Parents of students at a school in Northern France have expressed anger at a suggestion by a teacher that would see the students visit a makeshift migrant camp in Calais as part of an upcoming class trip.
A philosophy teacher at a high school in Valenciennes sent an email to her students regarding the trip to the migrant camp, with parents of the students becoming angered and accusing the teacher of pushing a pro-migrant ideology on their children.
The trip was set to involve the students meeting with members of the charity Auberge des migrants, with students taking part in volunteer workshops and dropping off donated items, broadcaster CNews reports.
The activist group Protégeons nos Enfants (Protect our Children) also slammed the teacher, with the group’s spokesperson Agnès Marion accusing the teacher of “a hostage-taking of these students.”
Marion went on to add, “these high school students are supposed to be in school to forge their critical sense and discernment, but with this visit, they only have an extremely biased view of the subject of migration and immigration in general.”
Migrant camps in Northern France, many of which house migrants looking to cross the English Channel illegally to reach the UK, are also often dangerous areas.
Earlier this year in May, a makeshift camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk saw two migrants wounded after gunfire broke out in the camp, with a member of a local aid group stating they had never seen such violence in the area despite working there for ten years.
Just months later in September, several more migrants were injured during another shooting incident near Dunkirk art a makeshift camp in the town of Loon-Plage.
Claire Millot, general secretary of the Salam association, laid the blame on people smugglers for the shooting saying, “There are settling of accounts between smugglers who are in the camp… quarrels over power, over territory… The conflicts are between the smugglers.”