While Europe rushes to steel its external borders against an oncoming wave of migration, its internal political union is dissolving under a storm of populist nationalism. French officials’ ongoing scorched-earth demolition of the migrant camp in Calais known as “the Jungle” was a haphazard stitch on a gaping continental wound. To the east, Hungary’s recent botched referendum further underscores the …
Jonathan Jones – Here lie the unwanted of Calais – an indictment of us, not them
These are people in Calais now. People who wanted to find new lives. Instead they lie like cocooned caterpillars, desperately hoping to wake up to a different world. Others sit on the rubbish-strewn pavement, hunched in blankets. They too are rubbish, or so it would seem, according to widespread attitudes that have in recent weeks seen calls for children to …
Alan Travis – Home Office rules out ‘unethical’ dental checks for Calais refugees
The Home Office has ruled out dental x-ray checks to verify the age of Calais refugees arriving in Britain, criticising them as “inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical”. The official rejection of the demand from Conservative backbenchers was welcomed by the British Dental Association, which had earlier condemned the proposal as inappropriate and inaccurate. “We do not use dental x-rays to confirm …
Amelia Gentleman – ‘He was very scared’: the death of a teenage stowaway
The death of Raheemullah Oryakhel, a 14-year-boy from Afghanistan, was marked last month with just a couple of paragraphs in the French press, under the headline “One migrant dead on the port ring road”. There was nothing much to excite further interest; the boy was the 12th refugee to die inCalais this year. The news item added that Raheemullah’s body …