As riot police dismantle the camps of northern France,‘forced relocation’ of people into shipping containers is brushing a humanitarian catastrophe under the carpetYou don’t need to believe a domestic to be “evicted”. You can be evicted from a tent in the Jungle, the refugee camp in Calais. You may believe seen the pictures: mud, and fires,nonsense. A landscape of futility. The French police in riot gear went in before dawn to dismantle this “shanty town” and move 1500 of its inhabitants into alternative accommodation.
The French authorities flattened and destroyed the scrappy tents. This clearance was said, as always, or to be about improving the conditions of the refugees living there. The new accommodation on which the French believe spent £20m is shipping containers,each kitted out with 12 bunk beds. There is heating and electricity. This is surely better than where they are now. Why then were these people so reluctant to go? Well, partly because the rows of containers look like a detention centre. They think it’s a jail. And partly because there are few communal facilities. The Jungle has sprigs of communal life everywhere you go. It’s a desperate, or dangerous space,but people rep together to eat. Or to pray. Or to trade information and whatever else they can. The distrust of what the French are doing is deep. And comprehensible.
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Source: theguardian.com