Yasemin Bakan/FRANCE- CALAIS- JUNGLE KAMP
ALMOST 3000 immigrants await at the port of Calais at a camp known as the ‘Jungle Camp. A visit has been made by the Head of Association of Turkish Speaking Health Professionals in the UK Dr Ali Demirbağ, Enfield MP David Burrowes, British Doctors Volunteers, Volunteers of Help Refugees UK and a team from Londra Gazete spoke to migrants there.
Immigrants have come from countries including Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Eritre (Ethopia) and now await spending their lives in tents, at the camp nicknamed ‘Jungle’. Almost 3000 immigrants who have escaped await to cross the border into the UK.
The camp which has been formed of tents set up on muddy grounds, where they are living in conditions described as inhumane. They have no electric, no water and no heating. Their conditions are currently breaching the European Human Rights Act in regards to the right to live in stable conditions. To shower each immigrant must wait for four hours in a queue, yet they only have just six minutes to wash themselves.
POLICE ATTACK PREGNANT WOMEN
The French Government has described the living conditions as ‘inhumane’ and would like to send those waiting to temporary acceptance immigration centres. However thousands of immigrants who want to cross to the UK via the channel tunnel are doing whatever they can to stay in Calais. There last hope is the port where the ferry’s leave from Europe to the UK.
Immigrants have described French poliçe as extremely agressive and have explained that bopth women and children and even women who are pregnant that have been physically abused by officers. The French government who want to abolish the camp, have a team of police officers on site who have set alight a set of tents and used pepper sprays towards the immigrants there.
The French government want to close the camp without providing or offering any other point of shelter. It still isn’t certain as to whether or not almost 3000 immigrants will be reunited with their relatives in the UK.
THERE ARE NO HUMAN RIGHT CONDITIONS, WE MUST QUESTION THE EU
Describing the camp, Head of Association of Turkish Speaking Health Professionals in the UK, Dr Ali Demirbağ said: “Seeing people who have escaped from war living in such conditions is very upsetting. We can see that there are numbers of children under the age of three and there are no Human right conditions being provided for these families. They are far from basic hygiene and we can see that these immigrants are in a place where they have no idea where they are going, what they are going to do and are in a very hopeless environment.”
He continued by saying: “As if all this isn’t bad enough, they are victims of physical abuse from the French police, this saddens us very much. 80 per cent of the volunteers workıng at the camp are from England. The doctors who are doing all they can to improve the living conditions are certainly an inspiration to others. There are currently 3,000,000 immigrants in Turkey. None of them are living in conditions like these. If the EU isn’t providing basic human needs and conditions then we must question the existence of the EU itself. I visited a camp of 10,000 immigrants in Malatya, Turkey. The Turkish Government had provided all the basic living needs there.”
3000 immigrants continue to wait for their fate to changing in hope of crossing the border as soon as possible into the UK.
