A European court has ordered France to pay 15,000 euros ($A24,000) in compensation to an Afghan child who lived for about six months in the so-called “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais.
In February 2016, as French authorities moved to demolish the southern part of the informal camp, a court ordered the government to place the then 12-year-old in care. The order was never followed up on.
The child, who had been living in a hut in the southern part of the camp since September, ended up in a makeshift shelter in the remaining northern zone.
A few weeks later, he managed to cross illegally into Britain, where he had been hoping to claim asylum since leaving conflict-torn Afghanistan in late August 2015.
“Owing to the failure of the authorities to protect the applicant … he spent six months living in an environment manifestly unsuitable for children, characterised by insalubrity, precariousness and insecurity,” the European Court for Human Rights ruled on Thursday.
The remainder of the camp, with an estimated population of 6000 people, was dismantled in October 2016.
Refugees and migrants seeking to make their way to Britain have nevertheless continued to gather in French port towns on the English Channel.
Source: Herald Sun
