Ten Years After Calais Jungle Closure, NGOs Call Policy a Disaster

France dismantled the Calais 'Jungle' camp on October 24, 2016, clearing a site that held between 6,000 and 10,000 migrants, and replaced it with a 'zero fixed points' policy that NGOs now describe as a humanitarian disaster.

Ten years on, the land east of Calais, renamed the 'Site des Deux-Mers,' shows no trace of the canvas shelters, wooden shacks and metal containers that once stood there. Migrants still come, still aim for British soil less than 40 kilometers away, but they are less visible and, aid groups say, worse off.

What did the 'zero fixed points' policy change?

The doctrine, adopted after the clearance ordered by former Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, aims to prevent any large shantytown from re-forming. Instead of one camp, migrants now scatter along the entire northern coast, from Dunkirk to Le Touquet.

Diane Léon, northern France coordinator for Doctors of the World (MdM), told InfoMigrants the policy 'doesn't work.' 'Not only do informal camps still exist, but they are scattered all along the coastline,' she said.

Charlotte Kwantes of Utopia 56 said only the departure points shifted. 'People no longer only leave from Calais, but from several towns further north and south,' she said. She called the government's approach delusional: 'The migrants who are here are at the end of their migration journey; the Channel is the last stop. It's an illusion to think they will leave. They will stay.'

How have conditions deteriorated?

Claire Millot of the Salam association said the 'Great Jungle' at least concentrated aid. 'There was centralized access to rights, easy access to legal services, and access to water, food, and hygiene tolerated by the authorities. All of that is gone,' she said. 'It's horrific.'

Migrants now hide tents in places vehicles cannot reach, to dodge demolition trucks and police vans. Human Rights Observers (HRO) documents camp clearances in the Calais region 'every 48 hours.' Millot said migrants walk more than 30 minutes to food distribution points and avoid buses for fear of police searches: 'It's a life of misery and isolation.'

Aid groups say state provision falls short. The state-run La Vie Active food distribution 'often stop[s] distributions even though there are people still in line,' Millot said. Kwantes said Civil Protection volunteers lack enough survival blankets and snacks. 'The state's programs run on minimal resources,' she said.

What does Calais's mayor say?

Mayor Natacha Bouchart, in office for 18 years, acknowledged 'appalling' migrant conditions and charged that 'Paris doesn't care,' but defended the policy as 'the most efficient solution for the time being.' She said dismantling the camp was inevitable: 'Otherwise, the number of people would have gone from 10,000 to 20,000.'

She cited the port's militarization — a wall more than four meters high along the port ring road and a high-security fence over dozens of kilometers — as necessary. Without it, 'the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel wouldn't have been able to function,' she said. During the Jungle era, she said, shops closed, businesses left and unemployment reached 18 percent: 'My city was condemned when it was the state that failed to manage this place.'

Has the border become deadlier?

Securing the port pushed smugglers to the sea route from 2018, Bouchart said. Marianne Bonnet of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said police-migrant clashes now involve tear gas and panic, and that the policy 'has no impact whatsoever on crossings to England.'

British government statistics show more than 200,000 migrants have entered England irregularly in the last eight years. Léon of MdM said 'the border has never been so deadly': 22 deaths have been recorded since the start of the year, after 29 in 2025.

Alexandra Limousin of the Auberge des Migrants said donations are running out — not enough clothing, not enough food — and the group faces parking fines on the coast. 'It's truly a disaster,' she said. 'When are we all going to sit down together around a table and finally talk?'