France Finally Deals with “The Jungle” Migrant Camp

As crime continued to flourish at “The Jungle” migrant camp near Calais, France, the French military has been forced to deploy 1,000 officers to clear the camp.  

The camp, which had almost 7,000 migrants, has been called a “potential hiding place” for ISIS supporters by the former Chief of Counter Terror in London who visited the camp earlier this year.

The Jungle had grown and was more than just thousands of feeble tents, there were even some shops and a makeshift hotel.

Well, France is finally dealing with this problem, but it isn’t going to be easy to demolish the camp since the country has let it grow for too long. The clean-up will take over a month, according to projections. 

Over the weekend, the first officers were met with hostility as migrants threw rocks and fireworks at them. 1,000 officers were then released to make sure the situation didn’t escalate any further. On Tuesday, the demolishment officially started. 

“CNN journalists saw a team of “cleaners,” as French officials call them, in orange jumpsuits and hardhats tearing down the temporary structures and disposing of migrants’ possessions, dropping mattresses, pillows and blankets into a dumpster with an excavator,” writes CNN on Tuesday.

The migrants were given three options after leaving:

1. Seek asylum in France.
2. Travel to a different country.
3. Or return home. 

Roughly 60 busses arrived earlier this week to move the refugees to other parts of France. More than 3,100 migrants were bussed out, but thousands remain in the area. 

“It’s very tense because people know that change is coming,” said Sue Jex, the head of operations for the charity Care 4 Calais, to CNN. “There is a real acceptance that the camp is going [away].”

The government is trying to deal with this in the most humane way possible. “The aim is to give everyone a roof over their heads and we will do everything we can to make that happen,” said a French official to The Local. 

To stop this from happening again, the U.K. is building a wall (sound familiar?) along the freeway in Calais. Many of these migrants hijack trucks heading for Britain here.

However, it has taken the French government much too long to deal with this issue. Unfortunately, since the Paris attack, the terrorists’ plan has been working. Anti-Islam groups are gaining momentum, creating riots where they are clashing with opposing groups and police.

Author’s note: The French government has done its citizens an injustice by allowing terrorism to live in this ghetto for too long. Even though they are now attempting to clear it, the country already allowed ISIS in to plan their next attacks and may be shipping ISIS supporters to other sections of the country.