British Judge Rules Many Calais Migrant Campers ‘Probably Not Refugees In Any General Sense Or Any Sense Entitled to Recognition’

A British immigration court ruling allowing four Syrian migrants to come to Britain from the “Jungle” camp in northern France was a “unique situation”, the full judgment published on Friday said.

Referring to the camp in the port city of Calais, the ruling also said “the conditions prevailing in this desolate part of the Earth are about as deplorable as any citizen of the developed nations could imagine”.

It said the four — three teenagers and a 26-year-old with mental problems who were granted leave to travel to Britain while their asylum claims were being considered — were in a “special, indeed unique situation” citing factors such as their age, vulnerability, psychologically-traumatised conditions and the dangers they faced in the “Jungle”.

Campaigners had hoped last week’s ruling would open the way for many more migrant children with family ties in Britain to be allowed to travel.

But the ruling said many of those living in the camp “are probably not refugees in any general sense or any sense entitled to recognition”.

“Rather, they are migrant nationals of a number of countries outside the European Union, who, while intending to make a claim for refugee status, declined to make the claim in France,” it said.

The court last week ordered the interior ministry to allow the four to enter Britain, which they did the following day.

Citizens UK, which was involved in bringing the legal action, had said it hoped the ruling “will allow other families to be reunited”.