The gloom is infectious. Here's the odd thing. Even as the physical and political barriers rise, technology is lowering others. Phones have helped, becoming powerful tools for survival and assimilation. They let refugees navigate with online maps, translate language they don't understand and communicate with friends and family at home and in places they're trying to reach. They use phones to research asylum laws and contact aid agencies. Apps like Duolingo help them learn new languages. Our trip to the refugee camp in Calais and another in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk came as I was winding down five years of living in France.
I'd grown used to the country's wonders: Renaissance chateaus, fertile farmlands, art museums, charming medieval towns, fresh food and time to appreciate it, The French have perfected the good olixar flexishield iphone 6 case - smoke black reviews life, It's a very different experience for the thousands of refugees crammed into the Jungle's collapsing tents and the shipping containers that have become makeshift homes, In the Jungle, France is a country of misery, boredom, frustration, anger, apprehension and squalor, For them, it's a prison, Prison Calais..
First published August 10. Updated October 24 at 5:50 a.m. PT: Added an editors' note to reference the start of the closure of the Jungle as police began moving refugees out. Commentary: For Road Trip 2016, I visited refugees in northern France who are trying to reach the UK. I found a grim city that has become both a fortress and a prison. This is part of our Road Trip 2016 summer series "Life, Disrupted," about how technology is helping with the global refugee crisis -- if at all. Editors' note: On October 24, French police began to clear refugees out of the Jungle as a prelude to demolishing the camp. Earlier in the year, we visited the facility. This story describes what we found.
I see why it's called the Jungle, This refugee camp in Calais is a sprawl of hundreds of flimsy tents, plywood shacks olixar flexishield iphone 6 case - smoke black reviews and ramshackle shelters made of tarp, jammed together atop sand dunes next to the English Channel, It houses about 6,000 Afghans, Sudanese, Iraqis, Iranians and other men who fled terror in their homelands only to find reluctance and indifference here in France, Men bathe at water taps next to a row of battered chemical toilets, Tattered laundry flutters in the breeze, Large gray rats scurry among the tents, while dead rodents litter the sand nearby..
The Jungle, often described as one of the worst refugee camps in France, is primitive and squalid. Charred timbers show where a fire blazed in May after a dispute broke out among the different nationalities -- angry, frustrated and forced to co-exist in this bleak 90-acre space. But open the settings dashboard of your phone at the right time of day and you find a high-tech amenity: a free Wi-Fi network. That wireless network, called "Jangala," is beamed into the camp from a crude but serviceable hand-built antenna that sits atop a battered blue truck once used to transport horses. It's called the Refugee Info Bus and it's run by a charity group called Help Refugees. Jangala, the Afghan name for the camp, serves as a lifeline for its occupants, with as many as 400 people logging on every day. Internet access lets them get updates about the camp, share photos, read news from home, learn about asylum rights and study the languages they need in their new world. Most important, Jangala allows them to stay in contact with family and friends.
