The "Jungle" migrant camp on France's Calais will be cleared of its residents on Monday before being demolished, authorities said Friday. The local administration made a legal order Friday that is to take effect on Monday, it said in a statement announcing the long-awaited operation.
The demolition of the sprawling makeshift camp closes a difficult chapter in Europe's migrant crisis. Here’s why--
Location and conditions
There have been various "jungle" camps around Calais since 1999, where migrants set up camp on unoccupied land, moving to new locations when camps are closed down by the French authorities. At the same time other migrants squat in abandoned buildings. In April 2015, the official and principal "jungle" in Calais was located at a former landfill site, 5km from the centre of town, and occupied by 1,000 of the 6,000 migrants in Calais. This jungle for the first time had showers, electricity and toilets, plus one hot meal served per day, but without proper accommodation.
France to start clearing "The Jungle" refugee camp at Calais Monday. Thousands there can seek asylum or return home. https://t.co/fKmkDMdagt
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 21, 2016
Number of migrants
The official estimate is that there are around 6,900 people in the camp, though local charities have counted around 9,100. Charities have suggested that different counting methods and migrants’ reluctance to speak to authorities may be behind the difference. The camp’s population has increased by around 50% since June.'Children Of #Calais Deserve Our Welcome, Not Hostility' - our colleague @DorothySang blogs from The Jungle https://t.co/ca6dfAUmzN— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) October 22, 2016
Part of the camp was dismantled
In February 2016 French courts granted authorities permission to dismantle an area of the camp where up to 1,000 migrants were thought to be living, according to the authorities. Other estimates put the figure at 3,500. The French government had provided alternative shelter for migrants in heated containers which housed 1,500 people and offered women and children accommodation in a separate centre. That said, MPs raised concerns about whether or not the new facilities would provide accommodation for all of the people who had lived in the demolished portion of the camp.
‘I Am Alone’: Migrant Children in Calais ‘Jungle’ Face an Uncertain Fate, via @nytimes https://t.co/noHMLJcCyi
— Melissa Fleming (@melissarfleming) October 22, 2016
Future of the migrants
The fate of 1,300 unaccompanied children in the slum is still uncertain, three days before the start of operations, but negotiations with the British authorities, who agreed to host a number, "progress". For these young people, the goal is to go Paris "at the end, and beyond" family reunifications already provided by European legislation, and therefore to send up the Channel. Some 6,486 people in search of a passage in the UK are currently living in the camp of the heath of Calais, as counted by the authorities. Among them are 1,291 individual and 300 individuals in family miners. The vast majority, however, are only major and men. Starting Monday, all will be offered a sheltering offer "based on their profile" (families, single men, minors and vulnerable persons). After a breakdown in a large hangar organized "like a bus station", the volunteers, who can choose between two regions will be driven by bus to the reception and orientation centres (CAD). 7,500 places were made available in around 450 CAD across the country.
A man walks by a pillar where is displayed the advice notice for evacuation concerning the "jungle" migrant makeshift camp in Calais, on October 21, 2016 AFPDisastrous' image of France
Alain Juppe, the frontrunner to win the right-wing nomination for next year's French presidential election, said the Jungle gave a "disastrous" image of his country, and that Britain should conduct its evaluations of the migrants on its own soil, not in France. In the camp this week, the remaining residents appeared resigned to their fate. Mewagul Daulatzai, 22, from Afghanistan, who runs a small shop, said on Thursday he would be happy to leave. "Before I liked the Jungle. I had my friends and we were working here. But now it is too dangerous here so I am glad it's over," he said.
Source: AFP, Reuters