Fire destroys France’s new ‘Jungle’ camp
Presidential frontrunner warns France will not be UK’s ‘border guard’ after fire reduces site to ashes
France’s new “Jungle” camp for migrants hoping to enter Britain illegally was deliberately burned down, local authorities believe. The Grande-Synthe camp was home to 1,500 migrants and had replaced the camp at Calais. Emmanuel Macron, the presidential candidate, said France could no longer act as the UK’s “border guard” in the wake of the blaze.
FRANCE’S biggest camp for migrants hoping to enter Britain illegally was “deliberately” burned down, local authorities said, restarting an intense immigration debate just two weeks before the French presidential elections.
Presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron warned that France could no longer act as the UK’s “border guard” in the wake of Monday night’s blaze.
The Grande-Synthe camp near Dunkirk was home to an estimated 1,500 migrants, and had become the new Calais “jungle” since that notorious sprawling tent city was bulldozed in October.
It was seen as a key people-trafficking hub for migrants seeking to enter the UK illegally. Around 1,000 of the camp’s migrants remain unaccounted for after the blaze.
On Monday night, the camp was engulfed in flames in the wake of a dispute between Afghan and Kurdish gangs, with police firing volleys of tear gas to separate the groups. At least 10 people were injured, some from knife wounds, in the “extremely violent” clashes.
The scale of the destruction became clear yesterday morning, with only 70 out of 300 cabins, and a handful of communal buildings, still intact. The others were smouldering embers or burned beyond repair.
“There is nothing left but a pile of ash,” said Michel Lalande, the highest state representative of the Nord region. “It will be impossible to rebuild cabins in place of those that existed before.”
Up to 600 migrants took part in the fighting, which witnesses said started after Afghans accidentally struck a Kurd in the face with a football during an impromptu match.
Grande-Synthe was designed in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders as the first camp in France to meet international humanitarian standards.
Opened in March 2016, the site contained shower blocks, communal kitchens, recreation areas and a medical centre. But it struggled to cope with rocketing arrivals after the Calais camp was razed and living conditions had deteriorated, creating tensions between Kurds, who had been in place since the camp’s construction, and recently arrived Afghans.
There have been a stabbing, fires and
‘We just don’t know where the other migrants are’
fights in recent months. In March, Bruno Le Roux, then interior minister, said France must proceed with a “progressive dismantling of the camp”. Days later, however, it was granted a fresh six-month lease of life on condition it halved its population.
Monday night’s blaze left authorities and charities scrambling to house homeless migrants. Some 500 were taken to local gymnasiums but most of the other migrants are unaccounted for. “We just don’t know where they are,” said Corenne Torre, head of Doctors Without Borders in France.
The issue of migrant camps has come into sharp focus with the first round of the French presidential elections this month. Yesterday, far-Right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and mainstream Right candidate François Fillon seized on the blaze to call for stricter border controls into France.
Ms Le Pen said “this chaos must stop,” adding that “our national borders will be instantly re-established” should she win. Mr Fillon said the only answer was to tighten border controls and “return migrants who don’t have the right to asylum”.
Mr Macron’s En Marche! (On the Move!) group said the centrist candidate intended to “reopen discussion with Britain” as part of Brexit on “the situation that has turned us into the border guards, in a sense, of this country”.