FUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE Brit mum-of-two leaves husband and vows to marry Afghan migrant she met while volunteering at Calais Jungle

A CALAIS Jungle volunteer and mum-of-two has dumped her husband and vowed to marry an Afghan migrant she met at the camp.

Helen, 28, said marriage is the only way for her new lover to enter the UK.

BBC

3

Helen, 28, has vowed to marry an Afghan migrant she met at the Jungle

The mum to two young children had been travelling between Wales and Calais to volunteer in a medical caravan at the Jungle camp for five months when she met her new love interest.

She told the BBC he was a camp resident volunteering as a translator while he waited for a chance to enter Britain.

“He would come to translate for the British doctors as he can speak four languages,” she said.

Helen continued: “There was no payment. I think he was so bored in the Jungle that he just went to translate.

“We spent some time when it was quiet speaking about different things, mainly about Islam and cultural differences.

“From that day that I first met him we’ve literally spoken for hours every day.

“Every time I went to the Jungle I would arrange to meet him there.”

The closure of the camp last week saw the woman’s new partner moved to Lyon – but she has said he will not be able to stay there.

He will be deported when he goes to claim asylum in France because he does not have the right papers.

REUTERS

3

A man walks past debris from makeshift shelters while the Jungle was destroyed last week

Helen said the strain had made the relationship quickly turn serious – with marriage the only option for him to stay.

She said: “For him to be able to legally move to the UK I would have to marry him within three months of him getting here.

“Everyone says I’m crazy but it’s the only legal way he can come here.”

In south Wales Helen works at a residential care home for young people and children, where she lives with her kids.

Helen has spent thousands of pounds volunteering in the Calais camp and has revealed that her dedication to it spelled the end for her marriage of eight years.

She had travelled to Calais once or twice a month since October 2015.

Helen said the marriage was already struggling, but the disagreement over her frequent trips “put the final nail in the coffin” and she divorced her husband.

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

3

Migrants move out of the camp before it was dismantled last wek

She told the BBC: “There have been times when I have put Calais before everything, before my children, before my work, before my family. And this has a knock-on effect on everyday living.”

Helen said it was now time to focus on her kids family and getting her partner to the UK legally.

She said: “I need to take a step back and concentrate on my family – working on my relationship with my children and helping my partner to come here legally.

“I will be doing everything I can for the people I’ve met in the Jungle, but from now on I’ll be doing it from the UK.”

The Jungle camp once home to up to 10,000 migrants and comprised of thousands of makeshift tents was dismantled last week.

Battling fires, disorder and violence, French authorities removed some 6,000 migrants who were living in the area, hoping to board lorries bound for Britain.

The number of UK-bound migrants sleeping in illegal camps in Paris has increased by a third since the destruction of the Jungle.

Paris’ first official refugee camp is due to open within the next few days, and it is expected to become a magnet for even more refugees.

In the last weeks migrant children have been arriving in the UK with many more reportedly desperate to come.