When it opened in the spring, it comprised little more than a hotchpotch of tents on the sand dunes.
Eight months later, the notorious ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais, has grown into a self-contained mini-city — a permanent magnet for people trying to get to Britain.
More than a dozen shops have opened, along with restaurants, libraries, and even makeshift hotels — and, inevitably, an information centre offering advice on how to get asylum in Britain.
Today: The notorious ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais, pictured recently, has grown into a self-contained mini-city — a permanent magnet for people trying to get to Britain
June: When it opened in the spring, it comprised little more than a hotchpotch of tents on the sand dunes. The above shot shows the Jungle six months ago in June
The main strip, known as the Market, is the beating heart of the Jungle. There’s a dome-shaped theatre which doubles up as an art gallery and an Eritrean nightclub which serves super-strength beer (ironic considering that half of the country’s population are Muslims). A book shop (wittily named Jungle Books, presumably after the Rudyard Kipling tale) provides English and French classes. There are mosques and churches, including a wooden Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox church.
The camp, which replaced another that was demolished, started as a stopping place for migrants as they awaited an opportunity to be smuggled illegally out of France across the Channel into Britain.
But now it has become a permanent site. Since tougher security measures have been introduced and huge sums of money spent to stop the people-smuggling trade, would-be migrants are biding their time while waiting to cross to the UK, by starting up businesses. From the air, it looks like the makings of a mini-Glastonbury festival.
Nevertheless, the migrants still daily plot their journey to start a new life in Britain, controversially described by a mayor of Calais as El Dorado, because welfare benefits are easy to obtain and jobs are freely available.
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Theatre: A dome-shaped performance venue made of what appears to be plastic can be found on the main strip, which is also known as the Market
Church: St Michael's Church, which is decorated with brightly coloured paintings of angels, provides a place where migrants can go for religious worship
Art gallery: A man holds a picture of 'England' in the camp's art gallery, perhaps as a homage to the final destination many migrants are hoping to get to
Almost every need is catered for as charities supply hot meals and build wooden shacks, and human rights lawyers offer advice on asylum. For children, there’s a playground with wooden climbing frames.
Every Saturday, there is a ‘beauty day’ in a makeshift building, with massages and other treatments available. Men sit at tables and play dominoes while others play table football. Within the Market area, there are a number of restaurants — predominately Kurdish, Eritrean and Afghan — and convenience shops selling food and cigarettes. A Mauretanian artist, Alpha, has set up a sculpture garden.
Despite the superficially easy-going atmosphere, at night the mood becomes sinister and there are serious concerns of infiltration by British Islamic militants posing as humanitarian workers. At 1am, ‘the intifada’, as the locals call it, swings into action.
Groups of migrants, guided by people-smuggling gangs and left-wing activists, try to stop lorries and cars heading for the UK in the hope of stowing away on them.