Calais Jungle
2016
We are in Calais,
at the northern border of France with England. We are in the Jungle of Calais,
which has become one of the largest refugee camps in northern Europe. Here
migrants have built a small "city" in the mud waiting to cross
illegally those 43 miles that separate them from England. Some want to reunite
with what is left of their families; some have simply lost everything and want
to rebuild their lives away from wars that they do not feel theirs; others
simply dream of a better world and think they might find it there. Everyone has
a different reason, but they have in common a desperate search for peace. In
the Jungle of Calais we find families, children, and, for the most part, youths
of 20-30 years of age that have survived grueling travels. Despite the brutal conditions these migrants
find themselves in, hope and desire to succeed are still in their eyes and in
their stories.
The days in the
Jungle start around 10:30 am (at night, they try to cross the
border illegally) and proceed between a game of football, a chat in front of
the fire, a hot cup of tea in a house built with scraps found here and there.
But for days now the evacuation has begun, and the situation has changed:
families are scared, youths watch their "homes" being destroyed by
bulldozers, children no longer go to school for fear of the police. Some just
move their belongings as far as possible at the periphery of the camps to gain
time to get organized before it is their turn to be evacuated.












