Hundreds from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia have set up a new illegal encampment in Calais, dubbed Jungle 2, as they wait for their first chance to escape to a new life in Britain. The squalid, tented squat on the outskirts of the French port was set up after the previous one in the town was bulldozed two months ago. It was meant to have helped put an end to the constant, ever-growing flow of hopefuls waiting to cross the Channel by any means possible. All it did was to drive them to other parts of Calais. Hundreds wait for food handouts (left) in the town while some have been spotted trying to break in to container lorries (top right) in their bid for a new life across the English Channel. Two 16-year-olds Almas and Halan (bottom right) set off from Eritrea in a bid to reach Britain.
Sixteen-year-old Eritrean girls Almas (left) and Halan (right) said they had taken months to reach Calais from their Eritrea
They are desperate, defiant – and determined to get to England.
Many had scaled mountains, crossed deserts and sailed across an ocean to get here.
Some of their companions had drowned, perished from starvation or been arrested before they made it.
Huddled in the sun: Africans from the Jungle 2 camp in Calais, France wait for food handouts
Little wonder that on Friday, above a shoreline from which they could see the White Cliffs of Dover, these refugees, homeless chancers and would-be migrants, mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, were so confident that a new life in Britain would be the next stop.
This is the latest illegal encampment to spring up in Calais – and hundreds are currently waiting for the first chance to escape.
They have nicknamed it Jungle 2 – a squalid, tented squat on the outskirts of the French port. The previous one in the town was bulldozed two months ago.
That followed the clearance in 2009 of the original Jungle area on the outskirts, and the razing of the notorious Sangatte refugee centre in 2002.
All of that was meant to have put an end to the constant, ever-growing flow of hopefuls waiting to cross the Channel by any means possible.
All it did was to drive them to other parts of Calais.
Desperate: Two migrants try to break into a container lorry
And so, Jungle 2 is currently a miserable but convenient stepping-stone to the UK for more than 500 itinerants, a population rapidly swelling with families fleeing Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.
So it is not surprising that on Friday – despite threats of eviction, alleged beatings from police and an international outcry by homeless charities and migrant help groups – so many insisted they would stay for as long as it takes to get to England.
As one teenage Eritrean put it: ‘We will get there eventually.’
The new Jungle is situated on the seaward side of a road used by lorries heading to the port.
It is a swathe of wasteland and sand dunes, owned and used by a chemical factory to bury supposedly non-toxic waste.
Many of the migrants are men in their twenties, sometimes accompanied by women and children.
They spend nights under canvas with no drinking water or sanitary facilities – then attempt to leap on UK bound trucks about to board ferries.
Others attempt to cut their way into trailers at truckers’ cafés, where drivers rest before crossing to the UK.
Large numbers of Africans started to arrive after being evicted from squats in Calais and random camps on the outskirts of town, joining Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis evicted from previous camps.
They were among thousands of migrants who have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe and a better life.
Many have perished either from drowning or suffocation on overcrowded fishing boats they sailed in.
Luckier ones were rescued by the Italian navy after their boats got into difficulties near the island of Lampedusa, 100 miles from Sicily.
LUXURY ROUTE TO BRITAIN... THE ILLEGALS IN MASERATIS
Six suspected illegal migrants were caught by police after smuggling themselves into Britain in a shipment of new Maseratis.
Officers were involved in a dramatic chase at a motorway service station after the men climbed out of the sports cars and tried to run.
The would-be migrants from Sudan had hidden themselves inside the Maseratis, which can cost as much as £110,000, on the back of a transporter.
Six suspected illegal migrants were caught by police after smuggling themselves into Britain in a shipment of new Maseratis
They escaped detection because the Italian-made cars were covered in protective fabric sleeves which can be unzipped.
But when the lorry driver parked up at Cobham Services on the M25 in Surrey yesterday the men tried to make a run for it.
It is not known when the men hid themselves in the sports cars. They were handed over to immigration officials, who will assess whether they have a right to remain here.
Yesterday, a water pipe to a factory sports hall, tapped into by migrants for their water supply, was cut off.
They now have to rely on bottles of mineral water brought by aid workers to drink and wash themselves.
Sixteen-year-old Eritrean girls Almas and Halan told the Daily Mail they had taken months to reach Calais from their homeland.
‘We both want to learn, to study commercial sciences in England,’ said Almas.
Via - Dailymail
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