The most vulnerable groups in the pandemic are migrants and the homeless
The Paris police, strictly monitoring rare passersby, do not notice a homeless person sleeping on a bench; he is like an invisible man to them. As "Russkaya Germaniya" notes, this video went viral on French social media, sparking a debate on what to do with the homeless in the current situation. Indeed, the requirement to stay at home is impossible for the homeless due to the lack of a home. Some believe these people are to blame themselves for choosing an asocial niche, while others sympathize with those who have no means to follow hygiene requirements.
Today, there are about 250,000 homeless people in France, and in the coronavirus pandemic, this is the most vulnerable group. "Most often, we are talking about aging people with weak immune systems. Moreover, if symptoms of infection appear, they will not call an ambulance," says Florent Gueguen, head of the Federation of Solidarity Organizations (FAS).
In many regions of France, due to the lockdown, daytime centers for the homeless, where they could come to take a shower, have closed, and food distribution points have partially closed. But the homeless have been somewhat sorted out—they are still their own, familiar and habitual on the Parisian landscapes. On March 19, French Minister of Housing Julien Denormandie said that the authorities would allocate 50 million euros to house the homeless during the epidemic.
During the lockdown, part of the hotel rooms, sports halls, and in Cannes, part of the Palace of Festivals, where the Cannes Film Festival takes place, will be converted into temporary housing for the homeless. But, as it turns out, not all freedom-loving street dwellers are ready to exchange the sky above their heads for a ceiling in a hotel or shelter. In such cases, officials say, "we are powerless."
With migrants, everything is much more complicated. Being citizens of other countries and not having received refugee status, they cannot count on full care from France. Just recently, amendments to migration legislation were adopted in the country, limiting migrants' rights to medical care. And the other day, the main office for receiving refugees in France, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, closed for quarantine.
And this is a pan-European trend: the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration have temporarily suspended their programs. This decision was approved by far-right parties in Europe but sparked protests from human rights activists, who note the complete powerlessness of people who ended up in the EU at such an unfavorable time. Human rights activists are particularly concerned about the situation in spontaneous tent camps for refugees, where hundreds of people live in unsanitary conditions without access to water and toilets.
The largest migrant camps have existed for decades on the northern coast of France—in the cities of Calais and Grande-Synthe (Pas-de-Calais department). Migrants make their way to these places through all of Europe by hook or by crook, ultimately aiming to reach the UK. In the "Calais Jungle," where even the police dare not enter, there are more than 500 people. Migrants live there in small groups in makeshift dugouts or tents; in Grande-Synthe, more than 400 people have found shelter in hangars.
Recently, local human rights activists addressed an open letter to the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais department, calling for urgent measures in connection with the coronavirus epidemic. The prefecture responded immediately, ordering the posting of informational posters with standard reminders about hygiene rules during the epidemic.
"The prefect of Calais is very pleased with himself because he brought a tank of soap. But this tank has one water tap. That is, for 400 people, one water tap to wash hands 'very, very regularly,' without having a shower, without having a toilet," human rights activists are outraged. But it is unclear what they could do in such a situation in the place of the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais department. Where to relocate a thousand migrants, how to ensure quarantine?
In the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, immediately after the lockdown was announced, police set up cordons around the largest migrant camp in France, forbidding its inhabitants to leave. Outraged protests by human rights activists helped the authorities find a more dignified solution, and hundreds of inhabitants of the "Aubervilliers jungle" were relocated last week to temporary refugee centers. However, even there, there is a shortage of toilets and showers.
The vulnerability of staff is one of the key problems of the current health crisis. Given the shortage of protective equipment for hospitals, there is no question of protecting volunteers at food distribution points for refugees. Many humanitarian associations today have to suspend their activities.
Claire Millot from the organization Salam Nord says that one of the acute problems of such associations today is a shortage of staff. "We cannot force people to go where they do not want to go. Our association consists exclusively of volunteers. Only two of us are left, and the two of us are not able to prepare food and distribute it to 300-400 people." Due to staff reductions, NGOs are forced to curtail the most necessary assistance—for example, food distribution.
The health crisis has exacerbated the migration crisis. The fear of Europeans is understandable: in camps and overcrowded refugee reception centers, due to the crowding of inhabitants and difficulties in ensuring sanitary standards, powerful uncontrolled outbreaks of coronavirus infection could arise. But it turns out that it is not even about ordinary fears.
This is, in essence, a worldview crisis – European consciousness seems to be cracking, turning into a "Titanic" that has hit an iceberg of unsolvable problems. One can appeal to common European ideological values, as does the Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, who declares that in the current crisis, the "authority and usefulness" of the European Union are at stake. One can gloat, listing the problems Europe faces today.
But none of these positions offers concrete approaches to solving our current problems. The floor belongs to sober politicians capable of taking serious, realistic, even unpopular measures in such an exceptionally difficult time. Perhaps it is no coincidence that today the French are increasingly recalling Charles de Gaulle with nostalgia.