The fight against undocumented migrants within the European Union member states as well as in its immediate neighbourhood does not cease to increase. Along with police action taken on the Union’s outside borders, in the island of Lampedusa, Italy and nearby the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Northern Morocco, several actions have also been undertaken at the Union’s internal borders, namely in Patras, Greece, and in Calais.
Given its central location close to the European capitals of Brussels, London and Paris, the destruction of “the Jungle” became one of the most publicised events in the “fight against illegal migration” in Europe during the year 2009.
The operation of the 22 September 2009 was neither an isolated event nor a unique one in the migratory context of Calais and its surrounding area7. The question of migration in the Calais area has been high on the agenda for a long time already, as it is an area of passage with its short distance from the British shores. On the 31 December 2002, following an agreement between the British and the French governments, the Sangatte camp, which had been operated by the Red Cross since 1999 was closed, with the aim of “doing away with the question of migration in Calais”8. However, as the closing did not do away either with the need to move or the short distance to the UK, displaced persons continued to travel to Calais after the closing of the Sangatte camp, and still do so, even after the destruction of the unofficial “Pashtu camp” in September 2009.
This report first evaluates the immediate consequences of the destruction of “the Jungle” 22 September 2009 on the situation of migrants and refugees in the region of Calais/Pasde-Calais. Rather than considering the destruction of the 22 September as an isolated event, this report believes it should be contextualized in the wider mosaic of European migration policies and a European Asylum System in-the-making. This is to argue that the current state of affairs creates inhuman situations both for people on the move within Europe as well as for those native inhabitants who do their best in providing humanitarian assistance for persons in need at the local level. Moreover, the existing system positions persons in need of and entitled to international protection unevenly depending on the country they first arrive to, their nationality of origin, etc.
This unequal treatment materialises both in terms of access to formal protection, as well as in the everyday life in the country offering international protection (even if a positive decision on the case for asylum is made). Unequal treatment and lack of social and economic rights push persons to move around within the EU/Europe in the search for a dignified life.