TUESDAY December 14, 2021: 'CALAIS JUNGLE REBORN' by Le Pictorium photographer Michael Bunel who has spent 10 years covering the migrant crisis in Europe: The huge refugee camp in Calais known as the 'Jungle' became notorious in 2015, as 1 million people fled war and danger to come to Europe. Yet 5 years after it was demolished up to 2,000 migrants are still waiting in makeshift camps, at the centre of a political storm. Migrant boat crossings from France to the United Kingdom's English coast are at record levels as both countries struggle to handle the flow of migrants in the area. The French authorities have regularly cleared migrant camps near Calais, offering migrants the opportunity to move to a shelter and file asylum requests in France. But many migrants prefer to continue their journeys to Britain. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 47,000 attempts to cross the Channel and 7,800 migrants had been saved from shipwrecks, according to French officials. On November 24 a boat capsized leaving 27 migrants dead. Everybody knows the risks. Even after News of the recent deaths has reached camp, many still plan to pay people smugglers huge amounts to cross the channel in hope of a better life. Welcome to 'CALAIS JUNGLE REBORN'
© zReportage.com Story of the Week #818: TUESDAY December 14, 2021: 'CALAIS JUNGLE REBORN' by Le Pictorium photographer Michael Bunel who has spent 10 years covering the migrant crisis in Europe: The huge refugee camp in Calais known as the 'Jungle' became notorious in 2015, as 1 million people fled war and danger to come to Europe. Yet 5 years after it was demolished up to 2,000 migrants are still waiting in makeshift camps, at the centre of a political storm. Migrant boat crossings from France to the United Kingdom's English coast are at record levels as both countries struggle to handle the flow of migrants in the area. The French authorities have regularly cleared migrant camps near Calais, offering migrants the opportunity to move to a shelter and file asylum requests in France. But many migrants prefer to continue their journeys to Britain. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 47,000 attempts to cross the Channel and 7,800 migrants had been saved from shipwrecks, according to French officials. On November 24 a boat capsized leaving 27 migrants dead. Everybody knows the risks. Even after News of the recent deaths has reached camp, many still plan to pay people smugglers huge amounts to cross the channel in hope of a better life. Welcome to 'CALAIS JUNGLE REBORN'
A Total gas station is surrounded by a high concrete wall topped with razor wire to prevent the migrants from approaching the trucks as stowaways and also from stealing gasoline.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Police officers stand at camp entrances as refugees wait for evacuation. Buses chartered by the prefecture are ready to take the exiles to reception centers. According to the refugee organizations, two choices were offered to the migrants, to get on the bus or to have to deal with the PAF (French Border Police).
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
The English channel roughly 20 miles distance to the United Kingdom, as seen from the sand dunes near Wimereux. According to the maritime prefecture 12,000 crossing attempts were made between January and July of 2021. In comparison in 2019, only 2294 attempts were recorded.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A man warms himself by a fire as the camp begins to wake up. Abandoned to their fate, the migrant camp is a pile of tents and garbage.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A muslim section in a cemetery in the north of Calais, with a newly dug grave for migrant Yasser Abdallah, a Sudanese of 20 years, who died during the night on September 28 after he was hit by a truck.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A 14 year old Eritrean minor hides in the bushes in the hope of getting on a truck to Britain. This highly illegal system of passage is favored by migrants who cannot afford a smuggler to take them across the channel.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A hundred tents are installed in a disused warehouse, a temporary home to more than 1000 migrants, mostly of Kurdish origin, crammed into this unhealthy facility. The camp is located in front of the Auchan shopping district.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A French police patrol inspects the sand dunes near Wimereux. According to the maritime prefecture 12,000 attempts were made to cross the channel between January and July 2021. In comparison in 2019, only 2294 border crossing attempts were recorded.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
One of the alleys of the camp composed of tents lined one after the other. This particular camp is said to be run by smugglers.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A sign at the entrance to the moor where the infamous shantytown, known as the 'Jungle,' was located, indicates that access is prohibited. The area is constantly monitored by a video camera system and numerous law enforcement patrols. At the height of the Jungle in 2016, 9,000 people were living in what was once the largest shantytown in Europe.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Several people wait in the smoke of a fire to warm up, in front of them, several shopping carts used to transport their belongings. The low temperatures and the rain create a constant humidity where nothing dries.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Migrants line up and wait during a food distribution by an aid association at the entrance of an empty moor where several refugees have settled in makeshift camps. In theory, only the association La Vie Active, mandated by the State, is authorized to distribute food. According to Didier Leschi, between 700 and 900 meals are distributed by La Vie Active, while there are between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants in Calais.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
An Eritrean minor accompanies a group of Sudanese who are trying to get into trucks as stowaways hoping to illegally enter Great Britain via the 'Transmarck' area which is used as a parking lot for truck drivers during the night.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Three refugees, with sleeping bags under their arms, walk on a bridge in Calais, while beneath the bridge are traces of a migrants camp. During the summer immigrants were sleeping in several public gardens within the city. Today there are now no camps inside city itself, yet several thousand migrants still shelter in makeshift camps nearby.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
KARZAN receives a shave by one of his friends, a hairdresser by trade at home in Iraq. As in 2015, the city of Grande Synthe has again become a temporary home to a migrant Kurdish community.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A migrant family discusses their options around a fire while waiting for the evacuation of the camp by the police. Journalists present announced to the refugees that the camp was going to be dismantled. The prefecture had promised to inform the exiles and the associations 48 hours in advance, which in this case did not happen.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A police cleaning team cuts up the tents of migrants with a knife, during the dismantling of the refugee camp of Grande Synthe. The cutting of tents during dismantling has been denounced by refugee aid associations.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
In the premises of the harbor master, a grim list is displayed with the names of 309 people who have disappeared since 1999, trying to cross the English channel to Great Britain. A monument to the dead is being prepared with the names of the missing persons.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Protestors gather during a demonstration in the streets of Dunkirk with aid association members and and migrants, demanding a winter truce on expulsions and an end to the destruction of the migrant camps.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Hunger strikers ANAIS VOGEL and LUDOVIC HOLBEIN sit in the room they occupy in the church in Calais. The activists have ended their 37-day hunger strike over the treatment of migrants despite the French government snubbing their main demand to suspend the break-up of makeshift camps. They welcomed what they described as 'meagre' commitments offered after a direct appeal to President Macron, but said their protests had thrown a spotlight on the treatment of migrants.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
MARLENE SCHIAPPA, French Minister Delegate for Citizenship, visiting the new storage location where tents and refugees belongings are stored after the dismantling of the migrant camps.
© Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Le Pictorium Photographer Michael Bunel specializes in reportage and covers French and international news. He covered Calais and on the migration crisis in Europe since 2015; he traveled to Turkey to cover demonstrations in Taksim Square, to Gaza during the 'March of Return' and to Ukraine to follow the armed insurgency of separatists in the Donbass. He has published two books, 'Believe in 9.3', which follows a year of reporting on the Catholic faith in Seine-Saint-Denis, and his second book, 'EXIL' on exiles fleeing wars and misery. Michael's work is represented by Le Pictorium/ZUMA and he is available for assignments via ZUMA Press.
© Le Pictorium Photographer Michael Bunel specializes in reportage and covers French and international news. He covered Calais and on the migration crisis in Europe since 2015; he traveled to Turkey to cover demonstrations in Taksim Square, to Gaza during the 'March of Return' and to Ukraine to follow the armed insurgency of separatists in the Donbass. He has published two books, 'Believe in 9.3', which follows a year of reporting on the Catholic faith in Seine-Saint-Denis, and his second book, 'EXIL' on exiles fleeing wars and misery. Michael's work is represented by Le Pictorium/ZUMA and he is available for assignments via ZUMA Press.
