Derek Uzzell Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 We’ve just come back from a 10-day trip to France and were startled to see so many young black men near the Carrefour and Lidl supermarkets at the entrance to Ouistreham from the south, and not just wandering about but lying in the ditch alongside the main road into the town. This June 2016 article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3624799/Bonanza-people-smugglers-20-000-migrants-wait-boats-450-miles-French-coast.html mentioned Caen/Ouistreham being used as a base to move migrants to the UK, but we’ve travelled to and from Ouistreham several times since then and never seen aything like what was happening last Wednesday afternoon. The police were inspecting vehicles carefully at the ferry-port, being paricularly interested in checking under motorhomes and caravans (presumably to see if anyone was brave enough to hide there) and there was a group of heavily-armed soldiers looking suitably tough. So, if you are ferrying back from Ouistreham, keep your wits about you... .............................................................................................................................................. A different Ouistreham-related matter that may be of interest. When we came off the ferry at Ouistreham at about 10pm on 3 September and headed off to where we habitually park overnight, we noticed that the lane leading to Camping Riva Bella Seasonova on the outskirts of the town was crammed full of caravans and motorhomes that must have disembarked before us. We stayed at that campsite last Wednesday night and I asked the site-warden how long the site stayed open to accommodate people coming off the late-evening ferry. She told me that the site would stay open to midnight (to allow for the ferry arriving late due to bad weather) but one needed to have booked in advance to be allowed in. (The campsite closes on October 30, 2017.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 It was on the BBC Breakfast News that Bilbao is now getting busy with illegals. They hang around the Port trying to sneak on to lorries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 15, 2017 Author Share Posted September 15, 2017 This article (dated 13 September 2017) provides more detail on the migrants situation at Ouistreham http://tinyurl.com/y7tfe6v9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherrypicker Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Wish we had read your post before arriving in Ouistreham on Friday. We parked in main town car park and after talking to the gendarmes who said it was ok to leave the motorhome there but to make sure to lock it we went off for a meal. Then we drove into the ferry queue and had a lie down. 30 minutes or so later I got up to prepare a bag for the ferry. Luckily there wasn't one lying about so I went into the under-bed cupboard. What a shock to find a migrant curled up! I rushed out and called for help. My husband blocked the cupboard door. Quickly the authorities came on board and found another one in the wardrobe. There was no sign of forced entry but I heard one French customs officer say to another " they have keys". It is a modern fairly new Carthago van with alarm and central locking so I wonder how they are able to clone the keys so quickly? Anyway I was very shocked and we won't be enjoying any meals in French ports while this is going on. A bus driver who had found legs sticking out from under his coach that same evening said the migrants are just taken back up town and left to try again! SO BEWARE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monique.hubrechtsgm Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 It seems that the migrants take the south route now.France and spain. Calais is cleaned up, and the chunnel was never a problem. As in belgium and the netherlands by ferry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 We came back via Caen on Monday 4.30 ferry. There where a several groups of young black guys making there way to-wards the ferry, from quiet a distance away. We had been staying with friends along the coast. The security at the port was good. They searched every lorry very thoroughly We did see them take away 6 guys , all black africans.We also had the underneath search as did all the vans, and the interior search. They even checked under bike covers, and inside a trailer covers, an d also in a car on a trailer The guy was very impressed with our door locks, 3 on the caravan door, and extra on the cab doors. We went out via Cherbourg, beginning of September did not see any sign of immigrants there, but the terminal is not that close to the main town, and a fair bit of open space around it I was very pleased to see the French Customs doing there job well. Just wonder how many are getting through, as it was chaos at Portsmouth with 2 ferries arriving together in the dark PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevans87 Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 monique.hubrechts@gm - 2017-10-12 4:29 PM It seems that the migrants take the south route now.France and spain. Calais is cleaned up, and the chunnel was never a problem. As in belgium and the netherlands by ferry. Calais wasn't cleaned up. It was bulldozed and it put thousands of people into even more danger than when they were living in the camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Drew Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 We noticed a few in the ditch opposite the Esso garage going into Ouisterham September 8th they hid behind the trees as the police walked down the road, when we came back on the 17th there were not so many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Well, there were plenty of young black guys wandering around Ouistreham on 17 and 18 October, sleeping in the ditches opposite the Esso garage, congregating in the small wooded area between the Riva Bella campsite and the adjacent roundabout until midnight and in groups in the town’s back streets. The French police were driving around, but the migrants did not appear concerned by this and the police seemed to be uninterested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Derek Uzzell - 2017-10-24 1:53 PM Well, there were plenty of young black guys wandering around Ouistreham on 17 and 18 October, sleeping in the ditches opposite the Esso garage, congregating in the small wooded area between the Riva Bella campsite and the adjacent roundabout until midnight and in groups in the town’s back streets. The French police were driving around, but the migrants did not appear concerned by this and the police seemed to be uninterested. Who would be a refugee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Is that a rhetorical question, or are you seeking a response from me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian125 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 We caught the 08.30 ferry from Ouistreham yesterday morning. We saw several groups of 2 or 3 young men ambling along footpaths a mile or so from the ferry terminal but doing nothing to cause us any concern. Security at the port was very thorough. Staff at the port were very polite and inspected lockers & the interior carefully. We stayed at Pont du Jour campsite (about 20 minutes from ferry terminal) on Sunday night & saw no evidence of migrants there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 starvin marvin - 2017-10-24 2:23 PM Derek Uzzell - 2017-10-24 1:53 PM Well, there were plenty of young black guys wandering around Ouistreham on 17 and 18 October, sleeping in the ditches opposite the Esso garage, congregating in the small wooded area between the Riva Bella campsite and the adjacent roundabout until midnight and in groups in the town’s back streets. The French police were driving around, but the migrants did not appear concerned by this and the police seemed to be uninterested. Who would be a refugee? Not very many women , elderly or children by the look of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 Ian125 Useful to know about “Le Point du Jour” campsite, as I note that it stays open (this year at least) until 5 November. Migrants at Ouistreham seem to restrict themselves to staying within the boundaries of the town, and I suspect there is an organisation that brings them near to the town in the morning and takes them away at night. When we stayed at the “Riva Bella” campsite at Ouistreham recently there was a sizable group of migrants congregated on the other side of the campsite fence behind our motorhome. They were talking there until about 11pm when there was the noise of vehicles stopping with their engines running and then complete silence. Nobody was there at 7am the following morning when we left. The only (apparent) ‘migrant’ we saw outside Ouistreham was a young black guy striding westwards along the M27 motorway’s hard shoulder in the rain near Southampton. Obviously I don’t KNOW that he was a migrant (I didn’t stop and ask!) but I would have bet money that he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 This recent (GOOGLE-translated) article may be of interest https://tinyurl.com/yd7ccofk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianj8793 Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 Very easy to make comments like that without offering suggestions , what's your answer to the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 9, 2017 Author Share Posted December 9, 2017 Ian What comments are you referring to? And who are you expecting to provide an answer to the migrant problem? The Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Ouistreham route is used by a significant number of motorcaravanners making the Channel crossing (though probably not too many during the winter months) and it seems sensible for the situation there to be widely advertised on UK motorhome forums so that the type of incident mentioned by “cherrypicker” in the posting of 12 October 2017 3:11 PM above can be guarded against. The problems at Ouistreham have received international coverage (example here) https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/04/world/social-issues-world/migrants-seek-refuge-small-normandy-port-aided-locals/#.WiwHy610fIE There is plainly no simple solution (either generally or at Ouistreham) and - in a surreal twist - in mid-November the Collectif d'Aide aux Migrants (CAMO) was asked to stop supplying food to the migrants for a month. This request came not from the police or local authorities, but from the migrants who are attempting to reach the UK. Apparently other migrants who were not interested in getting to the UK had been travelling to Ouistreham for free meals and the swell in migrant numbers at the port had resulted in more police and more complaints from Ouistreham residents, all of which was making it more difficult to sneak on board a ferry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianj8793 Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Derek Uzzell - 2017-12-09 4:40 PM Ian What comments are you referring to? And who are you expecting to provide an answer to the migrant problem? The Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Ouistreham route is used by a significant number of motorcaravanners making the Channel crossing (though probably not too many during the winter months) and it seems sensible for the situation there to be widely advertised on UK motorhome forums so that the type of incident mentioned by “cherrypicker” in the posting of 12 October 2017 3:11 PM above can be guarded against. The problems at Ouistreham have received international coverage (example here) https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/04/world/social-issues-world/migrants-seek-refuge-small-normandy-port-aided-locals/#.WiwHy610fIE There is plainly no simple solution (either generally or at Ouistreham) and - in a surreal twist - in mid-November the Collectif d'Aide aux Migrants (CAMO) was asked to stop supplying food to the migrants for a month. This request came not from the police or local authorities, but from the migrants who are attempting to reach the UK. Apparently other migrants who were not interested in getting to the UK had been travelling to Ouistreham for free meals and the swell in migrant numbers at the port had resulted in more police and more complaints from Ouistreham residents, all of which was making it more difficult to sneak on board a ferry. I thought I had quoted " gevans87", I find there are many who are happy to be critical of any measures taken in respect of the issue but who do not propose a solution or a suggestion to improve matters. I obviously didn't use the quote button. Of course I do not have solution other than to say they would not have been allowed to get to the French ports in the first place and the question of where they settle should have been decided long before then. I agree with you that it is sensible to advertise incidents so that other motorhomers are aware and you last paragraph was most interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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