France is struggling with an influx of African migrants arriving by train from Italy. According to French media reports, police is arresting up to 100 migrants per day and deporting them back to Northern Italy. Many of the migrants return trying to make it to France or England via Calais.
Patrice, a French woman contacted capitaleritrea news to appeal to the public to help find a 15-year-old Eritrean boy, who was filmed by French TV two weeks ago in Menton on the French border with Italy.
The boy was arrested by police two times on the same day. He told French TV reporters that he wants to go to London via Calais to live with his sister. The video shows a desperate young boy with tears in his eyes asking the reporters, “Where should I go?” pointing towards the train station of Menton.
“I am very touched since I saw him crying. If he manages to cross the border he will be as many of others refugees before him, homeless in Calais, in the cold, the rain and the snow this winter.” Patrice says.
The UNHCR and other organizations describe the living conditions of migrants in Calais as dreadful. France is doing a minimum to change this fact and guards the border in Calais night and day with police enforcements - making the town to a dead end for migrants as a means of deterrence.
The UN body is particularly concerned about the growing number of children sleeping rough in Calais. It is estimated that a quarter of all the undocumented migrants in Calais are aged under 18. UNHCR staff have come across children as young as nine, usually traveling with an older sibling or relative.
Patrice says that she does not know where the boy is; - maybe he is still in Vintimiglia-Italy, or somewhere in France. She got in touch with the associations of humanity aid in Calais to try to find him and to propose him her help, but she thinks this is not enough.
Therefore, Patrice is contacting you, the Eritrean Diaspora, for help to find the boy and provide him with the support he needs.
“I shall offer him for free a home, meals, bedroom and bath, phone and unlimited internet to keep in touch with his family, then a secure solution to arrive in England.”, says Patrice.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of the 15-year-old boy or know how he can be reached please contact the following e-mail addresses:
sonjvad@free.fr
questions@capitaleritrea.com
Below find the video with the boy talking to French TV reporters - (towards the end of the video)
