Stop calling the Calais refugee camp the ‘Jungle’

What kind of people live in a jungle? Are they civilised? Are they respectable? Do they share our values?

Chances are, your image of a jungle dweller ranges from the savages and headshrinkers of the old Tarzan-era movies to – if you’re more 21st-century – the isolated peoples of the rainforest, living simple yet dignified lives. In either case, are they the kind of people you’d welcome as neighbours, and believe could fully integrate into modern Britain? For several years now, the series of Calais refugee camps originally set up in 2002 have been referred to as “the Jungle”. The camp was christened by the migrants themselves, in ironic reference to the squalid conditions.

But a decade on, and as the migrant crisis throughout Europe has escalated, it’s clear this term is becoming increasingly problematic. What started out as a simple in-joke among a small group of people has taken on a completely different meaning when taken up by the international media in the context of daily scare stories about people crossing borders.

“War of the Jungle” and “Jungle warfare” were just two of the headlines splashed across tabloid front pages last week, as French authorities clashed with refugeesas they moved in to demolish their homes. The imagery the headlines evoke is of primitive, uncontrolled brutes – of the barbarians at the gates, as they try to gain entry to the UK. Who could possibly want these kind of people tarnishing our green and pleasant land?

The language obscures the stories of people who may be teachers, traders, clerical workers, their lives thrown into conflict, who, after battling across the continent to find a better life, find themselves in this unfortunate place.

The Middle Eastern origins of many Calais refugees play into other stereotypes too. Every day, it seems, as stories abound about terror, grooming, the Cologne attacks and FGM, we appear to be developing a fear of a Muslim planet. It’s as if every individual with an Arab background is a potential threat to us: again, primitive, uncivilised, untrustworthy. Over time, the media’s use of this terminology has changed. First it was, “the migrant camps, known by some as ‘the Jungle’”; then “the so-called ‘Jungle’”; before simply becoming the Jungle, without quotation marks.

It’s not just the rightwing tabloids that use the term: all parts of the media have adopted it – including the Independent, the BBC and the Guardian (although last week the Guardian issued new guidance to limit its usage, and ensure it always appears in quotation marks). Even the organisation Help Refugees, which donates essential supplies to camps at Calais and Dunkirk, uses the social media hashtag#CalaisJungle.