Last week, French authorities cleared “the Jungle,” a refugee and migrant camp that the New York Times has called “a symbol of Europe’s faltering efforts to handle its migration crisis.” The camp, which sat near the northern port city of Calais, housed between seven and ten thousand people. Many living there qualified for asylum yet remained confined in the camp, barred from remaining in France or traveling to Britain across the English Channel.

The French government, which began busing residents of the camp to “welcome centers” around the country early last week, says it razed the notoriously squalid site for humanitarian reasons. But it’s unclear where the displaced will end up. Roughly 1,500 migrant children are temporarily living in shipping containers. The British government has permitted less than 300 children from the camp to reach its shores since mid-October; French president François Hollande is insisting that the UK accept more.

In the following piece, adapted from Le Monde diplomatique and reported on before the French government destroyed the camp, Elle Kurancid and Sharif Fanselow give us a glimpse inside the Jungle through the eyes of Sami (not his real name). It poignantly captures the human toll of “Fortress Europe,” where refugees like him exist in a world of “rights without recognition.”