France prepares to dismantle ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais, leaving inhabitants to confront uncertain future
The are 1,300 children living in the makeshift migrant camp and time is running out for them to qualify for asylum in the UK
France will begin demolition of the “Jungle” migrant camp on Monday but the fate of 1,300 children living there remains largely unclear.
After a long, heated campaign led by humanitarian organisations, the British government began accepting a small number of unaccompanied child refugees from Calais last week. But hundreds more may not qualify for asylum before the Jungle is destroyed, and time is running out.
I’m not in favour of allowing people in their 20s to say ‘I’m a child’ and then to come into the UK
On Friday, Interior Ministry officials said more than 7,500 places have been made available for the refugees living in the camp and minors remaining in France will be dispersed in special centres for teenagers where they won’t mingle with adults.
For the few children who are allowed to cross the English Channel – more than 40, as of Friday – there is neither certainty nor peace, as a number of lawmakers have demanded mandatory dental checks to ensure the incoming migrants are minors.
“I’m not pandering to hysteria,” David Davies, a Conservative lawmaker, told the BBC on Wednesday. “If we want to help children, that’s great ... But I’m not in favour of allowing people in their 20s to say ‘I’m a child’ and then to come into the UK and make a mockery of our rules.”
His comments followed the publication of a Home Office document obtained by the Daily Telegraph newspaper, in which 65 per cent of refugees whose ages were disputed by British officials were found to be adults, according to figures from 2015.