The burning of the ‘Calais Jungle’ does nothing to solve the immigration crisis

Every morning I wake up and check my phone for texts, emails and social media posts. Somewhere down the line I click on Snapchat and browse through people’s stories which range from anything like drunk nights and library sessions to the Great British Bake Off.

After watching my mate quickly down two shots of tequila, my laughter was abruptly brought to a halt by a story titled ‘Calais Camp Evacuated.’ I sat in bed and watched it from start to finish; it painted a picture of complete despair, deprivation and hopelessness.

The Calais Jungle, as it had become known, was home to migrants from a variety of ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds. Although different, they were all united by the common goal of escaping desolation and suffering in order to seek a new and better life.

Calais quickly became a sort of borderland. A world in which a migrant was long removed from their homeland, unable to find an identity in France, but clutching to the belief that one day they would make it to the UK. Life for them in a state of complete limbo and uncertainty.

Ten seconds of snaps sees the Jungle burnt down, reduced to a sort of Apocalyptic display. Just like that, the 6,400 migrants were put on coaches and moved onto another French refugee centre. This process might happen again and again for some.

We managed to chat to a Leicester student that volunteered at the camp. She’d seen the situation in its peak and didn’t see where it could go from here: “My heart ached as I saw the very buildings that I had worked in last summer in Calais burnt down online. To the untrained eye it provided a safe haven for the most vulnerable members of our society and was fantastically supported and organised by a huge team of volunteers.

“Several nights after the evacuation of the camp there are still many children living in unsanitary conditions who have been uncatered for by the French and UK governments. This can only be described as a disaster.”

Help Refugees have released a statement confirming the comments of the Leicester student, stating that these children have “No access to running water and toilets are not being cleaned even though there is a government contract. Volunteers are not able to enter the area to do food distribution or reach the youngest most vulnerable children.”

Just as we were Paris, Orlando, Brussels, Ankara, Nice and so on, why shouldn’t we be Calais? Not an act of terrorism but rather one of displacement which reflects a larger global immigration crisis.

We can laugh and joke at everything Donald Trump does, but his actions along with those of other politicians have meant that immigration has become a touchy subject – something nobody really wants to talk about.

You may not see the problem outside your house or on your daily commute to uni, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent. Another volunteer we spoke to gave reports that an estimated 3,000 people have poured into Paris and erected temporary housing, so obviously the problem simply isn’t going to go away.

65.3 million and counting are displaced in the world.

By next week, most will have forgotten about the burning of the Calais Jungle. We can only hope that its destruction will shine light on the fact that another world of people seeking stability and safety exists beyond our comfortable bubble.