The New York Times reports that a huge refugee camp in Calais, France is “finally” gone. “The Jungle,” as its residents called the site, offered shelter to thousands of North African and Middle Eastern migrants. It was a great big ramshackle humanitarian crisis, and now authorities have cleared it out. Al Jazeera says that some of these refugees have slipped past the evacuation busses intended for them and headed for various subway stations in Paris.
My question is what has happened to “La Jungala,” The Jungle’s makeshift community radio station. I’ve sent a query to the operation via its posted email address, but I’m not sure when if ever I’ll get a response. Jungala’s website was always a bit economical about the station. I quote from the mission statement:
“We live in a refugee camp in Calais.
Some people call it the ‘Jungle’.
We make radio programmes.”
The station’s Twitter page hasn’t been updated in awhile; nor has its SoundCloud account. But its Facebook page mentions some recent collaboration with a Mobile Education for Refugees program and has posted some pictures of the event.
photo: La Jungala
Here’s an excerpt from the Facebook post:
“For the past few weeks we’ve had a regular group of 16 year olds coming to the bus who enjoy using the space to play music. These kids have music in their souls and the bus feels brighter when you can hear the rhythms they create floating down the bus stairs. So they were the perfect group to choose to do a radio workshop with the lovely team from Jungala Radio!”
I’ll publish news about La Jungala’s status when I get it.
