FRENCH POLICE closed the last migrant camp outside of Calais yesterday, known as “the jungle”.
The camp had been home to hundreds of Afghan men hoping to gain passage to Britain. In the early hours of yesterday morning, 500 police and gendarmes took position in a wooded area outside of Calais to round up the remaining migrants who called this scrubland home.
Just under 300 men and boys, mostly from Afghanistan, were led away without resistance, many in tears. A few attempted a last-minute escape through the bushes but were quickly apprehended. A group of young activists attempted to stop the evacuation by forming a human chain, but were overcome after scuffles with police.
Later in the day, bulldozers moved in to destroy the flimsy shelters and clear trees to prevent the camp being rebuilt.
The migrants are now in detention, and French authorities say that all will be offered asylum or “assisted repatriation”. Out of the 276 detained, 135 claim to be minors. Authorities say these boys will be housed in specialised centres.
French immigration minister Eric Besson thanked police officers for ensuring the success of the operation. “This is the end of the law of the jungle, the end of the law of the people traffickers,” Mr Besson told some 150 journalists gathered to witness the event. Local aid agencies disagreed.
“All they are doing is moving the problem”, said Matthieu Tardif of France Terre d’Asile, an organisation which helps migrants and asylum seekers. “There are fewer migrants in Calais now but they have just spread out . . . there are already other camps along the coast – one was dismantled last week, but they just reappear.”
The authorities’ early announcement of the clearance led to the numbers of men and boys in the jungle falling from more than 700 to less than 300 in the past few weeks.
French authorities closed the Red Cross Sangatte refugee camp in 2002 under pressure from the UK, who claimed it was a magnet for illegal immigrants. Since then, Afghan, Iraqi, Eritrean, Sudanese and Somali migrants have been living in squats and camps around Calais. The jungle, mostly Afghan, was the main camp. Men slept piled together in flimsy tents made of tarpaulin and plastic, among piles of rubbish, and the smell of rotting food and excrement hung in the air.
There was an outbreak of scabies during the summer. Moreover, the number of people living in the bushes without sanitation or running water peaked at one thousand last year.
British home secretary Alan Johnson said he was “delighted” at the camp closure. “Both countries are committed to helping individuals who are genuine refugees, who should apply for protection in the first safe country they reach.”
French authorities stressed they would examine each case individually to separate refugees from economic migrants. EU law stipulates that asylum seekers can only make an application in the country where they first arrive.
Mathieu Tardif says this legislation needs to be relaxed. “Three quarters of the men in Calais came through Greece and were fingerprinted there. It’s practically impossible to get asylum there . . . we don’t know what will happen to them now, it’s really not clear.”
Myriam Rachich from the Secours Catholique charity has been working with the migrants in Calais since the closure of Sangatte. “They’ll be back,” she said.
“When they closed Sangatte, they said there would be no more . . . They have spent all of their money to get here. Now they’re just a stone’s throw from England. On a sunny day, you can see it from here. There’s no going back for them,” she added.