How the Calais Migrants Built an Economy Inside Tent City (BusinessWeek)

A makeshift economy is springing up within the Calais migrant camp at the center of a U.K. political storm.

The Afghan men, sitting cross-legged on the floor of their small, well-stocked shop are drinking sweet tea and hand-making cigarettes. They neatly wrap bundles of 10 in tinfoil and stack them in piles. Cigarettes are good business here in the Calais migrant camp – “The Jungle”, as it is  known to its inhabitants. They sell particularly well in the camp’s nightclub.

A mini-economy has emerged in this sprawling, 40-acre encampment. Roughly 2,500 men, women and children live here. They have built shops, restaurants, bars, a school, a church, and even a nightclub - all as some make nightly attempts to smuggle themselves into Britain.

Many of the informal shops that have sprung up are run by Afghans

“Some of them are making good money,” says Maya Konforti, a member of the humanitarian group L’Auberge des Migrants.

“There are many shops, bars and restaurants in the camp and for some, it’s good.”

The Jungle’s micro economy is built on the flimsiest of foundations. Building materials are limited to strips of wood, tarpaulin and discarded strips of carpet. The nightclub – a rectangular blue plastic and wood construction – has a lone speaker, a disco light, shisha pipes and a small kitchen. A meal costs between 1 and 2 euros ($2.20).

“People come here to dance, have a beer and try to feel like they are back home, in their own country,” says Zimako, a Nigerian resident who acts as my guide through the camp.

He shows me the shops – most run by Afghans – selling an array of products, from phone cards to chocolate bars. We pass bars and restaurants run by Eritreans, and a church, complete with spire and bell.

The camp has a church and a mosque 

“These are smart people,” says Konforti. “Many are middle or even upper class. They are educated and used to have professions.”

Konforti says most of the migrants have fled war and persecution, with many spending thousands of dollars and travelling for months to get this far. And amid the half-built shelters, with only the most rudimentary of materials, they’ve built something resembling a town. It’s a veneer of normality for people living a precarious, and often dangerous, existence.

U.K. Plans Law Forcing Landlords to Evict Illegal Immigrants

English landlords who rent properties to illegal immigrants may face as long as five years in prison under new measures that will form part of the government’s forthcoming immigration bill.

“We are determined to crack down on rogue landlords who make money out of illegal immigration, exploiting vulnerable people and undermining our immigration system, Communities Secretary Greg Clark said in a statement Monday. ‘‘In future, landlords will be required to ensure that the people they rent their properties to are legally entitled to be in the country.’’