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French Immigrant Camp Might Move to British Soil

French Immigrant Camp Might Move to British Soil

And we don’t mean a happy summer camp, with a bonfire and marshmallows.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan

The immigrant crisis was one of the major reasons behind the push for Brexit - many British people were unhappy with how the UK has dealt with the crisis and the Leave camp promised to stamp down on the number of immgrants coming onto British soil.

Unfortunately, like Nigel Farage backtracking on his promise that Britain's £350million contribution to the EU will go to the NHS, Leave's promises regarding immigrants seems to have backfired rather quickly.

Apparently politicians don't always stick to their word - who knew?

Credit: PA

Up until now, the UK has had no large-scale immigrant camps, but that could soon change. Previously, the 2003 Touquet deal allowed Britain to do checks on immigrants coming into the UK from the camp in Calais - much to the French's annoyance. The UK had to deal with the occasional illegal immigrant hiding in the truck, but not the wide scale problem and the cost.

The BBC is now reporting that the mayor of Calais wants the UK to carry out immigration checks on the British side of the Channel - instead of the French side. This means the camp, which is known as 'The Jungle', will have to move to UK soil as the French are no longer obliged to deal with it.

Basically, it's the UK's problem now.

According to German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, there is an estimated 4,000-5,000 people living in The Jungle. And 300 of them are unaccompanied kids.

As you may remember, The Jungle has caused a lot of division in France. In February 2016, the French government tried to evict 1,000 immigrants, with the south side of the camp being destroyed, and riot police having to be called. A month later, workers under heavy police guard tried to further dismantle The Jungle and clashed with protesters. More recently, in May, there were huge brawls in the camp, leading to 40 injuries including a stabbing.

Words by Laura Hamilton

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