Having spent most of the last two weeks in Calais, I can say that while the operation to clear the French migrant camp known as "The Jungle" may ultimately benefit adults, it has failed unaccompanied children.
On Wednesday, police evacuated all remaining residents to the edge of the camp. Several hours later, the local prefecture announced it would be accepting no further registration for relocation of adults or unaccompanied children.
The decision left hundreds of children and adults in limbo.
Between 1,300 and 1,600 unaccompanied children -- most from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea -- had been taking shelter in the camp, including hundreds who were eligible for transfer to the UK based on family ties.… Seguir leyendo »
French authorities have begun the process of demolishing the migrant camp known as the Calais Jungle, and it is clear that the final few hours of this center are going to be just as big a disgrace as its previous existence.
I visited the Jungle earlier this month, just after President François Hollande had said that the camp would be closed down.
In light of this announcement, you might have expected that there would be official information points for the migrants, telling them about the alternative accommodation that the French authorities said they would provide, what they needed to do in order to be moved there, and encouraging them to leave straight away.… Seguir leyendo »
The dismantling of the Calais refugee camp brings a sense of deja vu for those of us who followed the eviction of the Idomeni camp on the Greece-Macedonia border in May. The streams of buses; the heavy machinery waiting to destroy the tents and shacks; the queues of bewildered people with their lives in bundles at their feet; the riot police standing by.
For the refugees there’s the terrible uncertainty about what happens next, the fear of being deported, taken into detention, separated from the small community they’ve made. And there’s the anxious surrender to the inevitable grief mixed with relief.… Seguir leyendo »
Imagine yourself in a sleepy French city by the Channel. There’s a nice beach where you can get an ice cream and take a selfie with the White Cliffs of Dover on the horizon, and a couple of boardwalk restaurants and cafés where you can go for coffee and a croissant.
Now get in a car and drive east, past the ferry terminal ringed by barbed wire and police officers toward the chemical plant. The first thing you’d notice is another fence, five meters high, of steel and barbed wire. It runs two miles along both sides of the highway in the direction of the ferry to Dover, England.… Seguir leyendo »
Utilizamos cookies para el correcto funcionamiento de la página web y analíticas para estadísticas.ACEPTARPolítica de privacidad
