Refugees at Calais Camp suffering police violence: Report
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Refugees chat outside their tents in the “Jungle,” the biggest makeshift camps to spring up along the northern French coast, in the port town of Calais, on March 30, 2016. ©AFP
More than three quarters of refugees and asylum seekers living in the Calais Refugee Camp, known as the Jungle, have been subject to mistreatment at the hands of French police, a recent report reveals.
The report revealed that 75.9 percent of the 870 individuals surveyed have cited various forms of police violence, including physical violence as well as sexual and verbal abuse, The Independent reported.
It further disclosed that 54.1 percent of the respondents said they “never feel safe,” 67.6 percent said they resort to “using blankets or burning rubbish to keep warm,” and 76.7 percent reported suffering from various diseases mainly due to the camp’s “unhealthy environment.”
Moreover, residents of the Calais Refugee Camp are “incredibly vulnerable” as the site is considered unofficial and data about it is not collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to the report.
“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,” said Marta Welander, Founder of the Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP).
The RRDP corroborated the findings of the report conducted by 20 academic researchers in February.
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