By Sarah Lafen
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe
PARIS, France — The French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has vowed to gradually dismantle the migrant camp in Calais known as “the jungle,” where migrant refugees are currently living in “dire sanitary conditions.” In attempt to unblock Calais, Cazeneuve plans to close the site in stages, while simultaneously creating accommodations for thousands of migrants elsewhere in France in hopes of persuading the migrants to leave the Calais jungle voluntarily. This has posed problematic, however, as migrants were also offered bus rides to other locations around France, but did not utilize this service as much as authorities had hoped.
Calais is currently home to an estimated 7,000 migrants, the majority of whom have traveled to Calais in hopes of crossing the English channel to Britain. The site was create by the state in 2015 in an attempt to concentrate refugees into one wasteland who had been evicted from other camps across the Calais area. 1,900 police officers are currently patrolling the camp to prevent the migrants from the camp from smuggling themselves onto lorries traveling to Britain. There has recently been an increase in the number of violent attacks on lorry drivers who are headed to the UK.
In March, French authorities shut down the southern part of the part of the camp in an aim to “radically reduce numbers.” However Daniel Barney, of the health center Médecins Sans Frontières which opened up a satellite center in the camp, warns that the French authorities’ decision to close the southern part of the camp worsened the issue of overcrowding. Double the population is fit into half as much land, and access to more water and toilets has not increased to reflect this population increase.
Citizens UK, a campaign group, claims to have identified around 400 children living in the Calais jungle that are eligible to go live in the UK. About half of these children are eligible to move to the UK under the Dublin III regulation, which would allow them to live there due to their close family ties to the country. According to Citizens UK, there are approximately 800 unaccompanied children currently living in the camp.
French lorry drivers, and local shopkeepers and farmers are planning to stage a blockade of the port on Monday in order to demonstrate their opinion that the camp is demolished. Cazeneuve claims that the northern part of the camp has already begun by his orders.
For more information, please see:
BBC — Calais ‘Jungle’ Camp: UK Urged to Take in 400 Refugee Children — 2 September 2016
France 24 — Calais ‘Jungle’ Migrant Camp to be ‘Gradually Dismantled’ — 2 September 2016
The Guardian — France Vows to Dismantle ‘Jungle’ Refugee Camp in Calais — 2 September 2016
