Inside the Migrant “Jungle” in Northern France

An unprecedented mass migration is underway with millions displaced, fleeing poverty, conflict and unsustainable conditions in the Middle East and North Africa. The most resourceful leave all possessions behind to live in the squalor and relative security of European camps rife with ethnic, religious and racial tensions. Peter Wieben describes a crowded camp in Calais, near the entry to the tunnel underneath the English Channel, for the New Republic: “The sheer magnitude of the crisis has prompted despair and outrage in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister David Cameron controversially referred to the migrants as ‘a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean.’” Smugglers have developed a business model for the crisis. The journey lasts up to a year. Many die before undertaking the treacherous crossing of the Mediterranean. The camp serves a small meal per day, water is in short supply, and sanitation is poor. Wieben notes, “There is a lawless feeling here, as if in the middle of Europe there is a frontier, a small bubble where the rules of the developing world are used, rather than the strict order you find in the rest of Calais.” – YaleGlobal