Uncertainty reigns as Calais 'jungle' refugee camp closure looms

While Britain allows a trickle of young refugees into the country, those stuck on the opposite side of the English Channel wonder what the coming days will hold.

"If they destroy this place, where will I go for sleeping, for eating?" asked a 24-year-old Afghan migrant staying in the sprawling camp in Calais, France, the port city that is the main ferry crossing point to England. He covered his face with a red scarf and would only provide his last name, Zazai.

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'Mixed messages and rumours'

French authorities are poised to demolish the squalid tent city known as "the Jungle" as early as next Monday.

It's estimated there are between 7,000 and 10,000 migrants living in the camp, and many of them are expected to be rehoused in immigration facilities throughout France, but officials have yet to tell residents how and when the operation will take place.

"There's a lot more tension than usual [here] because people don't know what's going to be happening," said volunteer Caroline Gregory, who has spent much of the past year in the camp with the charity Calais Action.

"There's a lot of mixed messages and rumours going around," Gregory said. While no one living here knows with certainty when they'll have to leave for good, signs abound that the end is near.

Eviction notices have been posted on makeshift shops, from the one offering cellphone repairs to another selling three naan breads for a euro. The camp's pop-up restaurants are also being forced to close, including those named after Afghanistan's former president, Hamid Karzai, and its capital, Kabul.

Crossing the Channel

Activists, however, say the clearest sign of the camp's final days is the British government's sudden push to welcome unaccompanied minors from the camp.

"I [want] to go to school in England," a 13-year-old Afghan boy told CBC News in the camp. He stood with his brother and a fellow Afghan, who said the boys were 14 and 17. They all claimed to have relatives — a brother, a sister, an uncle or a cousin — waiting to be reunited with them across the Channel.

International agreements force Britain to accept such unaccompanied minors with family ties to the U.K. Faced with growing criticism for failing to do so, the British government sent employees from its immigration and public safety department to identify minors eligible to be resettled in the country. 

Who can and cannot go

An estimated 1,000 migrants under the age of 18 live without a parent or guardian in the camp. Among them, hundreds claim to have family ties to the U.K. By the end of the day Wednesday, British authorities were reported to have only taken 39 to be reunited with relatives in this week's operation.

Another Afghan teenager told CBC News he had an uncle in England but couldn't say in which town the man lived, nor how to contact him. His case illustrates the complexity of reuniting family members with refugees and separating fact from fiction in their asylum claims.

"We have the right to ask questions when some of these 'child migrants' have the appearance of someone in their 20s," tweeted British Conservative MP David Davies, who even called on authorities to perform dental X-rays to verify ages. "I hope British hospitality is not being abused," he added.

Government-rented buses, each carrying a dozen or so minors, have been heading to Britain, leaving behind those unable to justify their asylum claims, if only because they're considered adults.

"Maybe I leave the place, maybe I go to another country in Europe if I can't go to England," said Zazai, the 24-year-old Afghan, as he described his state of mind ahead of the closure of the camp.

"We feel bad."