Clearing the Calais 'jungle'

It's been a while since I've posted, but I thought I ought to register my disgust at the news this week that in France, riot police are bulldozing part of the refugee camp referred to as the 'jungle'. I've read numerous reports on this occurrence, with varying impressions as to how things are going - some reports have suggested that this is being handled in a more humane manner than other similar affairs in the past, even mentioning means of housing those who are being evicted. Generally I doubt the accuracy of this - in my experience, reports of heavy-handedness amongst those in authority tend to be more accurate than reports claiming lack thereof with regards to the same incident. What it comes down to, however, is that these camps are holding more people than we currently have the resources to cope with.

I don't think there's any doubt about the fact that even notwithstanding the demolition (which ultimately is what it comes down to) the whole situation with this 'jungle' is far from ideal. It's not somewhere people can live indefinitely, not that anyone would even want to, of course, given the appalling conditions that refugees end up in whilst trying not to fall through the system even without being targeted in this way. It's quite obvious that there are far too many to house efficiently in one place, and that this is a situation that benefits no one. However, I fail to see how demolishing the non-ideal makeshift camp is going to help in the slightest. There have been reports of tear gas, batons used on pregnant women and children, water cannons and fire in regards to what French authorities are calling a 'humanitarian operation'. I would find that laughable were it not so serious.

Yet again, we seem to believe as a society that being heavy-handed with those in need is more productive that giving any understanding to how they ended up in this situation in the first place. This is an attitude that is quite common in Britain, and has become increasingly so over the last few years. In many ways I have believed that like a lot of European countries, France is more progressive than the UK - evidently, not in these circumstances. When you have at minimum 3,700 people (some reports estimate closer to 5,000) and nowhere to house them, this is an awkward situation, but I think that if everyone came together, attempted to look at why this problem has happened and showed a little compassion, far more long-term progress could be made than by demolishing a makeshift camp which ultimately is just going to lead to far more people having nowhere to go than there would be in any case.

I can't help but feel that the overall intention here is to show the public that 'something is being done. This is actually a typical reflection of the attitudes of governments, news media and the general public - we have a culture of promoting the taking of drastic action in undesirable situations, regardless of whether that action is progressive or will cause more problems down the line. I have been relieved to see that Médicin sans Frontiérs (the French equivalent of Doctors Without Borders) has set up a purpose-built camp in Dunkirk with the intention of providing proper humanitarian aid. I wish them well with this goal, and only hope that they are able to provide assistance to as many desperate people as possible. I can't help feeling though that it should not fall to a non-Governmental organisation to provide this. A more compassionate, humanitarian approach from the powers that be would go a lot further than being heavy-handed with no reason to be.

I genuinely wish the best of luck to any refugees in Calais or in any other part of the world, and if any of my readers would like to contact me with regards to any campaigns, they are entirely welcome to do so.

Sources: Fantastic Guardian article, another decent one, The BBC. As always, personal opinions are entirely my own.