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These days, the threat of imminent eviction is hanging heavily over the jungle and everyone in it. The nervous energy of eviction seems to feed the constant rumours that are spread relentlessly throughout the camp and the media.

Without wanting to fuel this fire further, here are a few of the things that we do and don’t know:

• Yesterday, the CRS arrived to deliver eviction notices to the shop-owners in the camp. They were told to cease operations and could legally be evicted as soon as tomorrow, October 19, but it seems the eviction of the shops may not yet actually be enforced on this day and could be postponed until the start of the full eviction.
• For the rest of the camp, many think the eviction may begin at the start of next week, but this is not completely certain. What we do know is that the decision to evict the jungle has been upheld after a legal challenge to halt the eviction by many associations that went before the court in Lille.
• Even the Home Office seems to have realised that violently evicting a camp full of children might end in bad press, and the process of finally allowing minors eligible for reunification into the UK has reluctantly been started.
• The past nights there have been small clashes and exchanges of teargas and projectiles between the CRS and camp inhabitants, largely provoked by the cops, who seem to be impatient and bored waiting for the eviction to start. Cops with teargas launchers have been spotted roaming around the jungle.
• An empty hangar a short distance from the jungle on the Rue de Garennes has been fenced off and is guarded day and night. Rumours suggest this space may be used as a sorting centre for deciding where people should be sent during the eviction but this is not confirmed.
• Yesterday, an incident took place in which a local fascist with a dog tried to stop people walking along their usual route to the jungle.
• It was announced that no flammables or combustibles are allowed in the jungle until the 31st October including gas, petrol and heating oil. This is, at least to some extent, being enforced.

Calais Migrant Solidarity - October 18, 2016