Calais Jungle: Authorities plan to shut down cafe, children's safe zone

The makeshift children's centre

On Wednesday 4th August, restaurants in the Calais Jungle were handed a notice of eviction, to be carried out next week.

The establishments that feed the residents, as well as providing community spaces, face closure and demolition following raids carried out by the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Civilian Populations (DDPP) and a 150-strong police presence in the past two weeks. The raids were said to be carried out after complaints that the shops and food outlets were operating without planning permission or paying taxes. Seeking Sanctuary said these complaints were ironic - as the local authorities provide very little food and almost zero cleaning services. The camp is a refuse-strewn, dangerously unhygienic slum.

One of the restaurants to be targeted is the Jungle Books Kids Restaurant - a space run by a refugee and a non-refugee volunteer, providing two hot meals per day to the estimated 300+ unaccompanied minors in the camp.

Entirely run on donations, the Kids Restaurant not only provides these two hot meals a day to any child in the camp, but is a safe space for children of the Jungle to spend their days and nights away from adults. The restaurant acts as a home, where children can eat, watch TV, play pool, play games, and hang out in the evenings, and allows its volunteers to keep an eye on them using a registering system: a much needed service following the shocking news that 129 minors went missing from the Calais Jungle during the South eviction.

The Kids Restaurant has been unable to cook food on the premises for the past two weeks, and now faces closure and demolition, along with the restaurant that received a four-star review from A A Gill in The Times earlier this year.

There are currently still some 7000 migrants in and around Calais (July 2016) and many more near Dunkirk. 'Seeking Sanctuary' aims to raise awareness about this situation and is organising basic humanitarian assistance through Faith Communities and Community Organisations in partnership with experienced aid workers.

For further information on how you or your organisation can help, contact Ben Bano on 07887 651117 or Phil Kerton on 01474 873802. or visit: www.seekingsanctuary.weebly.com.