Razing the Calais ‘Jungle’

The French police have razed the “Jungle” refugee camp at Calais, 21 miles across the English Channel from Britain, and bused about 5,000 of its residents to 451 shelters around France.

The dispersal of the campers likely will not ease the refugee pressure on France for long, though it may dilute that pressure. It will take a large international effort at the sources of the flow of migrants in Africa, the Middle East and south Asia to discourage departures for Europe.

In Calais, about 1,000 refugees refused to board buses for other communities (where they may apply for asylum), and set fire to the remnants of the Calais camp.

For a significant minority of the campers, giving up their goal of reaching Britain was not something they were willing to do. Eventual settlement there was the point of their perilous journeys. Many managed to dodge dispersal elsewhere in the European Union to make for Calais, where they hoped to stow away for Britain.

Calais is the terminal of the rail and motor vehicle routes under the English Channel and a major cross-Channel ferry terminal. Few succeeded in catching a lift, and few of those who did evaded arrest. The British, French and Channel Tunnel authorities arrested 78,000 in 2014-2015.

Why Britain? Europe’s best economy was one lure; another was Britain’s reputation as a country still under the rule of law. (That said, Germany attracts more migrants than Britain.)

The flow of migrants to Europe this year is running at about a third of the 2015 pace, but the number of deaths on the crossing already exceeds last year’s 3,800.

The “Jungle” may be history, but the problem is a long way from solution.