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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.
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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.
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.
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.
The inside of the Ashram communal kitchen where volunteers are cooking breakfast.
The part of the Ashram communal kitchen where refugees can sit down and eat.
A sign hangs in the Ashram kitchen urging people to get vaccinated against the flu, the camp has an on-site vaccination centre.
Another shot of the kitchen where volunteers cook meals for the camp’s inhabitants.
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.
The shopkeepers go to nearby French supermarkets to stock up.
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.
One of the dozens of restaurants in the camp that were opened and are run by refugees.
Here’s the outside of one of the many Afghan restaurants in the camp.
This is one of the few places in the camp where people can take hot showers.
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.
Many different fabrics and materials are used to insulate and decorate the inside of tents and buildings.
Annie, one of the volunteers for Help Refugees, drinks Chai tea at a cafe.
The camp also has its very own coffee shop.
This is what most of the shops inside the camp look like.
The shops sell things often found in corner shops: cigarettes, headphones, batteries, drinks and some small things to eat.
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.
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.
The last standing shelter in the “eviction” zone is guarded by police after they told the three men who were sleeping inside to leave.
The inside of one of the only shelters that had not been moved out of the zone the French authorities are bulldozing.
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.
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.
Burnt pages of a bible scattered around the remains of a bonfire.
One of the rubber bullets the French police fired at the refugees during clashes.
A toothbrush that was left behind during the move from one area to the other and the top of a tear gas canister.
The remains of a tear gas canister that the French police regularly fire into the camp.
Although volunteers are trying to move everyone into shelters, the sheer number of refugees means many still have to live in tents.
This is the entrance to the shelter of three Syrian refugees.
The inside of the shelter shared by three Syrian men.
A few refugees live in caravans like this one.
The tiny interior comprises a small kitchen.
This one also had running water and electricity.
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.
These flags and drawings tell their own story. See the cross-out machine gun on the right.
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.
These are some of the decorations and drawings that volunteers made with the children of the Jungle.
Here is one of the seven water points in the camp.
This church is one of the many places of worship in the Jungle.
The camp now also has a library where residents can have access to free WiFi.
All the books and dictionaries have been donated by associations and individuals.
English and French classes are given by volunteering professors right next to the library.
There is also a separate children’s space next to the library.
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.
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.
Read: Sweden to expel up to 80,000 asylum seekers
Read: ‘No simple answer’: Denmark has passed its controversial new asylum laws
