Calais ‘Jungle': 75% of Refugees 'Experienced Police Violence'
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - More than three-quarters of refugees living in the Calais “Jungle” say they have experienced police violence, media reports said on Tuesday.
The findings, collated by the Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP), provide a damning insight into the continuing “humanitarian crisis” at the refugee camp in northern France, The Independent reported.
Police violence was allegedly experienced by 75.9 per cent of the 870 individuals surveyed, which includes physical violence, verbal abuse, tear gas and sexual violence; 54.1 per cent said they “never feel safe”; 67.6 per cent said they resort to “using blankets or burning rubbish to keep warm”; and 76.7 per cent reported suffering from various health issues – largely attributed to the camp’s “unhealthy environment”.
"Our first-hand data collection study is the first of its kind to reveal a significant selection of facts and figures about one of the biggest refugee camps in Europe, Marta Welander", founder of the RRDP, said in a statement on Monday.
“We hope that this data can help inform the public debate, and guide policy-makers closer to achieving a sustainable, efficient resolution to the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in Calais."
The report, titled "The Long Wait: Filling the data gaps relating to refugees and displaced people in the Calais camp", was conducted by 20 academic researchers in February. Since then, the southern part of the camp has been demolished and 129 unaccompanied children have gone missing.
French police forcibly evicted refugees from the “Jungle” camp using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon at the end of February. A census by Help Refugees UK last week found that since the demolition took place in March, 4,946 refugees are still living there, including 1,400 in the shipping containers set up by the French government.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) collects statistics about refugee camps around the world, but because the Calais “Jungle” is considered unofficial, data about it is not collected. The report states the lack of information means people in the camp are “incredibly vulnerable” – a significant proportion of whom unaccompanied children.