[LINK] "The Jungle: Migrant camp’s growth a symptom of refugee crisis"

[rfmcdonald]

Marco Chown Oved's Toronto Star article looking at "The Jungle", the migrant shantydown outside the French port of Calais where thousands hope to escape to the United Kingdom, is sad. That they are mistaken about their chances if they got there makes it tragic.

Cold November rains have flooded the muddy encampment and left everyone in a dour mood.

Between tarp-covered tents and vast puddles, men wearing shalwar kameez tread carefully in shoes with the backs flattened so they can be kicked on and off like slippers.

They stop at a ramshackle shelter that serves as a shisha bar and step onto carpet-covered pallets that make up the floor. Only after they are seated cross-legged and have sweet-smelling smoke billowing out of their noses will they speak.

“France is s---,” said Shakir, a 24-year-old Pakistani medical student who volunteers in a makeshift clinic. “All we want to do is get out of here.”

After travelling thousands of kilometres, fleeing violence, persecution or poverty, the estimated 5,000 people living in the sprawling migrant encampment known as The Jungle are now achingly close to their goal. On a clear night, you can see British lights twinkling across the English Channel.