Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

welcome to the jungle

Pictures: Inside the surreal world of the migrant 'Jungle' at Calais

An entire society has sprung up on the outskirts of the French town, with the refugees living there making the most of the little that they have.

1 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

THE INFAMOUS REFUGEE camp in Calais known as the “Jungle” is now home to an estimated 5,000 people whose goal it is to make it to the UK and apply for asylum there.

The camp, built on an old landfill site in Calais, has received a lot of attention lately following clashes between its inhabitants, the police, and locals who want the camp dismantled.

The squalid conditions in which thousands of people live have also been decried time and again by volunteers and aid organisations who work with the refugees.

Although French authorities have begun bulldozing parts of the camp, it keeps on growing as people continue arriving every day despite the winter weather. While the French and British governments argue over who should be responsible for the people living there, a new town is slowly developing on the outskirts of Calais.

Here are pictures that show what life is like for the thousands of people who live as outcasts in a country they desperately wish to leave.

This is the back entrance to the camp, which is used by volunteers when the police block off the main access road. It used to be the Kurdish part of the camp before nightly attacks by locals forced them to move to another part of the camp.

2 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The “Pink Caravan” is where a volunteer from Help Refugees sleeps every night in order to give people who arrive to the camp in the middle of the night a tent and some blankets.

3 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

These are the signs to the entrance of one of the few communal kitchens in the camp. It is run by volunteers and serves food twice a day to around 2,000 people.

4 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The inside of the Ashram communal kitchen where volunteers are cooking breakfast.

5 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The part of the Ashram communal kitchen where refugees can sit down and eat.

6 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

A sign hangs in the Ashram kitchen urging people to get vaccinated against the flu, the camp has an on-site vaccination centre.

7 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Another shot of the kitchen where volunteers cook meals for the camp’s inhabitants.

8 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

As the camp grows, it has also developed a variety of businesses — here is the inside of one of the many grocery stores in the Jungle, which doubles as a restaurant.

9 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The shopkeepers go to nearby French supermarkets to stock up.

10 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Some of the restaurants in the Jungle, like this one, provide newcomers or people who find themselves without a tent or shelter for the night, a place to sleep.

11 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

One of the dozens of restaurants in the camp that were opened and are run by refugees.

12 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Here’s the outside of one of the many Afghan restaurants in the camp.

13 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is one of the few places in the camp where people can take hot showers.

14 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is the interior of one of the cafes in the camp. It is decorated with different blankets and cloths that are hung on the ceiling, and also has television.

15 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Many different fabrics and materials are used to insulate and decorate the inside of tents and buildings.

16 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Annie, one of the volunteers for Help Refugees, drinks Chai tea at a cafe.

17 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The camp also has its very own coffee shop.

18 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is what most of the shops inside the camp look like.

19 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The shops sell things often found in corner shops: cigarettes, headphones, batteries, drinks and some small things to eat.

20 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is part of the area that just last week was still full of tents and shelters. It was cleared by volunteers and refugees and is being bulldozed by the French authorities who had announced earlier this month they would clear the part of the camp closest to the motorway.

21 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

A truck is passing on the stretch of the motorway that is closest to the camp. From there many refugees tried to get into lorries to get transported to the UK.

22 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The last standing shelter in the “eviction” zone is guarded by police after they told the three men who were sleeping inside to leave.

23 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The inside of one of the only shelters that had not been moved out of the zone the French authorities are bulldozing.

24 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Two of the three men who were just woken up by the police as they were sleeping in their shelter pose for a picture while hiding their faces.

25 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The remains of a bicycle that was burned in one of the many camp fires lit the night before the authorities came in with bulldozers.

26 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Burnt pages of a bible scattered around the remains of a bonfire.

27 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

One of the rubber bullets the French police fired at the refugees during clashes.

28 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

A toothbrush that was left behind during the move from one area to the other and the top of a tear gas canister.

29 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The remains of a tear gas canister that the French police regularly fire into the camp.

30 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Although volunteers are trying to move everyone into shelters, the sheer number of refugees means many still have to live in tents.

31 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is the entrance to the shelter of three Syrian refugees.

32 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The inside of the shelter shared by three Syrian men.

33 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

A few refugees live in caravans like this one.

34 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The tiny interior comprises a small kitchen.

35 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This one also had running water and electricity.

36 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This is the outside of the women and children part of the camp. Estimated at around 400, women and children make up a very small part of the people living in the camp and most of them live together in this part of the Jungle.

37 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

These flags and drawings tell their own story. See the cross-out machine gun on the right.

38 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Men are not allowed inside of the women and children’s centre except on Sundays when the few men who are alone with their children are allowed in.

39 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

These are some of the decorations and drawings that volunteers made with the children of the Jungle.

40 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

Here is one of the seven water points in the camp.

41 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

This church is one of the many places of worship in the Jungle.

42 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The camp now also has a library where residents can have access to free WiFi.

43 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

All the books and dictionaries have been donated by associations and individuals.

44 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

English and French classes are given by volunteering professors right next to the library.

45 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

There is also a separate children’s space next to the library.

46 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

One of the roads next to the camp which leads to the Jules Ferry centre where food is distributed to everyone and people can charge their phones.

47 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

The sun sets on the shelters and tents in which most of the 5,000 inhabitants of the Jungle live. In the background are the white shipping containers where the French government intends to house around 1,500 refugees.

48 Business Insider / Barbara Tasch Business Insider / Barbara Tasch / Barbara Tasch

- Barbara Tasch

Read: Sweden to expel up to 80,000 asylum seekers

Read: ‘No simple answer’: Denmark has passed its controversial new asylum laws

Published with permission from
Business Insider
Your Voice
Readers Comments
63
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.