THE JUNGLE BREXITEERS
We know you don’t want us, Calais refugees tell MoS, but France won’t stop us now
IT WAS the focus for so much of the crucial debate over migration before the EU referendum.
But last night in the camp in northern France known as ‘The Jungle’ – from where countless migrants have sought to make their way across the Channel – opinion was divided on the effect of the Brexit vote.
Some defiantly declared they were still determined to make the journey by whatever means they can, believing that the French police will not try so hard to stop them jumping on to lorries and Eurotunnel trains. But others huddled around their cooking fires in the ramshackle camp feared that Britain will soon stop accepting refugees after the shock vote.
A Syrian telecoms engineer called Khaled, 36, who fled the Assad regime in Damascus, said: ‘Even if the border did move to England, I don’t think it would make a difference. Any migrants found on lorries in Dover would still be sent straight back to France. It would mean a two-hour journey back to the camp instead of the ten-minute walk if they are caught here.’
Khaled, whose wife and two children are in a camp in Lebanon, said he was pinning his hopes on being allowed to move with his family to Canada, where he has a brother.
But engineering student Arshad Ali, 27, who claimed he was fleeing Taliban oppression in northern Pakistan, said: ‘It is good that England is to be separated from Europe. People at the camp here were very happy when they heard the news.
‘They think it will give them the opportunity to get to England more easily. At the moment, England tells France not to allow people to cross the border. The French police stop us because they are friends with England. The English also send money for fences over here
‘But if England wants to be separate, then I think the French will let us go to England. It will be easier for us to get on lorries and trains.’
Ali who has been in The Jungle for eight months, said he believed that the Brexit vote could also make it less likely that migrants would be
sent back to mainland Europe when claiming asylum.
He said: ‘If your fingerprints have already been taken in another country you can be sent back there – but if England and France do not talk so much, then that will be less likely.’
Mohammed Asif, 29, from Afghanistan, who spent Friday night trying to board lorries, said: ‘Some say that the French people might let us get on lorries because England is separate now. Also, if England throws out its workers from Europe, then there could be more jobs for us. But we do not know what is going to happen.’
Sanitary engineer Raouf Hadi, 40, expressed his sadness when he invited The Mail on Sunday into his shack for a cup of Tetley tea, flavoured with cardamon and cloves after breaking his Ramadan fast at sundown on Friday.
Raouf, from Sudan, lived in Libya for 13 years before crossing the Mediterranean in a people-smuggler’s boat. He said: ‘We want England to stay in the EU. I know people in England already don’t like immigrants. I am sure it will be even harder to claim asylum when the UK is on its own.’
As rats scampered around outside, he joked: ‘It is not going to stop the Sudanese men here trying to get over to your country. After all, we are all now addicted to English tea.’
Afghan citizen Amin Khan, 32, who runs a makeshift barber shop in The Jungle, said: ‘I am sad that England is leaving the EU.
‘It should just be one Europe. Everyone thinks that England left Europe because they don’t like refugees. Maybe they will stop accepting all refugees now.’
Amin, who lived in the UK before being refused asylum and deported, insisted he had no plans to return to Britain and was happy to remain in The Jungle, running his business and sending around €300 (£240) a month back to his wife and daughter in Afghanistan’s Khost province.
Belgian volunteer Franky Delamilliere, who was at The Jungle helping to run a kitchen, said: ‘A lot of migrants think it will be bad news having Britain out of Europe. They are worried that it will be even more difficult to be accepted in the UK.’
Many of the estimated 4,500 migrants at the camp heard of the Brexit vote on their smartphones in the early hours of Friday while trying to board UK-bound lorries and trains. Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart has called for the immediate suspension of the Touquet agreement which allows UK staff to conduct border checks in Calais and French officials to be in Dover.
She said such a move would lead to migrant camps being moved to Britain, echoing fears expressed by David Cameron during the Remain campaign. But French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault insisted that the treaty would stay in place.
Khali Mansour, a 44-year-old actor from Sudan, who has claimed asylum in France rather than heading for the UK, said: ‘Nobody knows what is going to happen to Britain now. It is a bad step for the UK to leave the EU for economic reasons.
‘I have two brothers in England. They told me there is no work and no money. It is a stupid idea to go.
‘I am trying to persuade people in the camp not to go to England. France is bigger and there is work here. I must have stopped around 150 people from going over.’