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Volunteers urge authorities to help refugees in Calais 'Jungle' refugee camp

France

The dismantling of the Calais ‘Jungle’ Camp in northern France entered its fourth day on Thursday, with volunteers calling upon authorities to help the displaced refugees.

Despite the ongoing demolition, many non-profit organizations and individual volunteers continued their work to help the refugees.

Though the camp is considered ‘dangerous’, a UK volunteer Mandy, who is a nurse, said she offered free medical service to 150 to 200 people a day during her stay in the camp and this is her seventh visit to the camp since October last year.

The view from a volunteer watching the demolition of the Calais Jungle https://t.co/nPwds0HD11

— Mark Wilding (@mark_wilding) March 4, 2016

At a summit in France on Thursday, Britain announced that it would contribute around 20 million euros in extra funding to boost security in Calais where the refugees hoping to cross the English Channel have camped.

Lowest Asylum Acceptance

France has one of the lowest asylum acceptance rates in Europe, with harsh conditions for applicants. Over a third of the Jungle’s residents have families in the UK while others served the British army in Afghanistan and were forced out of their homes because of that.

“England should open the border and let people in. This should not happen. It’s to be human to human. It’s to love people here and to tell people, you know, we care,” said Mandy.

Europe’s Refugee Crisis

The European refugee crisis, which broke out last year as a result of wars and chaos in the Middle East and North Africa, has shown signs of deterioration after Austria started to impose daily caps on the admission of refugees last month, causing a wave of border closures by the Balkan states over the past few weeks.

Some 129,455 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea since the beginning of 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed on Tuesday.

The numbers still fall short of 2015’s total when over one million sea-borne arrivals were recorded. However, with ten months left, it appears likely that last year’s total will be surpassed possibly before the end of summer, IOM indicated in a statement.

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