CALAIS, France — The migrants, mostly young men from Africa or Afghanistan, strode out of the squalid camp at a rapid pace, not looking behind them. Hundreds of them lined up in the cold for buses to take them to temporary housing all over France, as the government set in motion its plan to clear the sprawling migrant camp known as the “Jungle” once and for all.
For migrants all over Europe, Calais is the hoped-for staging point for Britain’s presumed jobs-and-wealth Eldorado. For France’s government, the Jungle has developed into a political and humanitarian disaster. But until this week, it had largely ignored the camp, hoping it would go away and leaving the migrants’ care mostly in the hands of benevolent associations. That neglect was no longer possible.
On Monday, streams of migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan and other conflict-torn countries trucked down the camp’s trash-filled, muddy lanes in small groups, pushing or dragging donated suitcases, or toting knapsacks front and back. One Afghan banged a drum, another carried a giant cricket bat, a third a guitar.
Some had suitcases on their heads; others simply walked out of the camp empty-handed, bundled up against the cold. Hundreds of journalists watched the operation.
The squalid camp, growing and festering for over a year, has become a symbol of Europe’s faltering efforts to handle its migration crisis. At its recent peak, up to 10,000 lived there in shivering misery, and as many as 100 arrived each day after arduous journeys by foot, boat, truck and clandestine train rides across continents and seas. Before Monday’s operation, the population was 6,000 to 8,000.
Judging by the crowds on Monday, many of the migrants appeared set to shed their dreams of Britain and were as anxious to be rid of the camp as the government was. On Tuesday, French officials plans to start demolishing and clearing its flimsy shacks, fields of tents and piles of trash spread over 1.5 square miles. The police said on Monday that they were expecting some resistance from activist groups, if not from the migrants themselves.
“The Jungle is no good,” said Abdullah Umar, 24, who is from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region and hoped to apply for asylum in France. He was waiting in line on the road. “There are problems. Sometimes there’s fighting. And it’s cold.”
A SHORT HISTORY OF ‘THE JUNGLE’
The area around Calais, France, has been dotted with refugee settlements for over a decade.
Mr. Umar added: “France is a good country. People from France gave me all these clothes.” He pointed to his new suitcase, which looked packed full.
Hassan Jibril, 35, another Sudanese man, trying to keep himself warm in the Jungle’s warren of tents, said, “We are ready to leave.”
He was wearing flip-flops in the 40-degree chill and heating some pots over an outdoor fire. “It is a very bad situation here,” he said. “You see that?” he said, pointing to a trash-filled puddle next to his tent. “If you stay here, you can die.”
Awaiting the migrants was a complicated plan, fine-tuned by French officials since late summer, to disperse them in waves of bus journeys to dozens of towns and villages all over France. Sixty buses will take 50 migrants each on the first day, 45 buses on Tuesday and 40 on Wednesday; each migrant will be given a choice between two French regions. (The Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, and the island of Corsica are not among the options.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/world/europe/calais-jungle-camp-migrants.html?_r=0
