tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/calais-jungle-32349/articlesCalais Jungle – The Conversation2018-01-19T13:55:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/902562018-01-19T13:55:14Z2018-01-19T13:55:14ZMacron-May migrant deal: why Britain and France need strong bilateral ties<p>Ever since 1963, when the then French president Charles De Gaulle first <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_4187000/4187714.stm">vetoed</a> its application to join the European Economic Community (EEC), the UK’s relationship to the European project has been refracted through its bilateral relationship with France. It was, after all, the confirmation by his successor Georges Pompidou that he would not repeat de Gaulle’s veto, after a <a href="https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1999/1/1/80a8172a-0ed9-465d-b90c-76b58cd02d33/publishable_en.pdf">famous tête-à-tête</a> with Edward Heath in May 1971, which sealed the UK’s entry to the EEC. </p>
<p>The relationship has waxed and waned in the period since – and France has ceded much of the leadership it once exercised of the European Union to Germany. Yet, in recent European history, the UK’s interests have needed to be weighed in the balance with those of France. Points of antagonism and mutual antipathy – most notably <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/apr/05/france.foreignpolicy">between Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac</a> on the invasion of Iraq – must be set alongside cooperation and cautious entente on defence, security and foreign affairs.</p>
<p>So it is unsurprising that the British prime minister, Theresa May, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42723401">bilateral UK-France summit</a> on January 18 at a critical moment <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-negotiations-phase-two-heres-what-happens-next-88893">in the Brexit negotiations</a>, using the diplomatic opportunity to consolidate cooperation on defence and security. </p>
<p>Britain is trying to leverage its defence and foreign policy assets in the Brexit process, deepening the ties forged in recent years with France on military capabilities and intelligence sharing. Macron is attempting to rebuild French political influence in global affairs, and to shape the future evolution of Europe. Offering to <a href="https://theconversation.com/bayeux-and-brexit-what-the-tapestry-says-about-the-uks-shared-european-heritage-90332">loan the Bayeux Tapestry</a> to the UK is the latest in a string of soft power manoeuvres by the French president in the pursuit of these ambitions.</p>
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<h2>Le Touquet agreement</h2>
<p>Still, Macron preceded the summit at Sandhurst with hard talk on a visit to Calais, declaring that there <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/16/macron-visits-calais-before-migrant-crisis-meeting-with-may">would be no new “jungle camp”</a> and that security around the Channel crossings would be tightened. He asked the UK government to stump up more cash to improve security measures – and £44.5m was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/18/uk-to-pay-extra-445m-for-calais-security-in-anglo-french-deal">duly agreed</a> by May. However, he did not repeat a demand he and others made in the run up to the French presidential elections in 2017 that the original Le Touquet agreement, signed in 2003, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/28/emmanuel-macron-ill-renegotiate-le-touquet-border-treaty">should be renegotiated or abandoned</a>. </p>
<p>This is the agreement between the two countries which established so-called “juxtaposed” border controls on either side of the English Channel at Dover, Calais and Dunkirk. Similar controls already existed for travellers using the Eurotunnel at Coquelles and the Eurostar services between Paris and London. It has commonly been seen in France as “exporting” the UK border to French soil, and with it, the problem of migrants congregating near Calais while attempting to reach the UK.</p>
<p>I attended the 2003 Le Touquet summit in my then capacity as an adviser to the UK home secretary, David Blunkett. For our part, it was a largely ceremonial affair, as all the negotiations on the juxtaposed controls and the future of the Sangatte Camp – a facility in which people seeking entry to the UK were housed – had been concluded by the time of the summit itself. The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1408494/Blunkett-reaches-deal-to-shut-Sangatte-camp.html">British government agreed</a> to give the majority of the 2,000 people in the Sangatte camp residence in the UK and issued them with temporary work visas. </p>
<p>Security in Calais was tightened up and pre-embarkation border controls were established on the channel ferries. Flows of migrants to the area declined. What little we know of what happened to the Sangatte residents in the UK – there appears to be <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/59/3/509/1585042?redirectedFrom=fulltext">only a small-scale study</a> based on 15 interviews – suggests they found employment in low-skilled sectors such as food processing, as refugees and other migrants often do. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/docs/pdf/2004/TS0018.pdf">Le Touquet Agreement</a> endured as a framework of Franco-British cooperation for a little over a decade, until the growth in migrant populations coming into the EU to seek refuge from conflict and displacement in North Africa and Syria put it <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-next-for-british-border-controls-in-calais-64769">under severe pressure</a>.</p>
<p>Yet despite the pre-election rhetoric, the new “Sandhurst Treaty”, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/jan/18/macron-may-summit-french-president-emmanual-macron-theresa-may-labour-mp-calls-for-windfall-tax-on-pfi-companies-politics-live">Macron called it</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-france-summit-2018-documents">reaffirms</a> the Le Touquet agreement as the basis for Franco-British cooperation over immigration issues. The formula for cooperation that was created in the early 2000s is reapplied: Britain has agreed to take some asylum seekers from the Calais region in return for increased security and the continued operation of border controls on the continental side.</p>
<h2>A new landscape</h2>
<p>But the governance of these arrangements has changed since 2003 in two important respects. In the case of unaccompanied minors, exceptional provision for a managed route to the UK was applied under the so-called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/38932500">Dubs Amendment</a> to the 2016 Immigration Act. Campaigners hoped that the UK government would give 3,000 children protection under this route, but the numbers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/02/child-refugee-legal-challenge-dubs-government-scheme-fails">have been limited to 480</a>, despite the willingness of local authorities to engage with the scheme. </p>
<p>The new agreement doesn’t appear to increase the number of people the UK is willing to take, but <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/674885/Treaty_Concerning_the_Reinforcement_Of_Cooperation_For_The_Coordinated_Management_Of_Their_Shared_Border.pdf">establishes clear time limits</a> for processing the cases of unaccompanied minors and other asylum seekers. Hundreds of people, including children, are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/16/england-seemed-so-close-refugee-15-crushed-to-death-by-calais-lorry">still living rough</a> in Calais.</p>
<p>The second change is that the revised <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:180:0031:0059:EN:PDF">Dublin (III) EU regulations</a>, which came into force in 2013, provide for a claim to asylum to be heard in a member state in which an asylum seeker has family members, as well as offering additional safeguards for minors. If the case is processed efficiently after initial claims are lodged, transfers of asylum cases to the UK from northern France could take place in an ongoing, structured manner. It remains to be seen whether this will happen in practice – not least because the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/border-force-under-strain-as-low-grade-staff-fail-to-keep-up-vstfs9td5">operational capability</a> of the UK Home Office remains weak and Brexit is draining departmental resources across Whitehall.</p>
<p>The bilateral agreements signed between France and the UK occupy a shifting and legally complex zone, within national and EU law governing asylum and migration policy and practice. Brexit will force further changes, the effect of which cannot easily be predicted, particularly <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/28/brexit-must-mean-not-less-child-refugees/">if Britain comes out of Dublin III</a> and does not replace it with equivalent law. </p>
<p>But the symbolic potency of immigration to Britain from northern France in fraught and often racist debates about national identity and security – on both sides of the channel – is unlikely to disappear, even if practical cooperation improves. That, unfortunately, is another lesson of recent history.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-published on the University of Bath’s <a href="http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2018/01/19/macron-may-migrant-deal-why-britain-and-france-need-strong-bilateral-ties/">IPR blog</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Pearce is a member of the Labour Party. He was an adviser to the home secretary, David Blunkett, between 2001 and 2003. </span></em></p>The deal reaffirms the existing Le Touquet agreement as the basis for co-operation between France and the UK.Nick Pearce, Director, Institute of Policy Research, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793932017-06-16T13:50:22Z2017-06-16T13:50:22ZHow the spectre of Yugoslavia looms over EU’s handling of the refugee crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174172/original/file-20170616-505-v1g0t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Memorial to early 1990s war in Sarajevo, Bosnia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/26781577@N07/16027223292/in/photolist-egsG6G-6abNp5-7JM6DS-qqgH75-9y4d8t-rU8BDr">Clay Gilliland</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With peak season approaching for refugees making treacherous journeys to and through Europe, don’t be surprised if we are told again that this is unprecedented. That would certainly be in keeping with what <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34173972">news organisations</a>, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-idUSKCN0QZ0TK20150831">politicians</a> and <a href="https://www.oecd.org/migration/Is-this-refugee-crisis-different.pdf">research bodies</a> have asserted in the past several years. </p>
<p>In fact, Europe has coped with comparable situations – not least the Balkan crisis of the early 1990s. It tends to be overlooked that the Yugoslav experience has informed EU refugee policy this time around. Arguably this has made the situation better than it might otherwise have been. </p>
<p>Contrary to popular belief, similar numbers of people <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3c3eb40f4.pdf">from the</a> former Yugoslavia <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/afr/news/latest/2002/6/3d0f6dcb5/2001-global-refugee-statistics.html">sought</a> asylum in northern Europe as Syrians have <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_quarterly_report">more recently</a> – as demonstrated below. Indeed, more sought asylum from the former Yugoslavia in Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the UK than from Syria so far. </p>
<p><strong>Asylum applications from Yugoslavs and Syrians</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173636/original/file-20170613-30061-fihe29.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sources: UNHCR, Eurostat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking at asylum seekers <a href="http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=migr_asyappctza&lang=en">in general</a>, more did come to most northern European countries during the 2010s than the early 1990s. Yet the difference is not enormous: approximately 2.5m in 1991-96 versus 3.2m in 2011-16. </p>
<p>While Germany, Sweden, France and Austria have recorded more applications in the more recent period, the opposite is true for the Netherlands and the UK. And since most northern European countries’ populations rose between the early 1990s and the early 2010s, the overall difference will also be less as a proportion of populations as a whole. </p>
<p><strong>Asylum applications as a whole</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173642/original/file-20170613-30093-13g8863.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sources: UNHCR, Eurostat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Mediterranean spectacle</h2>
<p>The northern European media have nevertheless given much more prominence to the latest crisis. Partly this is because those seeking protection in the early 1990s mainly came by car, bus or train. In more recent years, many asylum seekers have taken to the seas to get around Europe’s strict visa laws. Images of distressed boat migrants played out in the media before millions of viewers. It became a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2013.783710">border spectacle</a>, which encouraged perceptions of migrants’ illegality in the process.</p>
<p>The fear of Islamic terrorists posing as refugees also differs substantially nowadays. Although many Muslims from Bosnia and outside Europe applied for asylum in the early 1990s, their religious background was not such an issue. </p>
<p>Following 9/11 – and numerous other Islamic terrorist attacks in the West – debates about immigration and asylum have become far more security and culturally oriented. This has frequently been driven by anti-immigration parties such as <a href="http://www.ukip.org">UKIP</a> in the UK, France’s <a href="http://www.frontnational.com">Front National</a> and the <a href="https://www.parlement.com/id/vhnnmt7m4rqi/partij_voor_de_vrijheid_pvv">Partij voor de Vrijheid</a> in the Netherlands. </p>
<p>These parties did sometimes break through in northern Europe in the early 1990s. The Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs in Austria attained 22% of the <a href="http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2017_94.htm">national vote in 1994</a>, for example. Nevertheless these parties have become much more media savvy and presentable, as demonstrated by Marine le Pen in France and the <a href="http://eureferendum.com">Brexit success</a> in the UK. This has been heavily assisted by the economic crisis and a sense of disillusion with mainstream politics. </p>
<h2>EU in the dock</h2>
<p>The anti-immigration parties attach much blame to the EU for allowing too many people to come in and failing to control what happens at borders. The truth is rather more complicated. </p>
<p>During both crises, many European states have adopted a beggar-thy-neighbour attitude to asylum. States, including Germany, that encouraged joint European responses have borne most of the burden. In 1994 Germany <a href="http://www.lse-students.ac.uk/THIELEMA/Papers-PDF/JRS-16-3-BS-Interests-Norms.pdf">proposed</a> a pan-EU distribution system for asylum seekers. Other EU members, especially the UK and France, opposed this – despite receiving relatively few applicants. In the end, the EU shelved the idea.</p>
<p>The likes of the Germans and Swedes perceived that the EU’s lack of power over immigration asylum policy was part of the problem, so they sought reform. As a result, the EU’s influence on the immigration and asylum affairs of member states has since developed significantly. The <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex%3A41997A0819%2801%29">1997 Dublin Convention</a> requires asylum seekers to apply for protection in the first EU country they enter, while the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/asylum_en">1999 Common European Asylum System</a> attempted to harmonise the whole asylum process. </p>
<p>Another lesson post-Yugoslavia was that instead of relying on the likes of the British, you seek alternatives. So instead of any move towards proper collective responsibility for EU asylum seekers, the southern and central European states <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319398280">have taken</a> more responsibility while the north’s commitment has stayed the same. </p>
<p>Southern EU countries, notably Greece and Italy, agreed to this in the 2000s because they had few refugees and wanted to implement a comparable system to the northern states over time. Newer EU states joined too late to influence negotiations. You can see the consequences in this graph:</p>
<p><strong>Applications in Hungary, Greece and Italy</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173768/original/file-20170614-21350-1lffgzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sources: UNHCR, Eurostat.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only has the EU therefore reduced northern member states’ asylum burden, with Angela Merkel to the fore it successfully negotiated an <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement/">agreement</a> with Turkey last March. This helped greatly reduce the numbers making the sea voyage to Greece, cutting all <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/mediterranean-migrant-arrivals-top-363348-2016-deaths-sea-5079">boat voyages</a> to Europe by roughly two-thirds in 2016. </p>
<p>This has not solved the problem. The numbers dying at sea actually <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/record-migrant-death-toll-two-boats-capsize-italy-un-refugee">increased</a> in the same period despite this agreement because the journey from Libya to Italy is much more dangerous. It remains difficult for the EU to strike a deal with Libya – the country’s civil war is ongoing and it has never signed the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/1951-refugee-convention.html">UN Refugee Convention</a>. Migrants also <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/DetainedAndDehumanised_en.pdf">tend to be</a> treated appallingly in Libyan detention centres. </p>
<p>Many EU states are nevertheless seeking a way around this problem –a <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/eu-leaders-approve-plan-to-curb-migration-from-libya-africa/">plan was agreed</a> earlier this year to curb refugee numbers from Libya. Expect further debate about such initiatives once peak season begins. </p>
<p>In short, what separates the current refugee crisis is not its scale. It is that it has occurred during a <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2016/02/europe%E2%80%99s-refugee">perfect storm</a> of other factors: the economic crisis, the rise of anti-immigration parties, and a media <a href="http://serious-science.org/newspapers-in-crisis-5974">increasingly desperate</a> for readers and arguably resorting to ever uglier coverage to keep them. </p>
<p>Look beyond this and the northern European countries have clearly tried to learn from the past. The real question is whether the fix is workable – in particular, the shifting of some of the burden to southern and central European states. It is not at all clear <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/refugee-hotspots-in-italy-and-greece-not-yet-adequate-say-eu-auditors/">whether they have</a> the capacity to cope with it. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is part of a series on sustainability and transformation in today’s Europe, published in collaboration with <a href="http://www.europenowjournal.org">EuropeNow Journal</a> and the <a href="https://councilforeuropeanstudies.org">Council for European Studies (CES)</a> at Columbia University. Each article is based on a paper presented at the <a href="https://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/upcoming-conferences/2017-ces-conference">24th International Conference of Europeanists</a> in Glasgow.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irial Glynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Everyone has forgotten there were almost as many asylum seekers in Europe in the early 1990s as today.Irial Glynn, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Institute of History, Leiden UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/730092017-03-09T10:18:03Z2017-03-09T10:18:03ZScattered but hopeful: stories of life after the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp<p>My social media pages suddenly were filled with pictures of celebratory dinners hosted for refugees in French villages and towns, selfies of small groups of students visiting museums or relaxing in parks, and short videos of fireworks from Paris and London. It was January 1 2017 – and these messages were optimistic. Images of sunsets and horizons twinkled on the Facebook feeds. Best wishes for peace and happiness in the year ahead appeared in elaborate English and French on my phone. By post, I received a beautiful painting, a New Year’s gift.</p>
<p>All these salutations came from former residents of the refugee camp widely known as the “Jungle”, which was finally demolished by the French government <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37759032">in late October 2016</a>. So where are the residents now, and what has 2017 been like for them so far?</p>
<p>Between September 2015 and October 2016, along with colleagues from the University of East London, I ran an accredited university <a href="https://educatingwithoutborders.wordpress.com/university-for-all-2/">short course on “Life Stories”</a> in the refugee camp at Calais. Our last students are getting their certificates in March 2017, and we hope this will encourage them to move on in higher education. A group of 22 earlier students authored a book, <a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745399683&">Voices from the “Jungle”</a>, which will be published by Pluto Press in April. </p>
<p>We are in touch with many ex-students by phone, social media and email – and we meet up with them when possible. We want “Life Stories” to continue working as a gateway to other higher education possibilities. These include efforts to make universities <a href="https://universities.cityofsanctuary.org/">places of sanctuary</a>, student <a href="http://article26.hkf.org.uk/student-bursaries/2016-17-student-bursaries">bursaries</a>, free <a href="https://kiron.ngo/">online degrees</a> for refugees and wider <a href="http://www.resome.org">educational support networks</a>. And at UEL, we are taking “Life Stories” further and will start a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/university-east-london-free-course-refugees-asylum-seekers-only-erasmus-programme-eu-funding-a7595206.html">two-year programme</a> in April to help people from refugee backgrounds advance their education. </p>
<p>Refugees around the world, despite their high motivation for education and, often, strong educational backgrounds, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2016/9/57d7d6f34/unhcr-reports-crisis-refugee-education.html">have only a 1% chance</a> of entering higher education. This represents a socioeconomic forfeit for the countries where they settle – and a deep personal loss for them.</p>
<p>Education is rarely the first priority and ex-residents faced many problems. The situation in both France and the UK <a href="http://www.brighterfutureslondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/The-Cost-of-Waiting-ALL-1UP-Web.pdf">is stressful and penurious</a>. People are faced with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/29/uk-asylum-seekers-face-longest-wait-for-work-permit-in-europe">long waits</a> for decisions on asylum claims and appeals and are often stuck in one place, unable to work. While waiting, the horrors of the journey and of earlier traumatic events return. As one young Iranian man said: “I was strong at the time, but now – I feel weak.”</p>
<p>Our students were not economic migrants. They gave detailed accounts with evidence of their imprisonment and torture, the killing of people close to them or threats to their own lives, as well as the terrors and deaths they had witnessed on their journeys to Europe. They hoped to further their education, but they were insulted by the idea that economic self-advancement had led them to leave everyone they loved and to risk their lives in the Sahara, the mountains of Iran, and on the Mediterranean Sea. </p>
<p>For them, Warsan Shire’s poem <a href="https://qz.com/897871/warsan-shires-poem-captures-the-reality-of-life-for-refugees-no-one-leaves-home-unless-home-is-the-mouth-of-a-shark/">Home</a>, which starts, “No-one leaves home/unless home is the mouth of a shark”, was highly resonant.</p>
<h2>Mixed fortunes</h2>
<p>As we were teaching a university course, our team did not work with minors, but some hung out in our classes. After demolition, those in Calais had difficult times, seeming pawns in a waiting game between UK and French government efforts to shift responsibility for them. In the immediate aftermath, a third of one group being tracked <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/calais-jungle-camp-child-refugees-missing-demolition-youth-service-migrants-uk-a7435771.html">went missing</a>. Some unaccompanied minors claimed asylum in France, either because they had better experiences of the country in French reception centres for migrants, away from Calais, or because they gave up on reaching the UK. </p>
<p>Later, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-space-for-lone-refugee-children-in-britain-but-the-government-isnt-trying-to-find-it-72818">failure</a> by the UK government to deliver on the Dubs Amendment promise to bring some unaccompanied minors to the UK led many to abandon French government centres and make their way back to northern France, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/20/mps-warn-over-child-refugees-sleeping-rough-after-dubs-scheme-closure">sleeping rough</a> in small encampments. One ex-student, now 19, got in touch from the Dunkirk camp, where the disintegrating shelters were full and he was back in a freezing tent. He texted, using a friend’s phone, to say that he was desperate because he had not had contact with his family in many months.</p>
<p>In the UK, the situation is easier for minors reunited with family. One young man from Afghanistan, Ahmed*, was depressed and silent in the camp, surviving only, he said, by listening to music on his phone. Now, he is living with his sister in Manchester, absorbed in college plans, much too occupied to text us. </p>
<p>Two other unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan, Shahid and Abid, live in group care for 16 to 18-year-olds in London. With no family contact, they rely on each other for emotional support. Local people ask them if they are terrorists or tell them to “go home”. They have bad dreams, jump when doors slam, and fear the deportations <a href="http://www.fmreview.org/detention/gladwell.html">common</a> when Afghans turn 18. Sometimes, they say it might be better to go back to Afghanistan now and die there, rather than live with such uncertainty and fear. Occasionally, they think about hurting themselves.</p>
<h2>Living in limbo</h2>
<p>Some of our adult ex-students in the UK are waiting for Home Office interviews, or decisions about their asylum status. They live in government-provided accommodation on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">£36 a week</a>. It’s not easy, but they are resourceful. One shares with four other young Sudanese men, buying food and cooking together, spinning out the money. Another, Omar, stayed for many months in a small Welsh city. With transport to and from the town centre costing £4, he was isolated and experienced considerable racism, but still managed to support another asylum-seeker whose money had not yet come through.</p>
<p>Gaining leave to remain is not the end of the story – after a month, you will lose your asylum-seeker housing and allowance, and many benefits will not be available to you. You must quickly find a job and somewhere to live. Many former residents of the Calais camp with leave to remain are now in London, where they have reasonable chances of finding work. But they can get caught in a poverty trap of low-wage, zero-hours contracts, with no time for college or even to go to the library to use a computer. Living in the cheapest areas, they spend many hours and considerable money commuting. And they must save – they often need to pay family back or have relations they must help to survive. </p>
<p>An ex-student with an English degree works 10-hour days for the minimum wage with a four-hour commute. He looks after his younger brother, making sure he’s getting an education – and sends money to his ailing parents in Eritrea.</p>
<p>The situation in France is also not easy for other former students. Milkesa, from Ethiopia, left the camp to claim asylum in France in 2015; his case is still pending. He lives in terror of refusal and its two possible consequences: deportation to Ethiopia, where he would be killed, or living illegally on the street. </p>
<p>Shaheen was injured in his attempts to get to the UK, so claimed asylum in France just before the camp’s demolition. His little daughter back in Afghanistan won’t speak to him. She thinks he is lying because he always says he will see her “soon”. The main characteristic of being a refugee is, he says, “waiting”.</p>
<h2>Studies continue</h2>
<p>Around 80 ex-Calais residents had a luckier break. They were selected to be <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/campus/article/2016/10/19/calais-80-migrants-quittent-la-jungle-pour-etudier-a-l-universite-de-lille_5016675_4401467.htmlink">students at Université Lille 3</a>, taking French language courses before proceeding to full degrees. One ex-student, Riaz, described it as “a dream coming true”. It’s a great way to ensure refugees’ talents and motivation are made the most of. But it’s not a solution for everyone. Several students have been refused asylum and are appealing, a long and nerve-racking process.</p>
<p>One benefit from the unique Calais situation has been the carryover of friendships and collaborative organising experience. Riaz and Shaheen advocate for colleagues in their reception centres who have fewer language skills. On New Year’s Eve, Omar was volunteering in London with people who are homeless. Some former residents have formed a refugee-led organisation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hopetownsUK/">Hopetowns</a>, to provide support for refugees in the UK.</p>
<p>And despite numerous obstacles, many “Life Stories” ex-students not fortunate enough to be at Université Lille 3 are preparing for higher education. Two already have offers of UK university places. Shaheen and Omar are improving their French and English, respectively, so that they can make university applications. Another “Life Stories” attender, an Iraqi orphan who survived a traumatic journey to the UK, is planning to start an access course: “I will work so hard, and if university – any university – accepts me, I will go,” he says.</p>
<p>* <em>Some names and other identifying details have been changed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corinne Squire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What has happened to former residents since the camp was closed in October 2016.Corinne Squire, Professor of Social Sciences, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/718342017-01-25T14:48:55Z2017-01-25T14:48:55ZYoung Eritreans are victims of poor decision making by British asylum officials<p>The Home Office has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/22/home-office-eritrea-guidance-softened-to-reduce-asylum-seeker-numbers">criticised</a> for a policy which excluded Eritrean children evicted from the Calais Jungle camp from resettlement in the UK. Documents <a href="http://www.publiclawproject.org.uk/news/69/home-office-disclosure-reveals-efforts-to-reduce-the-numbers-of-eritrean-nationals-granted-asylum-wi">obtained by the Public Law Project</a> show how asylum decisions for Eritreans have been based on questionable information about conditions in the country. </p>
<p>The result of this poor decision-making in the Home Office has created demand, cost and inconsistency throughout the asylum system.</p>
<p>There were two ways children from the Calais camp could be brought to the UK. The “Dublin children” – those who have a relative in the UK – have a right to enter under the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:180:0031:0059:EN:PDF">Dublin III Regulation</a>, which sets out a list of criteria which each European country has to consider when assessing a person’s asylum claim.</p>
<p>The “Dubs children”, those admitted under the <a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Immigration%20Bill%20-%20Unaccompanied%20Children.pdf">Dubs Amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act</a>, were admitted at the discretion of the Home Office. The guidance for this was not <a href="http://www.ecre.org/new-home-office-guidelines-limit-scope-of-dubs-amendment/">published</a> until mid-November, some three weeks after the eviction of the Calais camp started. It essentially only allowed children under the age of 12, plus Syrian and Sudanese children under 16 to enter the UK. Those nationalities overwhelmingly succeed in their asylum claims. </p>
<p>So why not Eritrean children? </p>
<h2>Eritreans on the outside</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2016/asylum#nationalities-applying-for-asylum">asylum grant rate</a> for Eritreans had already fallen from 86% to 42% in the year to March 2016 – out of 3,321 claims. This was after the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32411352">Home Office issued new guidance</a> to its own caseworkers in March 2015, advising that conditions in Eritrea had improved. </p>
<p>That guidance was based on a Danish Immigration Service report issued in November 2014. But that report was soon largely <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21679843-thin-evidence-britain-declares-its-biggest-source-refugees-safe-after-all-turned-away">discredited</a>: the <a href="https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2016-ukut-443">key expert</a> and two of the researchers for the report later publicly criticised it for “cherry-picking” the evidence. By mid-December, Denmark reverted to its former practice of granting asylum to most Eritrean applicants.</p>
<p>Yet three months later, the British Home Office began refusing Eritreans refugee status on the basis of the Danish report. Those who were refused had a right of appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Chamber of the Tribunal. </p>
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<p>The result was a spike in appeals by Eritreans whose asylum had been rejected. There <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2016/asylum#nationalities-applying-for-asylum">were 1,760 appeals</a> in the year to March 2016, compared with 224 the year before. And of these appeals, 85% succeeded. </p>
<p>At a time when legal aid, and the budgets for tribunals and the Home Office have been cut, this poor decision-making created an extraordinary level of unnecessary demand for services. It’s hard to quantify the cost of roughly 1,546 extra asylum appeals. Some of those appealing will have been represented by a lawyer, some will have had interpreters. The hearings last around two to four hours each, most with a Home Office official present to argue against the appeal. Add to that the judge’s time to read court papers and write decisions, plus tribunal staffing and administration. This, of course, is on top of the stress for the person claiming asylum.</p>
<p>Tribunal judges have been deciding differently from the Home Office, primarily because they have had no credible evidence that Eritrean asylum applicants were less at risk than in the previous four years. The Upper Tribunal finally settled the matter with a <a href="https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2016-ukut-443">new country guidance case for Eritrea</a> in October 2016. It agreed that Eritreans were still at risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and forced labour under Articles 3 and 4 of the <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">European Convention on Human Rights</a>. This means most Eritreans should once again be granted asylum at first application, without an appeal – though of course there are still appeals in the system from the people who were wrongly refused because of the old guidance.</p>
<h2>No triage</h2>
<p>But it doesn’t end there. Everyone claiming asylum is facing significant delays. A <a href="http://www.refugee-legal-centre.org.uk/practical-guides/new-asylum-model.html">New Asylum Model</a>, introduced in 2007 to speed up processing, meant that all cases should be decided within six months. Asylum lawyers I’ve interviewed during my ongoing research say that even child clients are not being dealt with in that timetable. </p>
<p>A solicitor I have interviewed for my ongoing research told me that her child clients almost always receive a letter after six months saying their applications will be considered in the next half-year. Most still don’t receive an interview appointment within that first year in the UK, unless she makes a formal complaint. Realistically, she finds it is not worth a judicial review of the delay – to force the Home Office to interview the child and decide the case – until a year has gone by. </p>
<p>Eventually, when she does start a judicial review claim, the Home Office immediately agrees to provide an interview appointment – and pay the costs of the judicial review application. All this demands work, costs money, and is unnecessary if the Home Office responded properly to correspondence in the first place.</p>
<p>Another lawyer I’ve interviewed in my ongoing research told me about the case of a Syrian client under 16-years-old who was still waiting for an interview after almost a year. This child is almost guaranteed to receive refugee status. The lawyer told me the case could be decided in half an hour, but the Home Office had not even looked at the case.</p>
<p>There is in effect no triage system for finding those easy cases, where success is more or less inevitable. This means some adults will be waiting months or years for a decision, while being unable to work and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">having to live on £36.95 a week</a> in state asylum support. There appears to be no triage system for children’s cases either, even though they are recognised as vulnerable, and there is a real risk that the long delay will mean they can’t remember important details of what happened to them.</p>
<p>This poor quality decision making in the Home Office is leading to too many wrong refusals and creating costly demand in other parts of the system. The Home Office needs to be properly resourced, with properly trained and advised decision makers.</p>
<p>And it’s time we brought over those Eritrean children abandoned at the Calais Jungle demolition, since that’s what the Dubs Amendment was for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Wilding does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Eritreans whose asylum claims are rejected have them overturned on appeal.Jo Wilding, PhD candidate, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/674002016-10-26T06:54:03Z2016-10-26T06:54:03ZTolerance and humanitarianism will not solve Europe’s ‘migration crisis’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143100/original/image-20161025-4721-p7r6bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pascal Rossignol</span>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Writer and social critic James Baldwin said that America did not so much have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2935392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">a “negro problem” but a “white problem”</a>. In this vein, it seems that Europe is not so much experiencing a “migration crisis”, but a “European crisis”. The continent is failing those people seeking safety and a future in what they have been told is a land where human rights are respected. </p>
<p>The UN has said that 2016 is on track to become the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37763052">deadliest year ever</a> for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, as previous routes close and smugglers choose new, riskier passages across the sea to Europe.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in Calais, the “Jungle” migrant camp is being dismantled by French authorities. Its inhabitants, most of whom are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/25/calais-refugees-queue-to-leave-camp-demolition">desperate to reach the UK</a>, are being transported to different locations around France.</p>
<p>Across Europe, migrants and refugees are increasingly faced with detention of dubious legality and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/19/greece-refugee-hotspots-unsafe-unsanitary">temporal uncertainty</a> in “hot spots” and reception centres, or <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/20/france-migrants-asylum-seekers-abused-and-destitute">in makeshift camps where they face routine police violence</a>, while they try to prove their refugee status.</p>
<h2>Failing European democracies</h2>
<p>In Europe, would-be refugees do not benefit from the principle of presumed innocence until proven guilty. Instead, they are considered undesirables who must prove their worthiness as genuine, deserving refugees. </p>
<p>This can be seen in the attitudes expressed in certain British newspapers, where questions have been raised about <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2000852/second-wave-of-child-migrants-arrives-from-calais-without-proper-age-checks-carried-out-on-them/">the age of child refugees</a> being relocated from Calais to the UK. British politician David Davies has even <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-37701306">suggested dental checks</a> to prove the age, and hence, the worthiness of these refugees. </p>
<p>Across the continent, not only do refugees have to display a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries, but they also have to <a href="http://www.islamophobiaeurope.com/reports/2015/en/EIR_2015.pdf">dispel fears that they pose a security threat</a> in their new host countries. This is particularly the case for Muslims. Instead of being given an example of democracy in practice, too many migrants find that Europe is abandoning its own inspirational ethos.</p>
<p>Despite declarations and initiatives from the European Commission and its member states about the humanitarian imperative to save more lives at sea, quite the opposite is happening. By October of this year <a href="http://missingmigrants.iom.int/">3,649 people had died in the Mediterranean sea</a>. These deaths cannot be simply read as unfortunate accidents nor should they simply be attributed to unscrupulous smugglers. They are also the consequence of European migration and border polices. </p>
<p>Sometimes this takes a direct form, as when <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/08/22/coast-guard-fired-at-migrant-boats-european-border-agency-documents-show/">European border guards use firearms</a> to “fight the smugglers” but actually injure or kill refugees in the process of stopping the boats. News website The Intercept has reported on the shooting of boats as “standard rules of engagement for stopping boats at sea”. </p>
<p>At other times it takes less direct forms, for instance through so-called “<a href="http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/migrant-push-backs-at-sea-are-prohibited-collective-expulsions/">push backs</a>” – when border guards enforce collective expulsions of migrants and refugees from European areas of jurisdiction in order to evade asylum responsibilities. </p>
<h2>The urgency of an ethical and legal response</h2>
<p>This is what I mean when I say Europe is in crisis, as it grapples with a political climate characterised by the mainstreaming of authoritarianism, populist movements <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/nationalists-stage-anti-refugee-protest-in-four-bulgarian-cities-10-21-2016">hostile to migrants</a> and <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2016/0206/Anti-Islam-movement-stages-anti-immigration-protests-across-Europe">anti-Muslim racism</a>. This political climate is all too often unchallenged by any alternative vision.</p>
<p>At best, we hear calls for a need to protect the most <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmintdev/463/46306.htm">vulnerable</a>, or the <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/hungary-to-help-christians-while-rejecting-muslim-migrants-1.2807543">Christians</a>, or to promote tolerance. But if we fall prey to such divisive reasoning, we will stop thinking in terms of rights and social justice. </p>
<p>Humanitarianism operates through notions of generosity and compassion, as it divides groups into hierarchies of deservedness in terms of perceived vulnerability. It lends itself to limited forms of protection – women and children first – and abrogates Europe of its <a href="http://europeanmigrationlaw.eu/en/mentions_legales#asile_123_4_0">legal obligations</a> and the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html">entitlement of all refugees</a> to protection and dignified treatment. </p>
<p>Similarly, calls for “tolerance” are about as unsatisfactory as calls to only resettle Christian refugees. If we are striving for tolerance of a group of people, it is rather unlikely that we will think of them in positive terms, let alone as equals. </p>
<p>If we want to tackle the current crisis and restore the values Europe aspires to, we need to start thinking about migrants in terms of their rights rather than our generosity. We need think in terms of respect rather than tolerance.</p>
<p>Such a democratisation of the European border would require radically rethinking mobility as a human right, a proposition long <a href="http://lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/626%20intl_migration_brder_cntrl_070402.pdf">called for by scholars</a>. At its heart, this would require undermining the very existence of the classification of “migrant”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shoshana Fine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Calais to the Mediterranean, Europe is failing the people who seek asylum there.Shoshana Fine, Research Associate at CERI Sciences Po, Sciences Po Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/675732016-10-24T14:09:19Z2016-10-24T14:09:19ZAs the Calais camp is demolished, a hidden crisis continues for refugees living in squalor<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142894/original/image-20161024-28423-1t82nce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tear gas cannister on the outskirts of the Calais camp. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the detritus of the squalid Calais camp lie empty tear gas shells, recently fired by the police. They signify the physical violence that some refugees will suffer in the coming days as the so-called “Jungle” is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37745386">forcibly dismantled</a>. </p>
<p>“It’s a big problem, the gas gets into the tent”, explains an Afghan resident who lives on the edge of Europe’s largest makeshift encampment. But beyond the cuts and bruises that residents of the camp have <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/calais-jungle-refugees-camp-police-violence-report-data-rights-a6968096.html">suffered at the hands of the police</a> and racist thugs, other <a href="https://www.academia.edu/15673535/Geography_Migration_and_Abandonment_in_the_Calais_Refugee_Camp">hidden forms of violence</a> have slowly brutalised refugees since the camp was created in early 2015. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/files/Calais_Health_Report.pdf">Our research</a> and visits to the camp have revealed the invisible public health dangers that refugees have suffered, and the microbiological threats of living in such squalid conditions – conditions that the state could easily have chosen to improve. For months now, French authorities have failed to provide enough hygiene facilities, food and toilets. They have even failed to meet the minimum standards for refugee camps set out by the <a href="http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/95884/D.01.03.%20Handbook%20for%20Emergencies_UNHCR.pdf">UNHCR</a> and the <a href="http://www.spherehandbook.org/en/excreta-disposal-standard-2-appropriate-and-adequate-toilet-facilities/">Sphere Project</a>, which works to set basic standards for humanitarian emergencies. A failure to meet such public health requirements thereby deliberately enforced squalor and misery for the camp’s inhabitants.</p>
<p>In 2015, a fifth of the camp’s residents seen by health-related NGOs presented with scabies, and many of its population was suffering from various <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/calais-refugee-camp-conditions-diabolical-report-jungle-bacteria-hygiene">gastrointestinal illnesses</a> as a result of a lack of access to adequate sanitation, and safe storage of food or water. As one resident of the Calais camp who had lived there for several months reflected: “A quick bullet through the head in Afghanistan would be better than this slow death here.” A testament to how miserable things had become. </p>
<h2>Security over sanitation</h2>
<p>In the 18 months that this camp has existed on the French-UK border, both governments have consistently done the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-really-europe-refugees-in-calais-speak-of-desperate-conditions-45414">bare minimum</a> to protect the lives of refugees in Calais – from a failure to ensure minimum health standards, to the lack of food and shelter provision. Meanwhile, millions of pounds have been spent by the UK to enforce the border, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/fences-in-calais-protect-ministers-not-refugees-46366">elaborate security architecture</a>. Yet the evident humanitarian crisis in Calais has been met with state indifference.</p>
<p>These decisions to do as little as possible in the face of an unfolding crisis now also extend to the British commitment to only rehouse a small fraction of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-migrants-taken-to-britain-now-they-need-support-and-psychological-care-67075">children living in the camp</a>. The British government is currently relocating a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/22/lone-child-refugees-unaccompanied-dubs-amendment-arrive-uk-calais">small group of child refugees</a> – six months after a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/21/house-of-lords-votes-to-let-lone-child-refugees-come-to-britain">parliamentary amendment</a> to bring them to the UK. This amounts to the weakest of political actions at the eleventh hour of an 18-month long emergency.</p>
<p>This state negligence also stands in stark contrast to the efforts of volunteers, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-political-movement-is-rising-from-the-mud-in-calais-53758">aid agencies and activists</a> working tirelessly in the face of government inertia, including MSF, Help Refugees, Care 4 Calais, Doctors of the World, Secours Catholique and the Kitchen In Calais among many others, who have worked hard to ensure some level of humanitarian support.</p>
<p>The informal Calais camp will now gradually be dismantled by French authorities, and refugees are being relocated to asylum centres in other parts of France. This is to be welcomed to the extent that it may provide shelter, food and access to asylum processes for migrants who have previously been denied these material and political provisions. But with many camp residents reluctant to give up on their desire to reach the UK, and with more than a thousand riot police having been drafted into Calais for the dismantlement, it is inconceivable that this operation will be completed without the sustained use of force. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142893/original/image-20161024-28380-rhlpbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A violent place to call home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Too little, too late</h2>
<p>As British authorities are unwilling to take all but small numbers of <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-migrants-taken-to-britain-now-they-need-support-and-psychological-care-67075">child refugees with family connections</a> in the UK, many adult asylum seekers with similar connections will seek to remain in northern France, living informally in smaller sub-camps to sustain their chances of making it across the Channel. Some refugees left before the dismantlement started on October 24 for other informal encampments, or simply to sleep on the streets, but others simply have no Plan B, so determined are they to reach the UK. </p>
<p>Research by the <a href="https://t.co/Xg3zveSvGa">Refugee Rights Data Project</a> in Calais indicates that <a href="http://refugeerights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/RRDP_TheLongWait.pdf">40% of the Calais camp</a> residents want to get to the UK principally to reunite with friends or family. “It is the UK or back to Afghanistan,” said one resident in his 40s who has lived in the camp for a full year.</p>
<p>If the current French response amounts to too little, too late, the UK’s response has been weaker still. It is telling that rather than a debate about the extent to which Britain should be assisting in the resettlement of refugees, such is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/questions-over-age-of-refugee-children-show-how-ugly-britain-has-become-67335">popular mood and toxic political landscape</a>, that even the rehousing of minors from war-zones – with close relatives in the UK – is attacked by the political right and tabloid press.</p>
<p>As the media covers the overt violence of the camp’s demolition, the persistence of less visible forms of violence will continue to threaten the lives of refugees. As long as <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-calais-jungle-is-there-a-long-term-solution-views-from-france-and-britain-67352">European states cannot agree</a> a more systematic, equitable and just method of distributing displaced populations, informal camps will remain a constant fixture on the European landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arshad Isakjee receives funding from the ESRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thom Davies receives funding from the ESRC and the ERC.</span></em></p>The French and British governments have prioritised security over humanity for refugees in the Calais Jungle.Arshad Isakjee, Research Fellow in Migration, Identity and Belonging, University of BirminghamThom Davies, Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673522016-10-24T10:44:06Z2016-10-24T10:44:06ZAfter the Calais Jungle: is there a long-term solution? Views from France and Britain<p><em>Ever since the French president François Hollande <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/26/calais-migrant-camp-must-go-by-end-of-year-francois-hollande">went to Calais</a> in late September 2016 and promised that the migrant camp on its outskirts, known as “the Jungle”, would be dismantled, its residents have been preparing to be moved. On October 24, queues of people who had been living in the camp in hope of crossing to Britain, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37745386">waited to be registered</a> before being transported on buses to refugee centres in other parts of France. However, it’s feared there are some residents who do not want to leave.</em> </p>
<p><em>The camp is to be demolished. But will this police operation bring an end to people heading for Calais? Conversation editors in London and Paris asked two academics from either side of the English Channel who work on migration for their views.</em> </p>
<h2>We’ve been here before</h2>
<p><em>Heaven Crawley, research professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University</em></p>
<p>In August 2002 I was working in the UK Home Office. Labour was in power and the talk was of evidence-based policy making. I had recently finished my PhD and like the other new employees sitting on the 14th floor of Apollo House in Croydon, south London, there was a sense that we could make a difference to the way things were done. Our role was to make sure that ministers were fully informed about the factors underlying the sharp rise in asylum claims to <a href="http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-to-the-uk-asylum/">more than 84,000 that year</a>, a figure that has not been surpassed in the period since.</p>
<p>And then came Sangatte, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/23/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices1">Red Cross centre close to Calais</a> which was established in 1999 but became the focus of the British media over the slow news days that summer. So much has changed since then – and yet so little.</p>
<p>Then, as now, the front pages of the daily newspapers were filled with images of people trying to cross the channel accompanied by headlines of “flood” and “invasion”. Ministers were called away from their holidays to discuss the “crisis”. It was clear that most of those at Sangatte were fleeing conflict and persecution. Quietly, and without too much fuss, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2533415.stm">around 2,000 refugees, mostly Afghans and Iraqi Kurds were brought to the UK</a> and given work permits and a chance to rebuild their lives.</p>
<p>The Red Cross Centre at Sangatte <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1412258/Sangatte-refugee-camp-closes-early.html">was dismantled</a>, the kids went back to school, normal life resumed. A few months later the refugees and migrants who had been living at the centre relocated to a makeshift camp in the woods near an industrial area that was known as “the Jungle”. The area was subsequently cleared in 2009, forcing migrants to settle in squats and makeshift shelters scattered throughout Calais – or sleep in the streets.</p>
<p>Fifteen years later and here we are again. As images of more than a million refugees and migrants making the desperate journey across the Mediterranean filled our newspapers and social media feeds over the summer of 2015, for those living in the UK the story of the Jungle became a potent symbol of the crisis gripping Europe. The numbers in the camp were tiny, never reaching more than 10,000 people in total, <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_statistics">around 0.07% of those seeking protection in Europe</a>. But that didn’t matter. The British public were told, repeatedly, that this was just the tip of the iceberg, that everyone coming to Europe wanted to come to the UK and that given half a chance they would.</p>
<p>There is virtually no evidence that this is the case.</p>
<h2>Links to the UK won’t disappear</h2>
<p>Back in 2002, just before Sangatte was closed, the Home Office <a href="http://www.ners-sunderland.org.uk/content/hors243.pdf">published a report</a> which showed that those claiming asylum in the UK were attracted far more by the presence of family, language, culture and history than the prospects of accessing jobs or Britain’s far from generous welfare benefits. It made no difference. Just a few weeks later the Home Office <a href="http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2RighttoWork.pdf">removed the right to work</a> for those waiting for their asylum claims to be decided, a policy that had no impact on arrivals but fundamentally undermined the ability of refugees to integrate.</p>
<p>In 2010, I looked again at the factors shaping the decision to come to the UK, <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0001/5702/rcchance.pdf">this time working with the Refugee Council</a>. Again we found that existing connections to the UK mattered more than any policy measure ever would.</p>
<p>Now, in 2016, our research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council <a href="http://www.medmig.info">on the dynamics of migration across the Mediterranean</a> has shown clearly that it is the drivers of migration that have propelled people towards Europe. This is primarily conflict, persecution and human rights abuse in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea, together with escalating violence in Libya and a lack of rights and opportunities in countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Very few of the 500 refugees and migrants <a href="http://www.medmig.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/research-brief-02-Understanding-the-dynamics-of-migration-to-Greece-and-the-EU.pdf">we spoke to had a specific country in mind when they left their homes</a>. Of those that did, only 6% mentioned the UK and most either had family already living here or could speak English and believed, rightly, that it would be easier for them to integrate.</p>
<h2>The solution is political</h2>
<p>So will there be another camp like the Jungle? The short answer is yes, almost certainly. As long as the factors that continue to drive people from their homes and prevent them from rebuilding their lives elsewhere continue and as long as EU member states, including the UK, fail to provide safe and legal routes for protection and work, people will make their own way to the countries in which they have friends, family and that they feel offer the best chance to rebuild a life.</p>
<p>There is no obligation under international refugee law for a person to claim asylum in the first country they get to. This has simply been a mechanism introduced by the politically more powerful and richer countries of northern Europe to take full advantage of their lack of geographical proximity to the epicentres of conflict and violence.</p>
<p>The Jungle may not return to Calais – where the fence that has already been built to prevent people accessing the trains and lorries crossing the English Channel is now being <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/work-to-begin-on-big-wall-at-calais-to-block-migrants/">extended and reinforced with concrete at the expense of the British taxpayer</a>. But all of the evidence from 25 years of research on this issue tells me that people who are sufficiently desperate or motivated to move, who have no sense of a future or an alternative, will always find a way around the barriers that are put in place to stop them. It’s possible, if expensive, to build a wall around a port, less so a country.</p>
<p>But a long-term solution is possible. Europe, and all of its member states, need to listen to the evidence about why people are on the move in such large numbers and devise policy solutions which tackle the drivers of primary and secondary migration rather than expending huge resources and political energy on keeping people out. They have a huge range of policy tools at their disposal – <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2016/6/575e69044/unhcr-report-puts-projected-resettlement-needs-2017-119-million.html">refugee resettlement</a>, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2016/8/57aca60a4/right-reunion-eludes-refugee-families-europe.html">family reunification</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/flights-to-italy-for-refugees-offer-a-humanitarian-way-forward-for-europe-66451">humanitarian visas</a>, temporary work permits, educational visa – most of which have stayed firmly in the box. It’s time they were taken out and put to work.</p>
<h2>Calais: the show of force continues</h2>
<p><em>Olivier Clochard, researcher at the CNRS (Migrinter), Université de Poitiers</em></p>
<p>History is repeating itself. The biggest camp that the Calais region has seen in 20 years is going to be dismantled in the same way as those that preceded it. But once again, the destruction of this living space will not resolve the region’s migration situation. </p>
<p>Whether it was during the destruction of the Sangatte camp in 2002, squats and encampments in Calais in the winter of 2015 or the Jungle this winter, the French and British governments continue trying to persuade the public that police operations will resolve the migration situation.</p>
<p>Each of these operations has sent people away from the Calais area, to other French regions, other EU member states or even back to their home countries – so temporarily reducing migration pressure. But the Calais area remains a transit zone, where people trying to find better living conditions face obsessively increasing migration controls. </p>
<p>In Calais and its surroundings, women, men and children continue to arrive for the same reasons which brought the refugees before them – and which <a href="http://refugeerights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/RRDP_TheLongWait.pdf">numerous</a> <a href="http://www.secours-catholique.org/sites/scinternet/files/publications/rapport_calaisbd1.pdf">studies</a> have relayed: they speak English, or have members of their family or friends living in the UK. </p>
<p>The members of the current French government, <a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/10547/au-dela-de-la-%C2%ABjungle%C2%BB">very critical</a> when they were in opposition, have adopted the restrictive methods of their predecessors. With the help of the UK, France is reinforcing its migration controls by building walls and deploying sniffer dogs. But this is exacerbating the tensions in the region, where the presence of the French police is already very consequential. And all this has not stopped people from <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/eritrean-migrant-killed-by-british-driver-motorway-near-calais-jungle-1585711">attempting to cross</a> into the UK via the Channel Tunnel in recent months, despite a statement to the <a href="http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Le-ministre/Interventions-du-ministre/Situation-migratoire-a-Calais">contrary in early September</a> by the French minister of the interior, Bernand Cazeneuve. </p>
<p>This ministerial artifice is also playing out through the process of moving migrants to special centres, known as <em>centres d’accueil et d’orienation</em> (CAO), spread across France. A year ago, the French government promised that it would not apply the EU’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-european-states-shift-responsibility-for-asylum-claims-45743">Dublin regulations</a> to the Calais migrants, meaning it said it would not expel them back to the first European country they arrived in to submit their claim for asylum. This promise was made to persuade people to start leaving the camp and to claim asylum in France – but it has not been respected and associations close to the CAO have reported a number of examples of people who have been deported or threatened with it. </p>
<p>And despite a <a href="http://www.lacimade.org/a-norrent-fontes-pas-de-calais-mettre-a-labri-les-refugies-est-un-delit/">promise in October 2015</a> from the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, that those who provide support to the refugees would not be arrested and criminalised, this has continued. Volunteers have also been regularly subject to reprisals – they have been searched, questioned, arrested, and faced courts summons. This is despite the fact that since the early 1990s, the majority of the food supplies and legal support for migrants living in and around Calais has been provided by these volunteers. The activists from the No Borders movement – among others – are regularly targeted by the authorities, despite the fact that their work defending human rights <a href="http://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/decisions/ddd/DDD_DEC_MDS-2011-113.pdf">has been recognised</a> in France and internationally. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.migreurop.org/article2521.html">Two years ago</a> a number of organisations wrote a letter to Valls and Cazeneuve, reminding them that the French government lacks courage by refusing to take into account what the refugees and those associations <a href="http://www.gisti.org/spip.php?article1205">offering alternative solutions</a> are saying about the situation. These <a href="http://cfda.rezo.net/download/The%20law%20of%20Jungles%20recommendations%2009%2008.pdf">include reform</a> of the EU refugee rules, better information for migrants upon arrival, and the provision of better state support for migrants and refugees living on the streets. </p>
<p>Misinformation is to democracy what propaganda agencies are to totalitarian states. In the face of these government manipulations, the rupture between those volunteer organisations who have a good understanding of the migrant situation in Calais and the government has never been so serious.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heaven Crawley receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She is currently serving as a Trustee of Migrant Voice. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Clochard is a member of the Migreurop network. </span></em></p>As the camp for migrants and refugees outside Calais is dismantled, two academics from either side of the Channel look at what will happen next.Heaven Crawley, Research Professor, Coventry UniversityOlivier Clochard, Chargé de recherches à Migrinter (CNRS), Université de PoitiersLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673352016-10-20T11:54:35Z2016-10-20T11:54:35ZQuestions over age of refugee children show how ugly Britain has become<p>After months of delays, the first unaccompanied minors living in the Calais Jungle camp were <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/unaccompanied-minors-arrive-in-uk-ahead-of-calais-camp-clearance">finally allowed</a> to enter the UK. But instead of being widely celebrated, the arrivals provoked a serious backlash – particularly over whether they were actually under the age of 18. </p>
<p>Headlines ranged from “<a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/722707/Calais-Jungle-child-migrants-UK-adults-pretending">Fury at ‘soft checks’ on child migrants: Adults pretending to be children say aid workers</a>” in the Daily Express to “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2003927/mps-demand-dental-tests-of-child-migrants-as-concerns-grow-over-ages-of-asylum-kids-arriving-in-britain-who-look-closer-to-40/">Tell Us The Tooth</a>” in The Sun and a frontpage from the Daily Mail on “<a href="http://www.thepaperboy.com/uk/daily-mail/front-pages-today.cfm?frontpage=48287">The ‘child refugees’ debate</a>”. </p>
<p>Conservative MP David Davies also tweeted a Daily Mail article that challenged whether or not the refugees are children. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"788061702017392640"}"></div></p>
<p>He went on to claim that the refugees’ <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/david-davies-dentists-condemn-mp-call-for-calais-refugees-to-have-teeth-checked-a7368841.html">teeth should be checked</a> to ascertain their age – something the Home Office quickly ruled out as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/home-office-rules-out-unethical-dental-checks-for-calais-refugees">inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical</a>”. </p>
<h2>Longstanding scepticism</h2>
<p>Refugees’ status as genuine is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17405900701464832">commonly challenged</a>, and suggestions that child refugees are not really children is nothing new. My colleague Heaven Crawley <a href="http://www.ilpa.org.uk/data/resources/13266/ILPA-Age-Dispute-Report.pdf">has shown</a> that child asylum seekers in the UK undergo testing to clarify whether or not they are really children, possibly because child asylum seekers get more support than adults. In 2015, <a href="http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0003/8739/Children_in_the_Asylum_System_August_2016.pdf">789 unaccompanied asylum seeking children</a> had their age disputed by the government – out of 3,253 applications.</p>
<p>Some members of the public support the idea that refugee children are really adults. Back in May, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3573053/David-Cameron-announces-major-U-turn-refugee-children-opens-door-living-camps-inside-Europe.html">Daily Mail claimed its own journalism had influenced government policy</a> after the government performed a U-turn and announced it would allow some migrant and refugee children into the UK following the paper’s call for such a move. This was particularly noteworthy because the Daily Mail is among those papers normally so <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-press-is-the-most-aggressive-in-reporting-on-europes-migrant-crisis-56083">opposed</a> to any kind of immigration.</p>
<p>When my colleague Amrita Narang and I analysed the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3573053/David-Cameron-announces-major-U-turn-refugee-children-opens-door-living-camps-inside-Europe.html#comments">comments</a> underneath this news story on the Daily Mail, we found that many of the posts claimed that the children weren’t really children at all. Posts included one that pre-empted calls to have the children’s teeth checked: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please do dental checks on them first to check their age, and confirm they actually are orphans. Looking at what is happening in other countries this will open the flood gates to relatives suddenly turning up, or these 13-year-olds actually being nearer 30.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We concluded that anti-refugee arguments, particularly those which say that refugees are never legitimate, have become common and mainstream and that humanitarian arguments in support of child refugees carry limited weight in such fora.</p>
<p>What we found is that such sentiments are now being repeated in media reports. For example, The Sun carried the <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2003927/mps-demand-dental-tests-of-child-migrants-as-concerns-grow-over-ages-of-asylum-kids-arriving-in-britain-who-look-closer-to-40/">line</a>: “MPs demand dental tests of ‘child’ migrants as concerns grow over ages of asylum kids arriving in Britain who look closer to 40. Fourteen more ‘kids’ etched with crow’s feet arrived in Britain yesterday.” And the comments following the report largely support this approach, with one post saying: “Who is really surprised? These ‘kids’ will have a better life than me and I am British.” </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3850840/Third-batch-child-migrants-begin-journey-Calais-Jungle-UK-Home-Office-admit-two-thirds-past-children-lied-age-officials.html#comments">Comments</a> on the Daily Mail’s coverage also continue to assume that these children are adults, with one popular comment asking: “Do we supply them shavers for free with gel and aftershaves.” </p>
<h2>Support for refugees challenged</h2>
<p>There has been a humanitarian response to this challenge, including from <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/david-davies-dentists-condemn-mp-call-for-calais-refugees-to-have-teeth-checked-a7368841.html">dentists</a> and the British Association of Social Workers, who <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/child-refugees-calais-jungle-age-david-davies-mp-teeth-checks-add-to-trauma-a7368966.html">claim</a> that this is unethical and makes refugees’ situations worse. The former England football captain Gary Lineker also <a href="https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/788407048031600640">tweeted</a> his opposition to treating child refugees badly. </p>
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<p>While this tweet has been popular, the responses to it have mirrored those from earlier in the year. Replies included “<a href="https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/788462059834966022">They are not children you clown</a>” from former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, and another commenting “<a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/LewisThomp_93/status/788407209411633154">They’re not children that’s why</a>” featuring pictures taken from a Daily Mail article making that same point. The Daily Star also carried the <a href="http://www.dailystar.co.uk/our-paper/2016-10-20">headline</a>: “Lineker brands Brits racist in migrant row”. This again demonstrates popular support for the idea that refugee children aren’t children. </p>
<p>This has shown that the plight of refugee children, and appeals to humanitarianism, are often ignored in the face of accusations that some kind of scam is going on. This helps to support those who argue that refugees should be prevented from entering the UK.</p>
<p>Some newspapers are strongly pushing a line that refugee children are not really children, and so are not deserving of help – wrongly assuming that older refugees are not needy, too. This line is clearly influencing the arguments of some readers and their attitudes towards refugees. It is hard to see how any argument in favour of supporting refugees, even when they are children, could gain popular support among some groups in such a hostile environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Goodman receives funding from ESRC</span></em></p>Scepticism beats back humanitarian response to unaccompanied minors arriving from Calais Jungle.Simon Goodman, Research Fellow, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/670952016-10-19T09:26:41Z2016-10-19T09:26:41ZLessons in the Calais Jungle: teaching life stories and learning about humanity<p>I am part of a team of academics teaching a course to residents in the Calais Jungle, a camp for migrants and refugees outside the French city. <a href="https://www.uel.ac.uk/News/2015/12/University-of-East-London-brings-Life-Stories-course-to-Calais-Jungle">Life Stories in the Jungle</a> has been running since November 2015. I travel with a team of colleagues and students from the University of East London to Calais on a regular basis to meet and recruit students in the camp, read relevant literature together, including writings by Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Paulo Freire, Sojourner Truth, Malala Yousafzai and Barak Obama, and encourage them to tell their own stories. It is one of the first credited university courses provided to students in the camp. </p>
<p>Teaching in the Jungle requires a flexible approach and warm clothes, as few equipped classrooms are available. Timetables and schedules live their own life in the Jungle. Sometimes a class is a one-to-one discussion, reading of a text together or going over a student’s piece of writing. Other times it is a loud discussion spoken across several languages, fragments of it translated back to English.</p>
<h2>Stories have become a commodity</h2>
<p>Students engage with the course and their own stories for different purposes. Some have been writing their stories and ideas and are looking for help and feedback for their writing style and English. Others use the course to start writing in English for the first time. Some stories are visual – told through the media of photography and art. Many want their stories to be recorded and heard, but have been let down by the media as well as volunteers in the camp, who – perhaps with good intentions – collect stories just so that they can claim to represent the people inside of Jungle. </p>
<p>Stories have become a commodity that the residents of the Jungle are asked to trade, sometimes for favours and money, other times more subtly as part of other volunteer efforts. There are concerns around how some residents’ stories are publicised, and the adverse impact that can have on their future status in Europe. In addition, for the students we meet, stories are an important part of identity – and the ownership of their stories means holding on to it.</p>
<p>The stories students write and tell for the course remain their own property. They are submitted as coursework and marked, but after this students can decide to either publish them or not. Some do through Facebook and other social media, others hold on to theirs for the future. Some are working together to write a book, Voices from the Jungle, due to be published by Pluto Press next year. Many students benefit from support and feedback in developing their story telling, but the stories are not for us. Rather, through teaching techniques and styles of telling, and engaging with the stories of others through our readings, we encourage students to own their stories and decide for themselves how they are used.</p>
<p>As one student told me in early October: “The Jungle is the biggest education I have had.” </p>
<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>The French government plans to dismantle the camp by the end of October. It is said evictions will start on October 24. A last-minute attempt by a group of charities to stop the closure was <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-migrants-calais-court-idUKKCN12I1HO">just rejected by the French courts</a>. There is concern over what will happen to those living there, particularly 600 unaccompanied minors. In May, the UK <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36200366">agreed</a> to re-home some of these children, but it <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/unaccompanied-minors-arrive-in-uk-ahead-of-calais-camp-clearance">took until October</a> before the first group of those with family in the UK to arrive.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time the residents face uncertainty. Partial evictions and demolition of the camp took <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35663225">place in February 2016</a>. In July, the French authorities announced the closure of all businesses operating in the camp. The restaurants and cafes, run by migrants and refugees, provide <a href="https://theconversation.com/aid-and-instability-an-urbanists-perspective-on-the-calais-jungle-54604">vital services</a> like shelter, social spaces and electricity to residents while volunteers, visitors and others with the means pay for food and services. After an appeal the decision to close businesses <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/12/french-lille-court-calais-jungle-refugee-camp">was overturned</a> in August by the administrative court in Lille. </p>
<p>All of our students have faced regular intimidation and violence from the French police and tell us of hospital visits and sustained injuries. Armed police forces are often present in the camp when we teach, but so far have left us to operate in peace. A UK-sponsored wall is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/20/work-calais-wall-refugees-lorries-uk">currently being constructed</a> around the Calais port. </p>
<p>The conditions in the camp are inhumane and unsafe. Yet the camp provides many informal safety networks, community links and educational opportunities that aren’t available in official accommodation centres for asylum seekers in France, or indeed the UK. Most of the students on our course are keen to continue their formal education, but will have to wait for years either to find sufficient funds, get required residency status, or for those remaining in France, sufficient proficiency in French to do so. </p>
<p>If the Jungle does indeed close by the end of October we will continue to work with our students through social media as well as try to meet them where they end up from time to time. The officially recognised Grand Synthe camp in Dunkirk is likely to absorb some of the residents of Calais, as are other smaller, informal camps in Dieppe and other neighbouring towns, which may provide further possibilities to continue our work. </p>
<p>Lille University <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfdugeuk_W8">has accepted</a> 80 camp residents to start their studies from late October with full bursaries, but hundreds more are looking for similar opportunities. European politicians and citizens worry about the integration, employability and the cost of the refugees and migrants arriving in the EU. My experiences of teaching students in the Jungle show that access to education immediately upon arrival is one of the most important solutions to all three of these concerns. More importantly, it is a human right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aura Lounasmaa is a participant in a collaborative refugee education project with the Central European University in Budapest, the University of Vienna and University of East London, which receives funding from the Erasmus+ program of the European Union. </span></em></p>An academic explains what it has been like running a storytelling course for migrants and refugees in the Calais camp.Aura Lounasmaa, Lecturer, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647692016-09-02T12:01:18Z2016-09-02T12:01:18ZWhat next for British border controls in Calais?<p>During the EU referendum campaign, David Cameron <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12145781/David-Cameron-warns-of-migrant-camps-in-southern-England-if-Brexit-vote.html">suggested</a> that Britain’s border control in France might not survive Brexit. Now, with an upturn in the number of irregular migrants in the Calais area, there is growing impatience in France at the situation there. </p>
<p>This summer, two leading presidential candidates within the centre-right Republicans party in France – <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-freedom-of-movement-eu-referendum-uk-france-border-french-presidential-election-alain-juppe-a7118511.html">Alain Juppé</a>, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nicolas-sarkozy-calais-jungle-camp-refugee-crisis-move-to-uk-french-presidential-election-a7214156.html">Nicolas Sarkozy</a> – have argued that immigration control should return to British territory.</p>
<p>An alternative centre-right proposal, put forward by the current president of the Hauts-de-France region which covers Calais, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37211267">Xavier Bertrand</a>, suggests the current arrangements should be reformed. His idea is that UK border control could remain in France, but there would be one or more processing centres, or “hotspots”, in France, where claims could be lodged with the UK authorities.</p>
<h2>The Le Touquet treaty</h2>
<p>These recent statements all concern the <a href="http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080205132101/http:/fco.gov.uk/files/kfile/cm6172.pdf">Le Touquet Treaty</a>, agreed by France and the UK in February 2003. The Le Touquet Treaty drew upon the precedent of the pre-departure control zone arrangements for the Channel Tunnel. It provides for each state to operate immigration control zone in the channel ports of the other and currently provides the basis for British controls in Calais and Dunkerque, and French controls in Dover. </p>
<p>In practice, the British authorities have the primary interest in this arrangement, as it enables them to block irregular migration from the continent. If a person is refused entry to the UK, or is found seeking to enter Britain clandestinely, they are handed over to the French authorities, to be processed under French law. The treaty also specifically provides that asylum claims are the responsibility of the state of departure, not the state running the control zone – so France is responsible for all asylum claims made in Calais, even to UK officials.</p>
<p>The story of the Le Touquet Treaty starts with the development of Europe’s Schengen border-free zone between 1995 and 2000. Its emergence made it far easier for migrants wishing to claim asylum in Britain, or to enter it in an irregular manner, to reach the French side of the channel. The first significant group of such arrivals to the Calais region came from Kosovo in 1998-1999, and were soon followed by others from Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.</p>
<p>The initial response of the French authorities to the humanitarian problems presented by these migrants was to authorise a Red Cross accommodation centre at Sangatte in 1999. The existence of that centre became politically controversial, however, as numbers increased, and after attempts by migrants to board freight trains bound for the nearby Channel Tunnel.</p>
<p>In 2002, after the centre-right came to power in France, with Nicolas Sarkozy appointed as interior minister, the British and French governments agreed a strategy of actively discouraging arrivals to the Calais region. The Sangatte centre was closed and British immigration controls were put in place in Calais, under the Le Touquet Treaty.</p>
<h2>New problems</h2>
<p>The 2002 deal succeeded in reducing the scale of irregular migration to the Calais region for many years. But the downside was that the lack of assistance for migrants led them to sleep rough, which over time led to the emergence of large tent cities in Calais and nearby.</p>
<p>The number of such migrants in Calais have grown markedly over the past three summers, from 1,000 in Spring 2014 to an estimated <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/29/calais-a-no-go-zone-for-police-as-population-reaches-10000/">10,000 in August 2016</a>. It appears that the largest groups among today’s migrants are from Afghanistan and Sudan. </p>
<p>The current situation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-really-europe-refugees-in-calais-speak-of-desperate-conditions-45414">dire in humanitarian terms</a>: there is inadequate shelter, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/02/calais-refugee-camp-running-out-of-food-as-donor-fatigue-sees-donations-dry-up">food</a> and hygiene, and there are many risks to personal safety. It also poses significant problems from the perspective of immigration control, with ongoing attempts by migrants to conceal themselves on board UK-bound HGVs and other vehicles.</p>
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<h2>Ending the status quo</h2>
<p>Over the past two summers, the two governments have reaffirmed an approach based on deterrence. After incidents at the Channel Tunnel in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joint-ukfrench-ministerial-declaration-on-calais">summer of 2015</a>, the response of both governments was to agree that the UK would provide funding for enhanced security. After a meeting on August 30 between the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Britain’s new home secretary, Amber Rudd, a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-by-the-governments-of-france-and-the-united-kingdom">joint statement</a> reaffirmed the goal of “working together to strengthen the security of our shared border.” </p>
<p>Consistently with that logic, parts of the “Jungle” camp in Calais were demolished earlier this year. Now, Cazeneuve <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/02/france-vows-to-dismantle-jungle-refugee-camp-calais">has vowed</a> to dismantle the rest of the camp, and to provide the migrants there with accommodation elsewhere in France. </p>
<p>But the recent political interventions from the centre-right are a sign that the ongoing situation may prompt a rethink by France, especially if the Republicans take the presidency and control of the French parliament in 2017 elections. So it is significant that <a href="http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080205132101/http:/fco.gov.uk/files/kfile/cm6172.pdf">Article 25 of the Le Touquet Treaty</a> permits either state to terminate the agreement by giving two years’ notice. Faced with this possibility, the British government may yet find it attractive to adopt a more flexible approach towards the migrants in Calais, in order to preserve the principle of control at French ports.</p>
<p>There are some precedents for admission of migrants from the Calais region to Britain. In 2002, as part of the Sangatte closure, Britain agreed to take 1,200 Iraqi Kurds and Afghan nationals. More recently – under pressure in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/02/uk-home-office-wins-appeal-against-ruling-four-syrian-refugees-calais-camp">courts</a>, in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/04/david-cameron-concessions-syrian-child-refugees">parliament</a> and from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37249847">campaign groups</a> – Britain has begun to co-operate closely with the French asylum authorities, to assist children and others who have a right to apply for asylum in the UK as family members. </p>
<p>Any move by Britain to accept more migrants from Calais would be compatible with the <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-04-25/debates/16042535000002/ImmigrationBill#contribution-16042535000083">logic of co-operation</a> with France. But such a step would undoubtedly face the criticism that any act of generosity is a pull-factor for more migrants and asylum seekers. </p>
<p>One way forward might be to adopt a version of Xavier Bertrand’s “hotspot” idea, focusing on greater access to Britain for those recognised as refugees. This would not only be a significant humanitarian step, it would also show Britain’s willingness to help resolve a crisis for which it unavoidably shares responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernard Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Calls to amend the Le Touquet treaty between Britain and France are growing louder.Bernard Ryan, Professor of Migration Law, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/537582016-02-10T13:36:29Z2016-02-10T13:36:29ZA political movement is rising from the mud in Calais<p>Since the official refugee reception centre in the French town of Calais closed in 2002, undocumented migrants hoping to cross the Channel to Britain have found shelter in a number of squatted migrant camps, locally known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-really-europe-refugees-in-calais-speak-of-desperate-conditions-45414">“the jungles”</a>.</p>
<p>Consisting largely of tents and self-built shacks, the two largest in Calais and Dunkirk now have some 8,000 residents between them. Many are <a href="https://theconversation.com/calais-migrants-are-not-invading-theyre-just-a-small-part-of-a-global-refugee-crisis-45616">refugees</a> fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan and surviving in extremely poor living conditions.</p>
<p>For the most part, this is a humanitarian disaster. But the jungles of Northern France are also giving rise to a new political movement, which draws in new supporters every day.</p>
<h2>Deteriorating conditions</h2>
<p>Because the French government has not officially recognised the makeshift shanty-towns as refugee camps, major aid organisations are absent. All aid is organised by small charitable groups and their volunteers. In the past few months, thousands of them have come from Britain and other neighbouring countries. Many are bringing donations of food and clothing, and they stay on to work in warehouses and in the camps. With every visit, new friendships are made between volunteers and refugees.</p>
<p>The volunteers are often shocked by the conditions they find. A <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-les/gees/research/calais-report-oct-2015.pdf">2015 study</a> found migrants living in the new, tolerated camp outside Calais were being exposed to significant risk of injury and ill health. According to the researchers who carried out the study, the situation amounts to a humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>This was their assessment after a trip to Calais in the summer, long before the cold and wet weather set in. Since then, conditions have deteriorated even further. The number of people living in the Calais camp has swelled to more than 6,000 and many don’t have access to the shoes and waterproof clothing needed to handle winter on a northern European coast. </p>
<p>A large area of the camp has also now been bulldozed after the French government decided to set up a buffer zone between the camp and the motorway. Confrontations with riot police are frequent, especially at night, leaving migrants suffering from the effects of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQCP_inka-Q&feature=youtu.be">tear gas</a>.</p>
<p>Significant changes have also been made to the infrastructure, with government-sponsored containers intended to house 1,500 migrants. While these provide better insulation from the weather, they lack any kind of communal facilities and many migrants fear that the biometric security installed at the entrance to the enclosed compound will be used to control their movements.</p>
<p>The situation in the Dunkirk area is even more perilous. Many residents there are Kurdish families from Iraq, some with small children. Much of the site is covered in thick mud and there are few sanitation or washing facilities.</p>
<h2>Frustration and protest</h2>
<p>Among the incredible volunteering efforts, what has sometimes been lost are the political demands made by many of the migrants themselves. There have been almost daily acts of migrant-led protest, all captured by the activist group <a href="https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/">Calais Migrant Solidarity</a>. They have marched, blockaded motorways, gone on hunger strike and held sit-ins outside Calais town hall.</p>
<p>I observed one such protest organised by a group of Parisian “sans papiers” organisations. More than 2,000 people – many of them from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea or Sudan – left the Calais camp to march into the town centre. All along the route their chants of “UK, UK” and “No Jungle, No” demonstrated the desire to escape the refugee camp to build a new life in Britain.</p>
<p>Despite a sizeable police presence, several hundred protesters were able to breach the secure port area and reach a P&O ferry, <a href="https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/thats-the-spirit-migrants-and-refugees-occupy-port/">which was briefly boarded by up to 50 refugees</a>. The migrants are essentially calling for <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13621025.2013.780731">human rights to trump citizenship rights</a>.</p>
<p>Volunteers are of course helping but the migrants are also wary of efforts to improve conditions in the jungle. This is a place they hope to be able to leave behind soon.</p>
<p>The response to the appeals to deliver aid to Calais has been so overwhelming that the frequent deliveries have sometimes caused chaos on the ground. For some it shows clearly that a solution needs to be found that goes <a href="https://practicalinitiativesblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/well-intentioned-chaos-europes-refugeeresponse-thus-far/">beyond charity</a> and philanthropy.</p>
<p>In the Calais jungle, this was clear to see. Graffiti on tents and walls spoke not just of the dream to live in Britain, but also of human rights, dignity, peace and an end to police violence. These aims can’t be realised by volunteers and aid workers alone.</p>
<p>But equally, if people on both sides of the Channel are being mobilised by their encounters and experiences, it could have a profound effect on pro-refugee and “no border” activism in France, Britain and beyond.</p>
<p>The Calais migrants only make up a tiny percentage of refugees in Europe. If more are to arrive, calls for a political response will become louder – both from the right and from the left. The volunteers in Calais are a reminder that there is grassroots opposition to the moves towards increased border control across Europe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphael Schlembach does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conditions are getting worse at the migrant camps in France, which is leading to protest.Raphael Schlembach, Lecturer in Criminology, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/454142015-07-29T19:29:59Z2015-07-29T19:29:59Z‘Is this really Europe?’: refugees in Calais speak of desperate conditions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90210/original/image-20150729-30886-1de1saf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The growing migrant camp known as the “New Jungle”.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the sun sets on Calais, a new barbed wire fence glints in the evening light, casting a shadow over the growing migrant camp known as the “New Jungle”.</p>
<p>Through the thick undergrowth of what was once an industrial dumping ground, tents and tarpaulin structures stretch into the distance. These are the makeshift homes currently providing insufficient shelter from the elements for more than 3,000 refugees. On the other side of the fence, cars and lorries trundle towards the port of Calais – and the northern edge of the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen/index_en.htm">Schengen Area</a>, where people can move freely across much of Europe.</p>
<p>With <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-33688822">Operation Stack</a> in full force, and the British prime minister, David Cameron, expressing “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33699141">every sympathy with holidaymakers</a>”, the body count at Calais quietly continues to rise. A migrant died on July 28 as he tried to reach the UK. He was the ninth person to lose his life to the Calais-Dover gauntlet between <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/29/calais-one-dead-1500-migrants-storm-eurotunnel-terminal">June and July</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90197/original/image-20150729-30846-5r6wvn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">One of hundreds of informal structures built in the New Jungle in Calais.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Cameron has pledged that the UK government will do everything it can to deal with this situation, but sitting in the detritus of the Calais camp, it is clear that the real crisis is humanitarian and is being fatally overlooked.</p>
<p>We have made two visits to Calais, spending several days at a time interviewing the camp’s residents. Our research is revealing the desperate conditions in which they are living. It is time the UK and French governments took responsibility for a shared issue. So far, all migrants are being given is more barbed wire.</p>
<h2>Life in Calais</h2>
<p>“When I first got to the Jungle, I thought to myself: ‘is this really Europe?’” said Ilyas, a Sudanese migrant whose family were murdered by <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/features/darfur/fiveyearson/report4.html">Janjaweed</a> militia.</p>
<p>He showed us the rudimentary “kitchen” he uses to cook – a dusty tent propped up with branches, with no place to safely store food. Like many, he had taken the hard route to Europe, through the Sahara desert – where three of his fellow passengers perished – and then the equally deadly boat journey across the Mediterranean.</p>
<p>Ilyas’s friend showed us a shaky video he made on his phone of his eight-day sea crossing, this time from Egypt: “We did not have any water for three days,” he explained, flicking through his phone to show happier images of friends and family in the country he was forced to leave.</p>
<p>Their troubles did not end when they reached European soil. Migrants we met in Calais who landed on Italian shores report being abandoned by authorities. Young and able men, in particular, are kept in camps for no longer than a few days; many end up homeless and hungry on the streets of Italy. As Italian agencies struggle to cope with the record numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, some report being explicitly told to travel to northern European countries such as France, Germany and the UK. Others say they have even been shown a map.</p>
<p>So a small minority of the 137,000 migrants who have arrived in Europe so far this year have ended up in Calais. The New Jungle – less than one square kilometre in area – is where thousands of migrants live in appalling conditions that would not meet any humanitarian standards.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90195/original/image-20150729-30875-ncn10y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A resident of the camp cleans his hands with water from a chemical container.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Toilet facilities are limited. There are two dozen portaloos and a few wooden toilet blocks with no handwashing facilities. Piles of rubbish attract rats and other pests. There is only access to cold water, often at some distance from the ad hoc living spaces. It is unsurprising then that many residents told us they are suffering from fevers, stomach pains and diarrhoea.</p>
<p>Some residents of the camp use chemical containers to transport water to their tents – and every morning, men, women and children as young as ten can be seen queuing for hours for a rare opportunity to gain access to a shower. At every turn, migrants can be seen limping and bedraggled, visibly injured by the increasing risks they are taking to enter the UK. Others say they are victims of police brutality and local thugs. Médecins du Monde is doing <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/29/calais-crisis-medics-struggle-to-cope-with-number-of-injured-migrants">excellent work</a> in the camp, but the scale of injury and illness is increasing.</p>
<h2>A global crisis</h2>
<p>Calais is undoubtedly a humanitarian and public health crisis. Yet it is only a microcosm of the migration crisis as a whole. In the world today, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/5592bd059.html">a population the size of Italy</a> has been forced from their homes, putting global numbers of refugees at a level not seen since the end of World War II.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90196/original/image-20150729-30867-15ymaiw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A resident of the camp fills his water bottle at one of the five water points recently installed in the camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Davies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Developing countries – not European nations – host most of them. Turkey alone gives refuge to 1.7m refugees from Syria. The next five countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees are Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan.</p>
<p>On the northern edge of the New Jungle, a huge bunker looms over the people queuing for a shower. Built during World War II to protect Hitler from invasion, it reminds us that this is not the first time Calais has been on the frontline of efforts to keep out perceived existential threats.</p>
<p>Britain’s home secretary, Theresa May, has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33699141">pledged</a> to spend another £7m to reinforce <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/27/migrant-camp-fortress-calais-jungle">Fortress Calais</a> with more barbed wire – and an archipelago of migrant camps is spreading across the continent. For her, and for the British government, this is a security threat. Spending time with the residents of the Calais camp however, things look starkly different. It’s time to wake up to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the heart of Europe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thom Davies receives funding from the ESRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arshad Isakjee receives funding from the ESRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Surindar Dhesi receives funding from the ESRC.</span></em></p>While politicians talk security, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding on the French coast.Thom Davies, Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, University of WarwickArshad Isakjee, Research Fellow in Migration, Identity and Belonging, University of BirminghamSurindar Dhesi, Teaching Fellow – Environmental Health and Risk Management, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.