Back to the Calais "jungle"

"Less than four months after it was destroyed, several hundred illegals have returned to the "jungle" migrant camp," announces Le Parisien. Dismantled at the end of September 2009, the "makeshift camp which had come to symbolize the tragic plight of migrants waiting for an opportunity to enter the UK" is once again home to 200 to 300 asylum seekers — as opposed to 800 before it was dismantled: and this figure does not take into account a hundred other migrants camping at other nearby coastal sites. In Calais, civil society groups complain that the asylum seekers are being completely ignored. "The dismantling of the "jungle" was mainly designed to make a splash in the media," remarks Jean-Pierre Leclercq, leader of the association, SALAM, which offers assistance to migrants. "It had no impact on the underlying situation. The UK is still 32 km away, the smugglers are still offering transport across the Channel, and the migrants are still dreaming of a better life."