Refugees in the Jungle: Punished for seeking a peaceful life

Last week, two young men died trying to reach Britain from Calais, France, through the Channel Tunnel. They were refugees who were trapped in the “Jungle”, as the makeshift refugee camp in Calais is known, and they came from Syria and Eritrea. In total, 14 refugees have died trying to reach Britain from Calais this year. However, the French and British governments seem to have no solution for this particular refugee problem except more repression. A few weeks ago British Home Secretary Theresa May went to inspect newly erected fences and other installations designed to keep refugees out of Britain, without talking to the refugees, who protested her visit chanting “We are not animals!”

I visited the camp with the London2Calais convoy, which aimed to highlight the plight of the refugees and protest their treatment. There are 7,000 refugees in the Jungle. The fences surrounding the camp are more than five metres high, topped by barbed wire. Both France and Britain know that the refugees will do anything to reach the port and border. There is no sanitation at the camp. Scabies and other diseases have appeared, and the refugees are not allowed to build structures to protect themselves from the elements, despite a campaign by French activists to allow them to do so. They have been living in tents, exposed to the cold in winter, for years. It is very hard to believe that this refugee camp exists in one of the richest countries in the world, and it is even more difficult, looking at these new tall barbed wire fences which were only built a few weeks before, to believe that this is taking place in a democratic country which prides itself on its respect for human rights.

However, despite these miserable conditions, the camp remains a lively place. The refugees’ tents are brightly painted and the flags of their homelands fly above them. Travelling with the London2Calais convoy, we brought with us the things that we thought the refugees needed most – jackets for the winter and mobile phones which would allow the refugees to keep in contact both with their families back home and with organisations in the UK which might help them. Everyone we spoke to refused to accept this help. Time and again we were told: “We don’t need anything.” The refugees had only two demands – they wanted to get to Britain, or they wanted the wars and the oppression in their countries to end.

The latest refugee to die trying to reach Britain was an Eritrean teenager who was hit by a bus while trying to enter the Channel Tunnel. He died last Thursday. Less than a week earlier, on 18 September, a Syrian called Elias was electrocuted by a cable as he tried to jump onto the roof of a Eurostar train. Refugees at the camp showed me the wounds and scars they sustained trying to climb over the barbed wire fences in an attempt to get to the Channel Tunnel. But why are they so desperate to reach Britain?

I spoke to Jamal, a Palestinian who lived in Syria; he had worked as a computer engineer. He told me that if he stayed in Syria he would have had to serve in the Syrian army. Palestinians in Syria usually serve in the “Palestinian Liberation Army”, which despite its name is for all intents and purposes a branch of the regular Syrian army. He said that he “didn’t want to kill anyone” and he knew that he could be sent to areas where Daesh, who have acquired a fearsome reputation everywhere, were present. Palestinians in Syria, he said, “were being victimised by both sides.”

Originally he had fled to Turkey, but there he found that as a Palestinian without Syrian citizenship he couldn’t stay in the country legally and had to make his way to Europe.

Jamal said that his mother, sister and niece had already claimed asylum in Britain and that all he wanted to do was join them. He kept insisting that he wanted no money from the British government and said all he wanted to do was work.

Another refugee, Ali, from Damascus, told me that young men in Syria had two choices – either to fight for the regime or get out. His uncle and cousins were in Britain and that’s why he wanted to join them.

Not all the refugees had family in Britain. Originally from Daraa, Mahmoud’s family lived in Qadam in south Damascus. This area was briefly taken over by opposition forces before being re-captured by the regime. He told me that his father was a victim of a “field execution” by regime forces when they re-entered the camp. “After this, the regime considered everyone who came from this area a terrorist.” He and his family fled first to Lebanon, where they feared retribution from Hezbollah, and so fled to Turkey.

In Turkey they couldn’t sustain themselves and this is what motivated him to take the long trip to Calais. When I asked him why he wanted to come to Britain, he said: “In Britain I will be able to find a job and make my own money. If I register in France the only thing I can do is get benefits.” He added that apart from Arabic, the only language he spoke was English.

During our time in the Jungle, none of the refugees wanted material help from us or any government, most wanted to come to the UK to join their family and escape the turmoil that has inflicted their lives for so many years now.

So often the story that refugees want to come to the UK to take advantage of the benefits system far over shadows the harrowing tales of their suffering and the real reason they have fled their homes.

It would be far better if the British government listened to the refugees in Calais and worked with them to find a solution to their plight, instead of subsidising their continued imprisonment.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.