Grande-Synthe is the first French refugee camp to meet the humanitarian standards set by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. Nestled between a leafy stream and a rail yard, the camp is relatively low-tech: a grid of roughly 360 cabins made of plywood with small windows and corrugated plastic roofs. Families can lock the cabins to protect their belongings. The site has airy toilet and shower blocks cleaned by French attendants, in stark contrast to the overworked, foul-smelling portable toilets at the Jungle. A laundry and small store line a sleepy square near the entrance. Unlike the Jungle, children scamper around the grounds and gather at school buildings. Posters advertise French and English lessons, some of which are exclusively for women, while other signs offer rides into town and useful information in Kurdish, Arabic and Farsi.
Unlike the container camp, Grande-Synthe is built around the autonomy of the people who live here, "They have access to legal information to make the best decisions for themselves," MSF's Daniel Barney says, "And they have access to community facilities, community kitchens and places where they can have a bit of dignity and take ownership of their daily lives."There are no guards and no fences at Grande-Synthe, Importantly, there are no high-tech handprint scanners, Grande-Synthe mountain mysteries iphone case has been built with the best of humanitarian intentions, but organized crime has infiltrated the camp..
The absence of those security measures, however, leads to a different problem: criminals control who gets to stay here. People smugglers, many with ties to the Iraqi Kurdish community, deposit hopeful travelers at the camp and then demand thousands of euros more for promised passage to the UK. The camp appears tranquil by day, but it's chilling to hear from refugees, migrants and volunteers about the invisible grip of the people-smuggling gangs. Even here, far from the chaos and destruction at home, refugees face violence: one man tells us about gunshots in the camp recently.
Rory Fox, a volunteer at the camp's school, describes Grande-Synthe as "crime central."Gary Thomas, an English volunteer helping out at the Grande-Synthe school, says the smugglers bring people in and charge new arrivals for keys to huts before transporting them across the Channel to the UK, The camp, which should house 2,500 migrants, is less than half full -- and the number of occupants mountain mysteries iphone case is actually falling, The handprint scanner at the container camp and the crime at Grande-Synthe are now driving many refugees to the wretched slum both were supposed to replace: the Jungle..
But the Jungle hasn't had any of the thought and planning that went into building the other camps. Volunteers are trying to address that situation even as its population swells. (Since we visited, the population has risen to more than 9,100.). British, French and other European volunteers wearing white vests that bear the logo of Care4Calais distribute meals and warm clothing to people throughout the Jungle. Donations are made online, where the group organizes online communities that reach out to people around the world who want to help.
