France - immigration

The Calais migrant camp now a no man's land

by Carly Jane Lock

Article published on the 2009-09-23 Latest update 2009-09-23 09:37 TU

The Jungle migrant camp shortly after residents were evicted.
(Photo: C J Lock)

Sandwiched between a lorry park and neglected woodlands on the eastern side of the port of Calais, the unofficial migrant camp that locals call "the Jungle" remained cordonned off and under police surveillance on Tuesday. Bulldozers began the clearing operation hours after an early morning raid in which around 500 French riot police rounded up most of the camp dwellers in the space of 20 minutes.

A total of 278 homeless migrants (almost half of them children), mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea were arrested, and reportedly led away to holding facilities where they will be kept for up to 32 days.

 

During this period, they will explore their limited options, which include applying for asylum in France or participating in a voluntary repatriation programme. Trips home are organised by the International Organization for Migration, which offers migrants financial assistance to help them reintegrate into their own communities.  

 

Bulldozers razing the camp in the evening sun.
(Photo: C J Lock)

Many of those arrested were in tears as they were rounded up by police who directed them with bullhorns. Solidarity protestors surrounded the opperation denouncing it for being a shamful display for France on the world stage.

 

"It's a totally inhuman act," Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry told the press. The eviction is a cosmetic solution, she continued, because the migrants "will go elsewhere. They will recreate another encampment with even worse conditions to try to survive."

 

On the other side of the Channel, British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "delighted" that the improvised camp was being closed.

Speaking at the site shortly after the police raid, France's Immigration Minister Eric Besson reminded reporters that the Mayoress of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, had instigated the operation after residents and local businesses claimed that the situation was intolerable.

 

Adding that there was "no room for triumphalism", Besson pledged to return the rule of law to the northern French coast, insisting that "the operation was was not targeting the migrants themselves, it is targeting the logistics of the human traffickers (...) who make these poor people pay an extremely high price for a ticket to England."

While local Health officials say the closure of the camp brings a necessary end to appalling sanitary conditions, concern is growing among aid groups about France's failure to address the root of the problem.

 

They say the move will create a transitory effect as the problem shifts elsewhere. Incidentally, many illegal migrants have left for other ports in the Calais area. Aid agencies fear that most of the evicted migrants will either end up in makeshift shelters again or back on the streets where they will become easy prey for local mafias and trafficking gangs.