Jungle container camp. Photo provided by author. All rights reserved.The ‘jungle’ in Calais is a space of both transience and persistence. This refugee settlement located on a wasteland just outside of Calais in France hosts more than 6,000 refugees who wait for an opportunity to cross the Channel to the UK, stowing away on a truck, car, ferry or train via the port or Eurotunnel.
It is at once an informal encampment of makeshift shelters; a town under construction, with shops, restaurants and schools; and, a space subject to institutional violence and at risk of imminent destruction.
At the beginning of February, French authorities bulldozed a mosque and a school, having previously promised it would leave these buildings untouched. This was not the first systematic destruction of parts of the jungle: in January, the authorities gave residents a few days’ notice to move their shelters before clearing a 100-metre strip of land. This so-called ‘no-man’s land’ was said to be a measure of security – a ‘buffer zone’ to restrict refugees from easy access to lorries on the motorway. Access to the motorway had already been restricted by means of a tall white fence donated by the UK government (and previously used at the London 2012 Olympics).
