Photo Credit: malachybrowne
By Sara Myers (Staff Writer)
In the port city of Calais, France, there is a refugee camp known to many as the Jungle.[1][2] While the Jungle reportedly houses 4,000 migrants according to French officials, aid workers have recently asserted that the population is nearer to 5,500 inhabitants.[3] Those who have chosen to live in the Jungle are attempting the herculean task of migrating to the United Kingdom, and unfortunately for these migrants, all the odds are currently working against them.
Last year, the European Union saw a total of 1,321,560 asylum seekers arrive in its various member states.[4] While this figure may seem grossly exorbitant, it doesn’t take into account the thousands of individuals who enter the EU without declaring a claim for asylum. Frontex, the border patrol system established by the EU, estimates the actual number of migrants entering Europe in 2015 to be half a million people higher.[5] Worse still, only 292,540 claims were accepted by the end of the year.[6] For the ‘lucky’ refugees who managed to make it to Europe alive, there are even more daunting obstacles standing in their way to starting anew. The city of Calais is one such obstacle, and has sprouted a humanitarian crisis out of an already fraught refugee crisis.
Today’s refugees immediately face a wall of red tape upon their arrival in the EU, due to a single regulation: until asylum claims are officially processed, a migrant must remain in whichever country they are seeking their claim.[7] In France, the combination of regulation, and the adamancy of refugees trying to get to the UK, has created a hazardous environment. As they can’t temporarily seek asylum in France, if they hope to one day settle in the North, many await their chance to make it to the UK and set up makeshift camps for the interim period. For the city of Calais, this regulation has proven a hindrance, especially due to its position near the Channel Tunnel opening.[8]
The UK is perceived as the next ‘American Dream’ for many refugees, as a place where vast opportunities await them.[9] Not only is the UK an English-speaking country, but its prosperity is seemingly boundless, stretching from education and housing to work and a more stable economy.[10][11] With these romanticized ideals, many migrants choose to camp out and wait in hopes of being allowed entry into the UK. For some, the wait becomes too long and they attempt less legal and more dangerous means to make their way.
One man, Abdul Rahman Haroun, attempted to reach Britain on foot through the Channel Tunnel.[12] A Eurotunnel spokesman described the trek as ‘...illegal and very dangerous ...and a person can be seriously injured or killed.’[13] It took Haroun just over ten hours to be caught on his perilous journey, dodging cameras, security personnel, and moving trains.
Abdul Rahman Haroun isn’t alone in these treacherous attempts to reach the UK. Others have attempted to cross the Channel by any means possible. Last year, seven Syrians were found dead in the water after attempting to swim to a ferry truck en route to the UK.[14] Such desperation is almost unimaginable, and that living in camps in industrialized and fully-developed France is considered a worse prospect than death, is unthinkable.
After listening to what Director of Doctors of the World Leigh Daynes has to say about the Jungle, the unfathomable becomes more tangible. Not only is the Jungle a place where ‘Refugees are hungry and distressed,’ but the ‘atmosphere is sad, it is oppressive’ which only begins to describe the horrors of the Jungle.[15][16]
Daynes goes on to state that ‘internationally agreed standards for the provision of aid and protection in refugee situations are nowhere to be found in Calais.’[17] The Jungle is a ‘squalid and unsanitary’[18] place with conditions that aren’t even found in the worst prison movie. Diarrhoea is constant, both due to a lack of proper bathrooms and washing facilities, and the ill-prepared and stored food makes stomach cramps and vomiting a common occurrence.[19]
Sanitation issues aside, the inhabitants of the Jungle also have to deal with contaminated water, rats, threats of sexual assault, disease, and general unease.[20] Living in such conditions is hard, but the inhabitants are willing to put up with a lot to pursue their British dreams. However, as of February 2016 there’s another obstacle they must face: eviction.
France has a bad habit of not learning from its past, notably the migrant camp in Sangatte that closed in 2002.[21] This was done to dissuade others from settling and attempting to cross the Channel.[22] Predictably, the plan failed, and even more flocked to Calais.[23]
Despite this failure, France is once again attempting to lessen the number of refugees in Calais by evicting a quarter of its inhabitants. Starting this March, France demolished the southern part of the Jungle, evicting nearly one thousand migrants.[24] France didn’t evict them in the true sense of the word, but instead provided options for the hundreds they left homeless once more: ‘they can move into heated container accommodation at the camp, or similar accommodation elsewhere in France, or they can claim asylum in France.’[25]
Each option is less appealing than the last for many migrants; it could mean giving up on the dream to claim asylum, as can moving further away from the Channel. The container option presents another issue entirely as migrants don’t trust the new handprint technology involved.[26][27]
Shutting down the Jungle isn’t the way to stem the influx of refugees. There are much bigger problems to deal with in order to even attempt fixing the refugee crisis. France, it seems, is only concerned with the immediate future, and the state of France itself. Not the thousands of lives it could change for the better.
This month, the UK pledged an additional twenty million euros to the refugee crisis in France, in addition to the sixty million they already provided.[28] This pledge however, is going towards bettering ‘the security of the access area,’ aka the Channel access point in Calais.[29] This is a humanitarian crisis and not a border conflict. France and Britain need to act before the Jungle gets worse, or migrants are driven to take even more desperate measures for a chance at the life they want.
France is starting to take away the only homes some people have in Calais, and while they are trying to provide suitable alternatives, this just brings about more concerns for long-term integration within its society. And in a very expected turn of events, six new camps have been created since the beginning of the Calais eviction and demolitions, according to aid workers in the area.[30] Trouble is brewing and it seems that France doesn’t care. Instead of doing what is right by these migrants, and trying to better incorporate them into society, French Police threw CS tear gas at those who got in the way of the Jungle demolition process.[31] In the words of Axl Rose, ‘welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day.’
[1] Kirby, Emma-Jane. "BBC NEWS | UK | Migrant Squalor In Calais 'Jungle'". News.bbc.co.uk. N.p., 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8129812.stm
[2] Harker, Joseph. "Stop Calling The Calais Refugee Camp The ‘Jungle’”. The Guardian. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/stop-calling-calais-refugee-camp-jungle-migrants-dehumanising-scare-stories.
[3] BBC News,. "Calais 'Jungle' Eviction Gets Go-Ahead - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35663225
[4] BBC News,. "Migrant Crisis: Migration To Europe Explained In Seven Charts - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34131911
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] Taub, Amanda. "The Humanitarian Crisis In Calais Is A Symptom Of The EU’S Biggest Failure". Vox. N.p., 2016. http://www.vox.com/2016/3/8/11180232/jungle-calais-refugee-camp
[8] ibid
[9] BBC News,. "Why Is There A Crisis In Calais? - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29074736
[10] ibid
[11] Kirby, Emma-Jane. "BBC NEWS | UK | Migrant Squalor In Calais 'Jungle'". News.bbc.co.uk. N.p., 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8129812.stm
[12] Bilefsky, Dan. "In A First, A Sudanese Migrant Nearly Crosses The English Channel On Foot". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/world/europe/channel-tunnel-sudanese-migrant.html?_r=0
[13] ibid
[14] Allen, Peter, and Chris Brooke. "UK Charity Considers Cutting Off Aid For The ‘Jungle’". Mail Online. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3262220/UK-charity-considers-cutting-aid-Jungle-Calais-visiting-camp-deciding-migrants-no-real-reason-leave-home-country.html#ixzz42oYlZG4y
[15] Topping, Alexandra. "Calais Refugee Camp Conditions Diabolical, Says Report". the Guardian. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
[16] "French Court Delays Decision On Calais ‘Jungle’ Camp Eviction". RT International. N.p., 2016. https://www.rt.com/news/333368-calais-jungle-france-eviction/
[17] Topping, Alexandra. "Calais Refugee Camp Conditions Diabolical, Says Report".
[18] Blamont, Matthias. "Migrant Shelter Made Of Shipping Containers Opens In France's Calais". Reuters. N.p., 2016. 2016.http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-calais-idUSKCN0UP23R20160111
[19] Topping, Alexandra. "Calais Refugee Camp Conditions Diabolical, Says Report".
[20] ibid
[21] Kirby, Emma-Jane. "BBC NEWS | UK | Migrant Squalor In Calais 'Jungle'". News.bbc.co.uk. N.p., 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8129812.stm
[22] ibid
[23] ibid
[24] BBC News,. "Calais 'Jungle' Eviction Gets Go-Ahead - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35663225
[25] ibid
[26] ibid
[27] Walker, Peter, and Anna Pujol-Mazzini. "Calais Camp Is Razed With Nowhere For Most Refugees To Go". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/calais-camp-razed-refugees
[28] Henley, Jon. "The Calais Border Treaty And Brexit: What Is France Saying?". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/03/calais-border-treaty-brexit-what-is-france-saying
[29] ibid
[30] Wintour, Patrick. "France Wants UK Border Guards To Tour Calais Camp To Deter Refugees". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/france-uk-border-guards-help-deter-calais-refugees-asylum-rules
[31] Walker, Peter, and Anna Pujol-Mazzini. "Calais Camp Is Razed With Nowhere For Most Refugees To Go". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/calais-camp-razed-refugees