By Hannah Schultz, Executive Editor
Demolition of the “Jungle” started on Oct. 24 in Calais, France. For two years, around 7,000 immigrants have called these makeshift shelters home, but will now be bussed to other areas of France to start a new life.
According to the BBC, “cleaners” in orange jumpsuits started dismantling the tents and shacks by hand early on Tuesday. Officials say that clean-up will largely continue by hand, as bulldozers and heavy machinery might send the wrong message to migrants.
The BBC says that French and English authorities hope closing the Calais “Jungle” will discourage illegal immigration into the U.K. However, when Sangatte — a migrant camp started by the Red Cross in a former Eurotunnel hangar and major outpost for illegal immigration into the U.K — closed in 2002, it was not long before more camps started popping up around the area, and the “Jungle,” a camp over four times as large as Sangatte, was born.
This time, authorities believe the situation will be different.
After closing down the “Jungle,” and forcibly removing those who refuse to leave, the French government has an organized system for what happens next, the BBC reports. The migrants are bussed to Welcome and Orientation Centres (CAOs). Over 400 of these CAOs have been erected in former gendarme barracks, disused hospitals and training-centres and out-of-season holiday villages across the country.
At the CAOs, migrants will be allowed to apply for asylum. Those who do so will be moved to Reception Centres for Asylum Seekers. Those who do not wish to seek asylum will quickly be moved to other centers for possible expulsion from France.
However, the fate of the estimated 800 unaccompanied children claiming to have family who have successfully made it to the U.K. is more ambiguous. According to CNN, the U.K. has accepted 200 children since early October, but Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that the 800 left at the camp will not be considered. The dream of going to the U.K. to reunite with family is a major factor for many migrants who are resistant to leaving the “Jungle.”
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]At the CAOs, migrants will be allowed to apply for asylum. Those who do so will be moved to Reception Centres for Asylum Seekers.[/perfectpullquote]
“I’m going to England,” 15-year-old Afghan teenager Hussein said to a CNN reporter. “I don’t like France. My family is in England.”
Though officials have high hopes for the project, some of the French citizens living in the cities that will be hosting the influx of migrants have reacted poorly to the news.
“I am in two minds about it,” said a man to Le Monde newspaper. “On the one hand, we need to show common humanity. But are we really able to take in all these migrants? This is a small place which lives very quietly. Many of the inhabitants are old people, and they are the ones who get afraid.”
In Forges-les-Bains, outside Paris, a proposed centre was set on fire. And in the southern town of Beziers, the mayor has put up anti-immigrant posters with the words, “That’s it — they’re coming!” (BBC)
Only time will tell whether this new attempt to deal with France and the U.K.’s migrant crisis will stick — or if a new “Jungle” will begin construction to replace its predecessor.
