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Latest update: 05/12/2008
The castaways of illegal immigration
Around 600 illegal immigrants live in makeshift camps around the northern French harbour town of Calais, hoping to hide in a lorry bound for the United Kingdom. The authorities do little for them and local charities say they are overloaded.
Hundreds of illegal immigrants en route to United Kingdom live outside the northern French town of Calais in make-shift shelters, assembled from scraps and rubbish. These camps are known as “the jungle”.
To try and protect themselves from the law of the jungle, immigrants from the same region gather together. Afghans live in the woods outside the town while immigrants from Eritrea shelter near the port.
“If people knew life was like this in Europe, they would not come. They would rather face death than live this life,” said an Afghan immigrant named Sangar.
Voulnteers regularly serve over 400 meals to undocumented immigrants on a scrap of wasteland. But apart from the food, little is provided. Many hope this open-air canteen will be the last stage of their journey to the UK.
The immigrants have travelled thousands of miles in hiding by bus, lorry and on foot.
“I left Afghanistan a year ago,” said an Afghan man. “On the border between Iran and Turkey some soldiers shot at us. Six people were injured, and we were deported.”
Like Sangar, many are planning to get to Britain before claiming asylum there, where they have heard the process is easier.
Four showers for 600 people
Mariam Rachih, a charity worker for 'Secours Catholique', says that there are only four public showers available for around 600 people. “We give out tickets for the showers, but we cant take everyone,” she regretted.
Most of Calais's charity workers and volunteers say they are over-loaded, and have called for urgent help from the authorities. But their calls have so far been in vain.
Nearly two million lorries pass through the port of Calais every year. Security is tight, with an annual budget of around 12 million euros. Nevertheless, dozens of immigrants try to sneak onboard lorries every day. If the police find them, the drivers can be held responsible and face fines of around 2,500 euros per immigrant, as well as a ban on entering Britain.
In its frequent raids on illegal immigrants, the police use handcuffs, even though the operations are labeled as simple identity checks.
“Every day, they come, take us, record our fingerprints and keep us for 24 hours. Then they release us,” said Liaqat, another Afghan immigrant.
If police checks show they have had their fingerprints taken in another EU country, the immigrants can be deported back there. But if not, they are usually simply released.
Under international law, it is hard to send someone who has no official papers back to their home country, especially if that is a state at war. So the immigrants head back into their judicial no-mans land.
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Comments (6)
praise for Migrants, Immigrants... Solutions Anyone?
Thank you for your wise words and praise for Migrants, Immigrants... Solutions Anyone?.
In the UK we do not have limitless resources for new arrivals.
In the current financial crisis we have 2 million unemployed and mounting, and existing immigrant families can claim over £900 a week in housing and other welfare payments.
The current insurance payments made by the working community are being spent on existing pensioners, with the expectation that there will be little or no money left for a state pension when we retire (people are living longer)
We simply cannot afford to support any more people.
"Nothing new under the sun..."
We do not live in the past but in the present and must adjust to present circumstances. In reference to Stone Age transience, one thing is certain, earliest examples of human civilization, expanded now beyond Mesopotamia to include Iran, Pakistan, and Middle Asia, feature communities, more often than not, walled communities. The idea that “what is here is mine and what is there is yours” is not new to our era nor did our ancient ancestors have little or no concept of it. It is clear when one investigates their settlements that even the earliest humans created communities that were independent of one another but may have traded, etc. Thus, to have a nation and protect it is not racist, it is preservationist and those words are not synonymous. It would be wrong to hate immigrants/migrants, it is not wrong to slow their flow into your nation for the sake of preserving your nation’s economy and standard of living. Note that someone suggest we have no borders at all. That would be beautiful, but it is very dangerous. Dreams are lovely but do not translate well in a world of such extreme and varied culture and opinion as ours. That is among many reasons we have nations, they protect us from one another, agree? Now, if a nation is falling apart and its people are looking elsewhere, that is the problem we must address, why is their homeland falling apart and what can be done to fix it, to help them make their home a better place? Running away doesn’t fix anything. Legal and monitored immigration/migration is healthy, but like anything else, out of control, it is dangerous and irresponsible. Confusing preservation of the state with racism isn’t going to help anyone along in the process of addressing the migration/immigration crisis. We need real plans and real humane, civilized solutions.
Immigration will never end,
It started at the Stone Age, men looking for emigrational sustainable fresh food.
The base of the problem will never end as long as men will not be able to feed their family at home.
Unfortunately narrow minded, create racism, insecurity, paranoia because of work competition in salary and not in knowledge while the economy has opened its doors to Global Economy. This verge will unfortunately grow, separating the rich of the poor with leaving only a small narrow space for the middle class, encouraging migration
Immigrants
Here too in Trxas we have lots of them from Mexico and other spanish speaking countries. Yesterday goinf to Homr Depot in Galveston I saw about 20 of them waiting for someone to pick them up and give them a job. Because of the hurricane IKE there so much to repair and clean-up that by the time I finished my shopping they were nearly all gone. It is very sad. They work very hard. Save their money and send so much of their pay check to their families in Mexico. I feel sorry for them. Would you believe that some of my friends who are Mexican/Americans do not feel sorry for them at all which is surprising to me. They tell me they should come legally like their ancestors did. Oh well. On the French problem with the illegal immigrants, I am surprise that the authorities do not help those poor people.. I am French/American and I am ashamed for France, the Country of Marianne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No Borders
Reopening the borders would be good for all workers; it would remove one of the means the state uses to attack our unions. It is not refugees who cause our problems; it is the state. Wars and other competitions between units of authority drive people from their homes. Borders repress the movement of refugees and other migrant workers. Migrant workers built the unions in the UK and continue to make up the most repressed and most active trade unionists. The UK's borders were first closed by Lord Balfour's Alien Immigration Act in response to anti-Jewish agitation by the British Union of Fascists, the precursor to today's BNP.
Migrants, Immigrants... Solutions Anyone?
Calais, France has a serious problem with their migrants, the city I live in, San Diego, has problems with immigrants, similar situations, only that ours want to stay here in California and those moving into France featured in this article wish to move on, perhaps, to the U.K. Either way, it cannot be sustained indefinitely, these situations will fester, and simmer, and eventually come to a boil. Here in San Diego this happens occasionally with an outbreak of violent crimes, etc carried out by “illegal aliens” frustrated by their status and joined to local gangs who use them to run drugs, etc. Others camp in hidden valleys and dark places only to come out at night for fear of being arrested during the day. It is a pitiful existence, both for the Mexicans here and for the Afghans and various other migrants there in France. What is to be done, if there is to be no regard or obedience for National immigration law? How long can we debate the matter when the solution, cruel though it may seem, is and has always been to send them back to their homes of origin? Is it better that they should sit in limbo, undocumented, uncared for (save for some overstretched charities)? Should they be left in filth and be marginalized? Should they be caged animals, that’s what they are now; you may not see the bars but the cage is over them and there is no escape. What if they make it to England? Will there be good paying jobs there for them? Is England blessed with limitless land and resources to manage the burden? This is sickening. These poor people must understand that their home is just that, it is their home, they must rise together to make it a better place; the west cannot do it for them and if it did, wouldn’t that be a new imperialism? Does anyone have a logical, humane solution?