Census reveals Jungle camp’s unaccompanied children numbers rise 32% in month
The number of unaccompanied children at the Calais camp known as the Jungle has risen by 32% in one month, according to a new census.
A total of 132 of the 142 children who arrived at the slum in the past month came without an adult – the youngest of them being 10 years old.
The data by L’Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees reveals that unaccompanied children now make up 544 of the 700 youngsters (78%) at the camp.
The youngest overall Jungle resident is four months old, according to volunteers who said children were fleeing military conscription, ethnic persecution and extremist groups to reach Europe.
The agencies said that messages from both British and French authorities were doing little to deter people displaced from unstable regions to make perilous journeys.
Overall, the population at the Jungle camp has risen to 6,123 – up from 5,178 last month , according to the L’Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees data which was collected between June 4 and 7.
Refugees from Afghanistan are the largest national group in the camp, making up 36% of its inhabitants, while those from Sudan make up 32%.
But volunteers said there had been a huge surge in arrivals from the Ethiopian Oromo community following bloody conflict in their homeland.
Lliana Bird, of Help Refugees, said: “This increase exceeded all expectations of growth and reveals a worrying trend. The global refugee crisis is far from over, and border closures seem to be having little effect.”
Unicef recently revealed that children living in refugee camps in northern France, including the Jungle, were being subjected to sexual exploitation, violence and forced labour on a daily basis.
It reported cases of boys and girls being raped, and young women being subjected to sexual demands in exchange for a promise of passage to Britain.
Around 30 unaccompanied children at the Calais camp have so far been brought to the UK, Home Office Minister Richard Harrington told the Commons this month.
And he said he expected the figure to increase “very significantly” as the Government attempted to speed up the family reunification process.
But the examples of the abuse being endured by some children in the camps had led to calls for more rapid action by Britain.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2016, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Gareth Fuller / PA Wire.
