La Linière
refugee camp was situated in
Grande-Synthe
Grande-Synthe (; vls, Groot-Sinten) is a commune in the Nord department in the Nord-Pas de Calais region in northern France.
It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Dunkerque (Dunkirk) and lies adjacent to it on the west.
History
In ...
,
Dunkirk,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. It was opened in March 2016 at a cost of around 4 million Euros.
The camp was a scaled back version of an originally much larger plan. The camp was the first official refugee camp to be built in France. It was built in order to provide emergency relief to the refugees living in the predecessor
Basroch refugee camp, which was about 1km away and which had unacceptably poor humanitarian conditions.
The driving force for constructing the new camp was the mayor of Dunkirk and its construction ran contrary to the policy of the National French Government who were keen to move refugees away from the coastal areas.
La Linière housed up to 1500 migrants when it opened with a population which was mainly Iraqi Kurds. The numbers fluctuated considerably during its time rising from around 600 in the summer of 2016 to 1600 in the Autumn of 2016.
The camp was troubled during its existence and there were allegations that women and children were being subject to rape and beatings in the camp, and that many of the children were simply disappearing. The French government also cited shooting and stabbing violence as issues of concern in the camp.
The camp closed following a devastating fire which occurred after fighting between Afghan and Kurdish residents of the camp in April 2017.
During the time that the camp existed a wide range of organisations worked in the camp supporting refugees. These included AFEJI, MSF, Utopia 56, OFII,
Edlumino Education Aid
and others.
See also
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Calais Jungle
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Edlumino
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European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
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Illegal immigration in the United Kingdom
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Migrants around Calais
Migrants have gathered in and around Calais, on the northern French coast, since at least the late 1990sN. Bajekal,Inside Calais's Deadly Migrant Crisis(01/08/15) in Time seeking to enter the United Kingdom from the French port by crossing the ...
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Modern immigration to the United Kingdom
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the Republic of Ireland and from the former British Empire, especially ...
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Refugees of Iraq
Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout the past 30 years, there have been a growing number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking recently with the latest Iraq ...
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Sangatte
Sangatte (; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department on the northern coast of France on the English Channel. The name is of Flemish origin, meaning hole or gap in the sand.
Engineering
Sangatte is the location for the Channel Tunnel's ...
External links
Frontline Doctors: Winter Migrant Crisisis a BBC documentary featuring a visit to La Linière refugee camp in March 2016.
References
{{European migrant crisis
Refugee camps in Europe
Calais migrant crisis (1999–present)
European migrant crisis
Illegal immigration to France