CALAIS : WHATEVER IT TAKES | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

On November 24, 2021, French rescuers found 27 bodies floating in the English Channel. Men, women and children, mostly Iraqi Kurds and Afghans, who had tried to reach England. Like thousands of others since 1998, when the first camps appeared in the Calais region, they paid between 1,000 and 7,000 euros to reach England, and dream of a better life.

According to the English authorities, more than 25,000 migrants have made the crossing since the beginning of the year, and the number of would-be migrants continues to grow. The danger is immense, but no one wants to give up. With these migrants, we’ll try to take our place in one of these boats. How are the journeys planned? Who are the people trying to reach England?

Who are the people in the dozens of makeshift camps set up around Calais, proposing this sometimes one-way journey?

In Calais, we will follow the incessant struggle of the forces of law and order. Border police, public security, CRS… They all fight daily to prevent these increasingly risky crossings to England, and above all to dismantle the mafia-like networks that thrive in the shadow of misery, and grow rich on the hopes of these men and women.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are waiting in the city for a “ticket” to cross. Wandering ghosts in the streets, sleeping in makeshift camps that are regularly dismantled and immediately rebuilt, these would-be exiles – Afghans, Kurds, Libyans, but also Eritreans and Vietnamese – live in the most precarious conditions.

We follow those who help them on a daily basis in Calais, to prevent further humanitarian disasters. Residents, powerless but generous in the face of these tragedies; fishermen, confronted daily with these crossings and who regularly rescue these migrants in distress; associations and NGOs, who try to provide the bare minimum for these men, women and children from all over the world.

But we’ll also meet the people who can’t take it any more, overwhelmed by the cohorts of would-be exiles who are turning the town into an entrenched camp.

An investigation into the heart of Calais, between smugglers, trafficking and human distress.