CALAIS, France — He was walking alone, to a place that no longer exists.
These days, Baz — a 25-year-old Afghan who has been in Calais for 20 months, he said — could use a place to sleep. Not so long ago, he had one: a tent in the “Jungle” encampment, where nearly 10,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and East Africa languished for months, even years, in hopes of eventually reaching Britain, a short 20 miles across the English Channel.
But in late October, the French government — after a devastating sequence of terrorist attacks and the spike in anti-immigrant rhetoric that followed — demolished the camp. The migrants there were either transported to “welcome centers” throughout France or simply evicted from the makeshift city that teemed with smugglers and violence.
In any case, the Jungle is gone, and Baz — like so many other migrants still here — now sleeps on the streets.
Sudanese migrants and refugees eat a meal in March. The migrants say they are frequently harassed by French police. Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post
CALAIS, France — He was walking alone, to a place that no longer exists.
These days, Baz — a 25-year-old Afghan who has been in Calais for 20 months, he said — could use a place to sleep. Not so long ago, he had one: a tent in the “Jungle” encampment, where nearly 10,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and East Africa languished for months, even years, in hopes of eventually reaching Britain, a short 20 miles across the English Channel.
But in late October, the French government — after a devastating sequence of terrorist attacks and the spike in anti-immigrant rhetoric that followed — demolished the camp. The migrants there were either transported to “welcome centers” throughout France or simply evicted from the makeshift city that teemed with smugglers and violence.
In any case, the Jungle is gone, and Baz — like so many other migrants still here — now sleeps on the streets.
Sudanese migrants and refugees eat a meal in March. The migrants say they are frequently harassed by French police. Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post
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