We are recognized as a “public interest” organization and rely solely on the work of our volunteers. Your financial support would help us cover our operating costs, which would allow us to continue our activities and ensure the presence of a permanent legal team in Calais. However, many camp residents do not have identity documents or even legal identities in their countries of origin, as are many Eritrean, Ethiopian and Sudanese nationals. An OQTF cannot be issued to a person in this situation, either because it is not clear to which country the person should be deported, or because neither their country of origin nor other Schengen countries will accept it. [16] If the French justice finds that a person is staying illegally in France, an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) – an order to leave the France or to deport to a country of origin – can be issued. This is provided for in the Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum. This year, we are committed to investing more effort in litigation and advocacy. In April 2009, police raided a camp and bulldozed it and arrested 190 migrants. This camp in the forests around Calais has been rebuilt, with tents made of metal fences and plastic sheeting[57] and wooden shelters housing 700 to 800 mainly Afghan migrants.
[56] It was not hygienic. [57] In September 2009, another raid took place and 276 protesting migrants were arrested and put on buses. The bulldozers were expected to destroy their shelters later in the day. [56] Some jungle residents were imprisoned in the nearby Coquelles Detention Center; many others were taken to detention centres across the France before being released and returning to Calais on foot. For the past two years, and still today, these camps have been destroyed and the people living there have been illegally evicted every 48 hours. This policy of harassment is reinforced by a massive security arsenal that reinforces the “scorched earth” policy implemented by the French government in the region. Exiles are victims of a very repressive migration policy: creating homelessness; removal of personal effects; confiscation of housing; restrictions on access to food, water and hygiene; discrimination in the use of free transit buses; Arrests, detentions, deportations, intimidation and violence. These measures create precariousness and misery. The Calais Jungle (officially known as Camp de la Lande) was a refugee and illegal migrant camp near Calais, France, which existed from January 2015 to October 2016.
In years past, there were other camps known as jungles, but this particular slum attracted global media attention at the height of the European migration crisis in 2015, when its population was growing rapidly. The migrants remained in the camp while they tried to enter the UK or while waiting for their French asylum claims to be processed. Migrants have been congregating around Calais since at least the 1990s. [10] A refugee center was opened in 1999 and run by the French Red Cross in Sangatte, but it was soon overcrowded. [11] [12] After the closure of the Sangatte factory in November 2002 by Nicolas Sarkozy (then French Minister of the Interior) under pressure from the British government, a “jungle camp” was set up in the woods around the port of Calais,[4][11] along with various other camps that were built in the city before being demolished by the authorities. [13] The large camp lasted until April 2009, when French authorities launched a raid, arresting 190 people and using bulldozers to destroy tents. In July 2009, the camp was rebuilt and the BBC estimated that it had a population of around 800. [4] French authorities closed the camp in September 2009 in a dawn raid and arrested 276 people. [14] [15] Conditions in these camps were poor, generally without adequate sanitation facilities and without accommodation in tents and improvised accommodation. Food was provided by charity kitchens. French authorities have been faced with the dilemma of meeting humanitarian needs without attracting additional migrants.
[4] The idea that the provision of humanitarian aid is a pull factor for the region has been challenged by academics. [16] [17] [18] [19] Other smaller migration areas exist in France outside Calais. The Terre d`Errance Association estimates that there are eleven camps in the north of the country. [90] The largest of these is the site of Grande Synthe near Dunkirk. [90] In this place, in the first and oldest camp in Basroch refugee camp, migrants (mostly Iraqi Kurdish families) lived in deplorable conditions on marshy wasteland, without adequate sanitation or shelter. The place has been described as worse than Calais. [91] [92] In March 2016, while demolition work was taking place at the jungle site in Calais, a new camp called La Liniere was developed at the Grande-Synthe site – “the first refugee camp in France to meet international humanitarian standards.” It opened with 200 of the 375 cabins already built by MSF.