Public health in the Calais refugee camp: environment, health and exclusion

Abstract

The ongoing emergency for refugees is having profound and hidden health consequences for thousands of displaced persons who live in informal ‘makeshift’ camps across Europe. This interdisciplinary paper reports the results of the first environmental health assessment in such a location, in what was Europe’s largest informal refugee camp in 2016, in Calais, northern France. We detail the lack of facilities for sanitation, safe provision of food, water and shelter, demonstrating how conditions fall short of agreed international standards for formal refugee camps. Rather than the notion of migrants being the cause of health problems, this paper critically reveals the hidden materiality of bodily injury caused by poor health conditions, where the camp itself produces harm. Drawing upon theories of biopolitical exclusion, the paper concludes by (i) emphasising the empirical and conceptual themes that tie refugee politics and biologies together and (ii) makes a call for increased attention to makeshift camps as key sites of health exclusion in Europe and beyond.

Keywords:

• Public health
• refugee camps
• environmental health
• migration
• exclusion

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Doctors of the World for their assistance in the field and all participants. We also thank Helen Onyeaka, Elaine Mitchell and Alaa Alaizoki of the University of Birmingham food laboratories for their assistance.