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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/26/calais-jungle-humanitarian-emergency-french
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| Demolishing the Calais Jungle won’t solve this humanitarian emergency | Demolishing the Calais Jungle won’t solve this humanitarian emergency |
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| To destroy the Calais Jungle without putting an adequate alternative in place is just cruel. Volunteers and refugees have spent months building a community with the essential infrastructure and services the French state has for so long refused to provide. | To destroy the Calais Jungle without putting an adequate alternative in place is just cruel. Volunteers and refugees have spent months building a community with the essential infrastructure and services the French state has for so long refused to provide. |
| Related: Calais Jungle: prefecture officials begin telling residents to leave | Related: Calais Jungle: prefecture officials begin telling residents to leave |
| Demolition of the southern section of the camp, which is to be bulldozed imminently, will result in the destruction of volunteer-run services including vaccination clinics, which have been invaluable in containing the recent measles outbreak, a women and children’s centre that cares for the hundreds of unaccompanied minors there, a mental health centre, and the ashram kitchen. The French authorities estimate that the homes of over 800 people will be destroyed. | Demolition of the southern section of the camp, which is to be bulldozed imminently, will result in the destruction of volunteer-run services including vaccination clinics, which have been invaluable in containing the recent measles outbreak, a women and children’s centre that cares for the hundreds of unaccompanied minors there, a mental health centre, and the ashram kitchen. The French authorities estimate that the homes of over 800 people will be destroyed. |
| This comes after the destruction of everything within 100 metres of the motorway, including two churches, a mosque and a school – this despite repeated assurances that they would be left alone. The authorities hope to have the entire camp cleared by 1 March. | This comes after the destruction of everything within 100 metres of the motorway, including two churches, a mosque and a school – this despite repeated assurances that they would be left alone. The authorities hope to have the entire camp cleared by 1 March. |
| What will all these homeless people be offered in return? A secure compound of converted shipping containers, which will house only a small proportion of those currently living in the Jungle. They will have no cooking or communal facilities. Entry will be controlled by handprint scanners, and many fear they will be forced to apply for asylum in France or be deported. | What will all these homeless people be offered in return? A secure compound of converted shipping containers, which will house only a small proportion of those currently living in the Jungle. They will have no cooking or communal facilities. Entry will be controlled by handprint scanners, and many fear they will be forced to apply for asylum in France or be deported. |
| Refugees not in the shipping containers will, it is claimed, be accommodated in places such as caravan parks and disused holiday centres in 92 locations across France. How this is to be achieved is unclear – the charity Help Refugees says a maximum of 60 people a day could be taken to these facilities. | Refugees not in the shipping containers will, it is claimed, be accommodated in places such as caravan parks and disused holiday centres in 92 locations across France. How this is to be achieved is unclear – the charity Help Refugees says a maximum of 60 people a day could be taken to these facilities. |
| Vast numbers will be made homeless, with little or no hope of alternative accommodation. Among them will be unaccompanied children, and people with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems. They will be more vulnerable to the widely reported attacks by French fascists and police. | Vast numbers will be made homeless, with little or no hope of alternative accommodation. Among them will be unaccompanied children, and people with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems. They will be more vulnerable to the widely reported attacks by French fascists and police. |
| There was at least limited protection in the Jungle, which over the space of a few months has undergone dramatic transformation thanks to the efforts of large numbers of British volunteers and cooperation between the refugees themselves, who together provided some essential services and infrastructure. | There was at least limited protection in the Jungle, which over the space of a few months has undergone dramatic transformation thanks to the efforts of large numbers of British volunteers and cooperation between the refugees themselves, who together provided some essential services and infrastructure. |
| Related: The horror of the Calais refugee camp: ‘We feel like we are dying slowly’ | Related: The horror of the Calais refugee camp: ‘We feel like we are dying slowly’ |
| Representatives of the various communities in the camp – Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, Sudanese, Eritrean – meet regularly to discuss problems and find solutions. As a result, the Jungle is a much safer and better ordered place than it was a few months ago. The volunteers and the refugees work closely together, and the jungle has become a unique place of cross-cultural understanding and co-operation. What a loss. | Representatives of the various communities in the camp – Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, Sudanese, Eritrean – meet regularly to discuss problems and find solutions. As a result, the Jungle is a much safer and better ordered place than it was a few months ago. The volunteers and the refugees work closely together, and the jungle has become a unique place of cross-cultural understanding and co-operation. What a loss. |
| The refugees will keep coming. This humanitarian emergency – the “refugee problem” as some would have it – will not be bulldozed or teargassed away. And neither can it be hidden behind a £15m razor wire fence or concealed by a mini police state. The obscene attempts by the UK to avoid its obligations under international law to give refuge to the persecuted include moving the UK border from Dover to Calais (something Natacha Bouchart, the Les Républicains mayor of Calais, wants to see reversed). | |
| Given the actions of other countries, and the dedication of its own citizens to help with the refugee crisis, the British government’s attitude of cruel indifference is simply unacceptable. | Given the actions of other countries, and the dedication of its own citizens to help with the refugee crisis, the British government’s attitude of cruel indifference is simply unacceptable. |