ALMOST all the children who have been moved out of the Calais “Jungle” camp are traumatised by the experience, with either post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, the community organisation Citizens UK has said.

The charity reports that since the dispersal it has received suicidal text messages from the children. Of the 40 they are caring for, Citizens UK says that a third have expressed suicidal thoughts or a lack of care for their own life, 75 per cent have showed an “alarming deterioration” in mental health, and 90 per cent have reported ‘“increased anxiety”.

A psychiatrist for the charity, Dr Susannah Fairweather, who led a team assessing the children from the camp — now dispersed in 60 centres around France — told The Guardian that there has been a “significant deterioration in the children’s mental health, including a risk of suicide”, since the camp was broken up.

She also said that the temporary transfer around France was exacerbating their trauma.

Several hundred children from the camp have been brought to the UK and are having their requests for asylum processed.