![Welcome To The Jungle: Inside France’s Immigration Crackdown [TIME]
“The sight of Afghan men camped in squalid settlements around Calais is hardly new. Over the past decade — and even before the 2001 Afghanistan war began — thousands of Afghans have traveled illegally on epic journeys that last weeks and cross several borders. They all have one goal in mind: to sneak aboard container trucks on ferry boats bound for Britain, where they see their best prospects. With no national identity cards in Britain, illegal immigrants for years have found it easier to escape notice there than in France, where police frequently check immigrants’ documents in the streets.
“But crossing to Britain has become all but impossible over the years, as British immigration officials have increasingly tightened security, using sniffer dogs and carbon-dioxide detectors in the ports. As a result, thousands of immigrants have found themselves stranded along the French coast, living with little sanitation or clean water.
“That still beats what many of them escaped. “If I go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill me,” said Nasser Khan, 25, who fled last year after his parents and two brothers were killed in a raid on their family home. Stuck in France for nearly eight months, Khan describes feeling increasingly jittery and disoriented. “I have headaches. My family is gone. I cannot sleep at night,” he said on Monday, standing in a clearing in the camp. “I close my eyes and see my family.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kqe507IxAg1qzogj2o1_500.jpg)
Welcome To The Jungle: Inside France’s Immigration Crackdown [TIME]
“The sight of Afghan men camped in squalid settlements around Calais is hardly new. Over the past decade — and even before the 2001 Afghanistan war began — thousands of Afghans have traveled illegally on epic journeys that last weeks and cross several borders. They all have one goal in mind: to sneak aboard container trucks on ferry boats bound for Britain, where they see their best prospects. With no national identity cards in Britain, illegal immigrants for years have found it easier to escape notice there than in France, where police frequently check immigrants’ documents in the streets.
“But crossing to Britain has become all but impossible over the years, as British immigration officials have increasingly tightened security, using sniffer dogs and carbon-dioxide detectors in the ports. As a result, thousands of immigrants have found themselves stranded along the French coast, living with little sanitation or clean water.
“That still beats what many of them escaped. “If I go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill me,” said Nasser Khan, 25, who fled last year after his parents and two brothers were killed in a raid on their family home. Stuck in France for nearly eight months, Khan describes feeling increasingly jittery and disoriented. “I have headaches. My family is gone. I cannot sleep at night,” he said on Monday, standing in a clearing in the camp. “I close my eyes and see my family.”
