Watch: inside the French Middle Eastern refugee camp known as “The Jungle”

In my previous article about the refugee camp in Calais, France—known colloquially as “The Jungle”—I mentioned how happy people appeared to be there but like everything that looks too good on the surface, there is a darker side to the camp trying to claw its way out.

It was my second day in The Jungle, and I had made some friends who opened up to me about life in the camp. Some revealed why they refused to move or stay in other camps around Europe.

One of the young lads who was willing to talk with me was Stavan, from Kurdistan, age 21 from Sulaymina, Iraq. He once had family in Mosul but they were killed by ISIS. Stavan’s story was different from others because he still has family in Iraq, but does not want to live there anymore. He fears the government and hates the president. He goes on to tell me, “that our president is a dictator and he oppresses our people, he fixes the voting. I do not want to be there when it all goes bad.”

He had made the rough journey from Iraq through Turkey, then Greece, into Germany, and finally to France. He went on to tell me he was in Germany for while where he was finger printed and processed by the police. They also still have his passport. When I asked him why he did not want to stay in Germany he replied, “Because it’s not safe there. ISIS is there in the refugee camp. I know no Kurd who wants to be there. If they find out I am a Kurd, I am dead. You don’t realize that ISIS has spies everywhere. It’s not safe.”

I ask how do you know there is ISIS spies? “Come on man, you are not a stupid man, do you honestly think that ISIS fighters are not smuggling themselves into Europe with us? We hear things in the camps along the journey and there I hear many talk of ISIS spies in the camps.” My answer was, well how do you know they are not here in this camp? “I don’t but there is a big Kurd community in this camp, they could be here who knowns.”

We talk and walk around the camp. He was showing me some more areas to the camp and how it was laid out. To the north were the Sudanese and other Africans, to the south the Kurds, and in between were a mix of Afghans, Iranians, and Pakistanis. We head to a makeshift cook house ran by an older Afghan man and a younger man, in true old school fashion I want to seem like a friendly chap so I order some food. “Chicken and rice with some of that good Afghan nan.” I can say this, I never saw any chickens and when my food rocked up it was not chicken on the plate maybe cat. Who the hell knows, I tucked in all the same. Just for record the nan was amazing.

We get talking, but he looks nervous now with some other Middle Eastern men sitting around the cook house. He goes on to tell me, “it’s not safe to talk here. There are some bad people in this camp and when they see us talking with white people they don’t like it.” I said to him, what do mean bad people? “There are bad people, you know, like smugglers and drug dealers. If they see us talking to people like you it’s not good. They are scared that I will tell on them.” After this, two guys came over and wanted to see my camera so I said ueah, sure boys, help yourself sitting there smoking a cigarette like a boss in a makeshift hut in the middle of the jungle.

After the men inspected my camera to make sure it was turned off, myself and Stavan left for a walk around the camp. He went to tell that he is ashamed because some of the bad men in this camp are Kurds and as a Kurd it looks bad on them all. He also told me about how the Arabs, mainly people from Egypt, cause problems in the camp between the Arabs and the Africans. This became a reality for me later on that day, a tent went up in flames at the Arab side of the camp with crowds quickly gathering and an angry mob came out of that crowd only to chase a young Sudanese boy, beating him with sticks.

Soon the police were on the scene breaking up the crowds but it did not stop there, at the north end I was walking up the road when a load bang rang off I could see black smoke pouring in to the Sky. When I arrive at the fire it was raging through tents and the Sudanese church, the heat was amazing warming my hand I get my camera out and start snapping but not long after the police rock up and start moving us all on shouting and pushing in full riot gear. Their back up arrives are once again the crowds mount but I couldn’t help notice this English woman she was a hippy looking type she needed a good wash I know that. She was taunting the police and getting the crowds behind here.

I remember reading in new article that it was British & French far left activist that started the riots last week in this camp. After being and meeting and seeing them in person I can believe it. The thing you need to remember some of these people in this camp are new to this land and way of life, without being to disrespectful some of the migrants have a child mentality, the old saying monkey see monkey do is right they see these white people behaving like that and think well that’s how they behave in this country so its ok for us to do it right?

I got asked too many times to count by loads of people in the camp about, “what should I do, were should I go?” Most are just looking for someone to tell them where to go and what to do but I feel they are being misled by these self-declared agencies set up in the camp. One of the agencies and information centres was on a hunger strike! The thing is, the migrants look up these people and believe every word they say, so what kind of example are they setting behaving like a bunch of F**king idiotic animals.

Unless they get rid of the lefty clowns in the camp, they will face more and more challenging behavior from the migrants. To me, they stir the mess and make life harder for these migrants in the camp. The only reason most of the migrants stay in that camp is because they are told to by white Europeans.