The creation of the Jungle, a staging post for illegal attempts to cross the Channel, was effectively sanctioned by France in 2015. A small refugee center opened outside Calais to house women and children and offer facilities to men. They soon set up camp and authorities turned a blind eye. Far from being a humane solution, the Jungle was really just a way to get refugees out of the town proper. It succeeded, by setting up a dirty, disease-prone, shanty town rife with crime. All of this was an attempt to get tough on refugees by shifting them out of Calais squats, thereby making their lives so miserable they would leave. It was an abject failure.
The Calais Jungle must never be allowed to rise again
