And in France, a court has rejected a bid to stop the French government from demolishing the refugee camp in Calais known as “The Jungle.” For months, French authorities have been seeking to shut down the camp, which is home to thousands of refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and other war-torn regions who are seeking to reach England by crossing through the Channel Tunnel. On Tuesday, a court in the city of Lille rejected an appeal from 11 charities, which had sued the French government over the plan, arguing the camp’s demolition violates the refugees’ rights. In light of the ruling, some of the charities are arguing as many refugee children as possible should be permitted to resettle in England.
Christian Salomé: “The dismantling should happen this way: Take people for whom we have a solution—here students, elsewhere children who have family in England—and take them to England. Those were the situations we asked the court to enable to take place.”
On Tuesday, about a dozen of the camp’s more than 1,000 children and teenagers were permitted to resettle in England.