New Record of Calais ‘Jungle’ Population – 6,901 Migrants

A new census, carried out by border law enforcement officials, has shown that the number of migrants, living in the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, has reached its record in 6,901.

The number of people, living in the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, has reached a record in 6,901, which is an absolute maximum since its creation in April 2015, the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais reported, citing census carried out by border law enforcement officials. According to the new assessment, the number of migrants has increased of 53 percent in just two months. The previous count was conducted on June 13 and it showed a figure of some 4,480 people.

At the same time, more than 9,100 people were counted by local humanitarian aid groups, Help Refugees and L’Auberge des Migrants, in their own census earlier this month.

Authorities released the count results on Friday and repeated that the entire camp is going to be demounted, with no date being set as of yet.

A day before, mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart expressed concern at the deterioration of the situation in the Jungle as she called on the army to step in and sort it out. She pointed out that police forces are “exhausted”, after migrants repeatedly attacked them, and that she has been calling on the “army to come” for over a year.

“There is a state of war in France, and Calais is part of France, so, we do not understand, why there are not the same rules as in the rest of the country. The laws of the Republic must be enforced,” the Daily Express quoted her words.

On Friday, Richard Burnett, chief executive of Road Haulage Association (RHA), British trade organization which represents members of the road haulage industry, also said that the French Army should intervene in the situation.

“The time for talking has run out. If the situation has reached the stage where the police and other security personnel can’t cope, surely the obvious short-term solution must be the deployment of the French military to secure the port area,” he told the Daily Express.

Mike Hookem,  spokesman for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), also was quoted by the media: “The French government clearly needs to bring in the military to help resolve this situation.”

It still remains unclear what measures will be taken by the French side for quelling the situation. Last time, when authorities tried to regulate a number of migrants in the Jungle, they failed. In winter 2016, the decision to dismantle the southern part of the camp was taken. In this way, authorities wanted to make migrants to move into heated containers or tents on the northern rim of the camp. They also offered residents of the Jungle a bus, riding to refugee centers elsewhere in France in an attempt to ease the pressure on Calais, but that did not solve the problem.

Migrants, who are mainly from the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan, arrive in France in the hope of crossing the Channel to the UK. Their numbers tend to increase in the summer, when the Mediterranean Sea is warm enough and illegal crossings become more frequent. Along with the numbers of migrants, their desperation in trying to reach the UK also increases. They often attack cars and truckers, which are trying to cross the Channel Tunnel. In recent weeks migrants have even engaged in arson, the use of petrol bombs and chainsaw attacks on motorists.