Destroying the ‘Jungle’ did not eliminate people’s demand, or right, for asylum. But since the infamous refugee camp was destroyed by the French police in 2016, Calais has barely featured in the news. Macron’s visit in January sparked some media attention – but the scope of the European refugee crisis, and the world’s 65 million displaced people, is easily lost in a 24-hour news cycle. Unless we renew and reanimate the Calais discussion now, we risk turning down the dangerous path of apathy.

Currently, around 700 people live in Calais in worse conditions than when ‘The Jungle’ existed – in tents and cardboard boxes, inside the forest and by the side of the motorway. There is no camp, and very little government support. In fact, there are daily incidents of French police brutality: refugees consistently report that police wake them up in the night by pepper spraying the inside of their tents and confiscating their possessions, including tents, blankets, medication and identity papers. In freezing winter conditions, French authorities initially refused to open emergency accommodation, and when they did it consisted of limited spaces in an unheated concrete warehouse.

“Given the treatment of 700 refugees at Calais, our refugee provisions need rethinking, and urgently”

George, a long-term volunteer with Help Refugees, reflected that although the media depicts the refugee crisis as a humanitarian issue, there’s more to it than that.“We’re not in an earthquake; this is something that has been caused by the state. This is a very very politicised, and political, phenomenon.”

This is where the mainstream media narrative misses the mark. News coverage of the situation is largely defined by external powers such as the French government and law courts, and often fails to capture the situation on the ground. For example, a brawl between asylum seekers at Calais made headlines in multiple publications, but the many eyewitness accounts and video footage of French police brutality at Calais do not.

In this media environment, staying educated about the reality of the refugee crisis is an uphill battle. For me, it took going to Calais to volunteer with Help Refugees earlier this year. Beforehand, I expected most refugees there to be families, women and children, and mainly from Syria. I now realise that my misconceptions stem from the mainstream media narrative about what it is to be a refugee – mostly dominated by images of women and children, often injured and looking ‘helpless’. These images powerfully draw on our societies’ ideas of who is most deserving of compassion, as can be seen from the outpourings of support for the refugee crisis after the image of three-year-old refugee Alan Kurdi lying dead on a beach went viral.

In reality though, refugees are not a homogenous group. Refugees at Calais are from a diverse range of backgrounds including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and have fled their homes for a huge range of reasons, including forced conscription, becoming child soldiers, climate induced famine, ethnic cleansing and torture. In many of these circumstances, young men are the first casualties, which is one reason why they make up the vast majority of refugees in Calais. Ultimately it takes more humanity to admit that a refugee can be from any demographic category you could possibly conjure up, rather than just the stylised images in the news and sometimes fundraising appeals, because it entails understanding the basic premise of refugee law: that all human lives are equal, and that nobody deserves persecution.

Juliet Wheeler, Calais Coordinator of Refugee Info Bus (a British organisation that provides legal information to refugees), tells me that one of the most important things she has learnt in her role is the importance of educating herself about the situation in people’s countries of origin. Many voluntary organisations are doing their part to challenge the hegemonic presentation of refugees in the European media by enabling refugees to tell their own stories. This helps the public to better understand the diverse reasons people seek asylum and the kind of treatment they receive from our governments – a sure way to avoid apathy in the case of Calais.

Other, usually quiet, voices speaking out reveal the deeper political manoeuvring behind the issues at Calais. Accounts from Home Office whistleblowers detail the bureaucracy creaking under pressure – with accounts of asylum interviewers acting like vindictive driving instructors, tripping up asylum seekers on tiny inconsistencies in their applications in order to achieve a high failure rate. They also reveal that the French and British governments provide limited legal support for people navigating an incredibly difficult asylum process, effectively setting asylum seekers up to fail.

Volunteer organisations are brilliant at tackling the short-term symptoms of the Calais problem, with organisations such as the Refugee Info Bus providing free internet access and legal information to refugees, and student-led campaigns such as SolidariTee funding legal aid for refugees. Ultimately though, change in the bureaucratic framework, and a revitalised understanding of the situation of refugees in Calais, are needed for a long-term solution.

Today, there are 65 million displaced people worldwide, and if carbon emissions are not reduced, the number of refugee applications is set to double by the end of the century. Given the treatment of 700 refugees at Calais, our refugee provisions need rethinking, and urgently. For those who care, this means challenging the mainstream media narrative and pushing for large-scale bureaucratic change.