Kalliste Park is one of the hubs of drug trafficking in Marseille. Dealers, often minors, take refuge there because they feel incompatible with the system. However, associations try to keep them away from delinquency.
They live from drug trafficking on a daily basis and claim to have no other horizons. While Didier Migaud, Minister of Justice, and Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, are traveling this Friday, November 8 in Marseille to present their plan to fight drug trafficking, BFM Marseille Provence met young dealers at Kalliste Park.
Barely adults, they found refuge in this trafficking, because they say they are incompatible with the system. “You come at 10 a.m., you post, you take your post. You wait until midnight, you take your pay and you go home. I take 200 euros a day,” says a young person, who chose to testify anonymously to BFM Marseille-Provence.
“It's a struggle, there's no work, they don't want to take us. School isn't for me, there's no money in school. And that's it. It’s more important to have money,” he assures.
For these young people, it is difficult to get to the other side of the barrier. “It lurks, it steals, there's everything. There's no diploma. My life has been turned upside down by a bit of everything: pot, dating, the neighborhood,” says another dealer, for whom the feeling of abandonment is absolute. “I am left to my own devices. The State abandoned me a long time ago,” laments the young man.
Keeping young people away from delinquency
Drug trafficking isn't the only problem at Kalliste Park. Here, many apartments have been squatted and, sometimes, even burned. But for some time now, some young people in the neighborhood have decided to take back control of the future of the city.
Mohamed Ali is a member of the “Les 2 A” association. He wants to bring life back to the neighborhood and keep young people away from the dangers of delinquency. “We aim to create a youth center where we will welcome young people, where they can meet employers, create projects to be able to go abroad or discover other professions. We are really trying to divert the subject with the youngest,” he explains.
However, it is still complicated to bring about these initiatives, because there are few subsidies. The association does not despair and continues its search for financial resources.
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