Going through Calais in France to enter Britain, you are bound to have an eerie feeling even if you are tipsy. Odd bits and ends, snaky objects thrust here and there, some fetish ornaments displayed and swinging in the mild breeze.
Yes, you are in the “jungle” so called by those who pass through to join the ferry boat to London. The “jungle” had a serene, sometimes deadly atmosphere as those who live there, are living rough.
It had a gang land setting, shackled tents, unsanitary conditions and downright filthy. The dwellers are of mixed bunch, unskilled African migrants, jobless East Europeans and tough talking South Americans whose daily language is: give me a job – or else.
Travellers passing through the jungle have consistently complained that it’s like running a half-mile gauntler. Suitcases are snatched, mobile phones are wrenched from pockets, and wallets are twisted from hands.
These actions are during daylight while French Police watched from a distance fearing to go in … or else they would be knifed. A female British journalist who said she was investigating the issue of illegal migration was lured and gang-raped.
Other unsavoury actions had gone unreported. When French bulldozers moved in the other day to make mincemeat of the jungle nearly everyone raised their hands sky-high that it was about time.
British immigration officials had long complained that the spot was a staging post from the continent to enter Britain. That the migrants would sometimes sneak into departing ferry plying into London and other English cities.
After years of the French perceiving that they knew what was right and kept the “jungle” it is now apparent that they now knew what was wrong. The ever popping up question remains – why are illegal migrants so freaked to enter Europe at all cost- regardless.
Some call it a publish and be dammed approach but yet they keep on coming-riding the torturous crest of waves in shabby boats and hoodwinked by rascals who take their money and run.
Those who could not are simply tossed overboard into choppy waters. Those who eventually make the journey would later realize that the journey itself is just beginning to swell their miseries and worries.
Everywhere is tightening the bolts and turning the screws. In Italy, things have got so bad that the government has authorized the Police to stop and demand the evidence of residence of any suspected illegal migrants.
If those with legal papers are without jobs where are your chances as an undocumented migrant to have one? The odds are put at the billion to one chances. Germany fares no better neither Spain where boatloads of migrants are sent back to Malta and Libya before they could even land.
Portugal does not seem to be a gem just yet but who knows in the thoughts of wandering illegal migrants- everywhere is hallowed ground. But European States are ganging up to pull down the shutters on the boat people.
You could see it on the rise of the white right whose slogan remains stop immigration. To strengthen their philosophy, there is now an open suggestion of “dumping all boat illegal migrants deep in the Saharan Desert.”
People are being told openly-watch out. You would one morning wake up to find an illegal African migrant sitting on your doorstep and asking what direction is it to Africa?
The sore point is that many of the illegal migrants take along their unpleasant habits as if they were at home. Drugs, crime, gangland unpleasantries to swell up the already murky deals in the European backyard.
In the midst of it all, the migrants were living in appalling conditions. However, there seemed to be some faint light at the end of the tunnel- a life line as one Eritrean migrant said.
From the French side, indications are that not all the illegal migrants would be shown the door. As it is being worked out, the migrants would be offered one of three options. Firstly to apply for asylum, secondly, children will not be deported and thirdly, offered cash to return to their homeland.
It is a teasing prospect- like offering cheese to the cat. Perhaps to solve it all once and for all, there is an urgent need for a European wide approach to the issue. The European Union should take up the issue and find a lasting solution to these boat people.
Several moves have been made in the past to stem the tide but they have failed because they were not coordinate but individual. Some recommended solutions were farfetched. Like the EU Parliamentarian who suggested: gather all the illegal migrants, put them in a speedboat to Malta and then transfer them to leaky boats with faulty outboard motors and leave them to fate.
Or like taking all illegal immigrants to the Sahara Desert and abandon them. These may be laughable but shockingly taken seriously by most right wingers. Others have gone witty saying give all illegal migrants the key of freedom of the cityand then change the locks when their backs are turned.
By Rod Mac-Johnson
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