CPOY

CPOY 71 Documentary Silver: European Jungle

Jungle is the nickname given to a refugee camp in the vicinity of Calais, France. In September 2016 the Jungle had expanded try tripling its size of population during the last year. 9000 men, women and unaccompanied children were living in mud, tents or temporary shelters they’d build themselves and decorate as best as possible. They all have the same goal: to enter the UK. Since 1999, there’ve been refugee camps around the French coastal city of Calais. Previously, it has always been about a couple of hundred migrants gathered in hope to manage to climb into trucks to take the ferry across the channel, or to board the trains just before they go through the Channel Tunnel. The infrastructure of the Jungle has developed rapidly. There are churches and mosques built of sticks, tarpaulins and plastic, papered with blankets. Blankets from home, blankets that are warming, blankets with Big Ben. Syrians, Afghans, Sudanese, Kuwaitis, Kurds, Pakistanis and many more live side by side among the seventy restaurants, shops and hairdressers that stretches along the main street through the camp. In September 2016, much has changed. Some of those who paid dearly for smugglers have been reunited with their relatives in the UK and are now waiting for the first asylum talks. On the French side of the channel the number of refugees is growing. The organization Help Refugees who have volunteers in place counted the number to 9106 in August, more than 4,000 more than in February after the evacuation of the southern camp. The donated food is not enough for long to feed everyone and a concern about the camp's future is in the air. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in early September that the remaining half of the camp will be dismantled as quickly as possible with start in October. But daily life and escaped attempts are continuing as usual.

Caption
Slide 1 of 12
March 21, 2016
Dandan, Wessam and Ibrahim from Daraa in Syria met here in the fall of 2015 and moved in together shortly thereafter. Back then there were about 3500 refugees in the camp and new people arriving every day. In the north part of the Jungle they settled at an area for Syrians, mostly from Daraa. The first few months they tried to get on trains and trucks, but in the end they managed to collect money and chose to pay for smugglers. Even with smugglers they failed dozens of times. Since July 2016, all three are with their relatives in the UK and claimed asylum.
    6be4c4c6-e269-42b3-9508-1735d96bac78
    832b66ee-6aff-437c-8a7e-7a5900ad2d5e
    6685aed4-85cd-4ab9-b474-1802bf34d27d
    59fe4086-ae85-467c-995d-5edf0c76f923
    0112d74f-c541-488c-8fea-df78824eece5
    2bca6bb3-5be3-491a-a575-9a1111a7786c
    c1010dff-597b-45a6-b1dc-949d0b898183
    61ffd8b1-b904-45e0-9513-57c5cc4aa400
    7c6a9c22-639e-4043-a891-4a21d8f00b92
    ed76a0ee-7ed9-42ed-a2cf-7ceafaa29643
    See more at cpoy.org