"Delight" as Besson clears Calais Jungle

“Next stop UK”, announces the front page of the Daily Mail, reporting on the closure of the refugee camp known as “The Jungle” in Calais, France, where asylum seekers from all corners of the planet gather to seek passage to the UK. The operation was “led by French riot police armed with flamethrowers, stun guns and tear gas,” with bullodozers encircling the “shanty town of tarpaulin tents and rickety shacks” where “the stench of rotting food and human waste fills the air,” reports the London newspaper, ever keen to keep its conservative readership abreast of the appalling table manners of the hordes that seek to wash up on England’s green and pleasant shores. So far 238 immigrants, mainly from Western-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, and half of them children, have been arrested. According to aid agencies, most will be sent back to the countries where they entered the EU, Greece being one of the main points of entry. France’s minister of the Interior, Eric Besson, ordered the police swoop on humanitarian grounds, describing the camp as a base for “people traffickers”. On the other side of the Channel, Britain’s home secretary Alan Johnson described himself as “delighted” by the news. In the meantime, the victims of people traffickers seem to be of another opinion. “We are all absolutely determined to start a new life in England,” said a 22 year old from Kabul.