Defender of Rights warns France’s democratic reputation is ‘on the line’
FRANCE will lose its reputation as a liberal democracy if plans to tear down the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp as early as next week go awry, warned the French Defender of Rights Jacques Toubon this morning.
Jacques Toubon expressed his concern for the immigrants that are forced out of the 'Jungle' camp
Speaking to French radio station Europe 1, Mr Toubon expressed his concern over the way in which the makeshift shanty town was to be dismantled, and said that more had to be done to protect the more than 7,000 immigrants who are currently being forced out of the ‘Jungle’ camp.
Mr Toubon said: “France has always been the home of human rights, and French people really need to remember that right now."
He also said officials had to make sure that the Jungle’s residents – who have less than one week left in the Calais camp – were treated with respect and sent to adequate shelters.
France will lost its reputation if plans to tear down the camp as early as next week go awry
He added: “When the camp is to be dismantlement is not the problem. What we need to worry about is where these migrants will go and how they will be treated once the camp no longer exists.”
The ombudsman said that he knew that the Jungle camp had to be destroyed “for humanitarian reasons,” but that the government had failed to come up with a concrete ‘post-dismantlement’ plan.
Mr Toubon said that officials had not come with adequate measures to help the stranded asylum seekers, who, under French law, have “access to many rights,” and that child migrants had been “left in the lurch”.
Child refugees arrive in the UK from Calais
When the camp is to be dismantlement is not the problem
“There are 1,200 child migrants living in the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp right now. They may not be chased away immediately – they will be sent to a temporary shelter, at least that’s what I hope. But right now, whether or not they will be rehoused this week remains a huge question mark.”
Mr Toubon also said that only “a few hundred” child migrants had been sent to the UK this year, and that the UK had to agree to take in “hundreds more” if it wished to help prevent a humanitarian crisis in Calais.
Mr Toubon has also said officials had to make sure that the residents were treated with respect
The ombudsman also launched a scathing attack on the government’s rehousing plan: “The government promised to find 9,000 additional shelter places, but right now, only 7,000 have been found. Without a new home to go to, Calais migrants risk being worse off than ever.”
The Defender of Rights also said that member states had to show solidarity and take in refugees in order to help protect the European Union’s “true identity”.
He said: “There are 510 million people living in Europe. And the 1 million refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants that we take in each year make up less than 0.5 per cent of the total population.”