Now Calais migrants demand houses, hygiene, three meals a day — and a life in Britain

Hundreds of migrants in Calais have written to the French authorities demanding to be allowed to travel to Britain “as soon as possible.” Until they are allowed into the UK, they say, they should be given houses in Calais and freedom from police checks, according to a report in the Express.

The demands follow the clearance by police in riot gear of three migrant camps at Calais last week which had been set up by Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and other migrants hoping to smuggle themselves onto a cross-Channel lorry or cling to a train through the Channel Tunnel for a new life in Britain. Authorities said the camps had to be bulldozed because of an outbreak of scabies.

Now, according to the Express, a group representing more than 1,000 migrants still living rough in the area has handed an open letter to Denis Robin, the local prefect, containing a series of demands to help speed their passage to the UK.

They want “houses in Calais with respectable hygiene, freedom from police checks, and three meals a day.” They also want “negotiations between France and the United Kingdom” to ensure their arrival in Britain as soon as possible.

“We do not want to live like animals but as normal human beings,” the letter says. The migrants demand “access to decent living conditions regardless of whether we are documented or not.”

One migrant, Younes Sajadi, is quoted as saying: “This would be a sensible solution to our situation. We will never give up on our ambitions to get to Britain and so everybody would benefit if we could go there as soon as possible.”