly traders from Calais or port employees, wearing yellow safety vests, began to form a human chain. Led by Natacha Bouchard, Mayor (LR) of the city, protesters approached around 9:30 in the port bypass.
#calais : opération escargot sur #A16 en cours. Ici, la chaîne humaine en route vers l’autoroute (photo : @_deltafm) pic.twitter.com/rVLeDue2uk
— GrandLille.TV (@GrandLilleTV) September 5, 2016
Frédéric Van Gansbeke, spokesman for the group companies and Calais shops, hopes to “make a point” with this operation, a first since the start of the migration crisis in the region. “We protest because we are far from “the satisfaction of claims, ” including business support – it has neither the amount nor the date – creating the largest free zone, or the difficult sector setting of Calais. “We have no answers, so it is blocked, ” he noted.
Regularly, migrants placed dams on the port ring road with barriers of trees to force the trucks to stop and try to hide in order to get to England.
