Calais ‘Jungle’ empties
Demolition crews move in
CALAIS, France, Oct 25, (AFP): Workers were set to begin demolishing the notorious Calais “Jungle” camp on Tuesday as hundreds of migrants boarded buses on the second day of a massive operation to clear the squalid settlement.
More than 1,900 left the slum on Monday, ahead of work to tear down the makeshift shelters and eateries in the camp that has become a symbol of Europe’s refugee crisis.
At least 800 youngsters are being provisionally housed in shipping containers in a part of the Jungle where families had been living.
The director of the centre, Stephane Duval, said 400 were moved there on Tuesday, with a goal of boosting the population to 1,000 minors by the end of the day. The sprawling shantytown, one of Europe’s biggest slums, was rapidly becoming a ghost town.
“It makes me sad to see the camp in this state,” said Marie Paule, a charity worker who started volunteering at the Jungle last year. “I have a heavy heart ... but it’s the best solution for them.”
Early Tuesday, scores of minors awaited their turn to be interviewed by French and British officials.
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Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said all unaccompanied minors “with proven family links in Great Britain” would eventually be transferred across the Channel.
Britain has taken in nearly 200 teenagers over the past week, but the transfers were on hold Monday.
British interior minister Amber Rudd said London was contributing up to £36 million (40 million euros, $44
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million) towards the operation to clear the camp. The head of France’s refugee agency, Pascal Brice, had harsh words for Britain’s role on Tuesday.
“We’re doing their work for them,” he said on French radio, reiterating calls for Britain to take in the Jungle’s minors. Britain and France signed the so-called Le Touquet accord, which effectively moved Britain’s border with France to the French side of the Channel, in 2003.
Hope
An estimated 6,000-8,000 people, mainly Afghans, Sudanese and Eritreans, have been living in dire conditions in the Jungle in the hope of sneaking into Britain.
Christian Salome, head of the Auberge des Migrants (Migrants’ Hostel) charity, said the transfer process was “working well” but he feared around 2,000 people “still want to reach England.”
Sudanese migrant Ali Othman, 18, smoking a cigarette outside his tent, was among those voicing defiance.
Meanwhile, Abbas Hussein Ali from Sudan was one of the first in line as the evacuation of the squalid Jungle refugee camp began on Monday, overjoyed to finally have a chance at a dignified life. Ali, 25, was up before dawn to be among the first to get on one of the buses taking the camp’s estimated 6,000-8,000 occupants to 451 centres across France.
After four long months living in grim conditions in the camp, which has served as a launchpad for migrants desperate to reach Britain, all Ali wants now is “to study”. “I want to learn French,” he said.