France begins clearing 'Jungle' camp in Calais

French authorities have begun clearing the Jungle migrant camp in the northern city of Calais, where around 6500 people live in tents and makeshift huts.

Calais

Migrants line-up to register at a processing centre in the makeshift migrant camp known as "the jungle" near Calais, northern France, Monday Oct. 24, 2016. Source: AP

There were clashes during Sunday night, a spokesman for the prefecture of Pas- de-Calais said, when some migrants attempted to reach a nearby motorway and were pushed back by police.

Several hundred people are waiting in front of a registration centre at the camp on Monday morning where they will be questioned before being redistributed around France, the spokesman says.

But there is concern that some migrants will refuse to go because they still want to get to Britain.

The UK has begun to accept some of the estimated 1300 unaccompanied children from the camp.
Calais
A migrants stands outside a tent as he and others are registered at a processing centre at "the jungle" near Calais, northern France, Monday Oct. 24, 2016. Source: AP
The Care4Calais refugee crisis charity said it was hoping for a peaceful day after it supplied people with thousands of rucksacks over the weekend and worked to prepare them psychologically for Monday's mass eviction.

Some 60 government-organised buses are expected to take thousands of the camp's residents to temporary reception centres where they will have to claim asylum in France within a set period of time or face deportation.

It is believed they will be sorted into groups of families, minors, vulnerable or ill people and others travelling alone at a registration centre in a warehouse by the camp and given coloured wristbands depending on which region they say they would like to be sent to.

Aid workers were advising refugees and migrants to register for the buses together as they believe this will give certain groups of friends or communities the best chance of not being separated.

A further 85 buses were expected to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday as the mass eviction continues.

French President Francois Hollande announced last month that the camp will close before winter.

The site has become a symbol of his government's failure to tackle Europe's migrant crisis and a target of criticism from conservative and far-right rivals seeking to unseat him.

An emergency legal bid by several aid groups to delay the closure of the Jungle camp was rejected by a court in Lille last week.
Calais
Migrants set rubbish bins alight as a protest in the makeshift camp 'the Jungle' in Calais, France, 23 October 2016. Source: EPA
Aziz, from Darfur, Sudan, said he was happy to leave the camp, where he has spent the last four months.

The 27-year-old told the Press Association: "I don't like this place at all because I want to go to a city area."

Asked if he was worried, he said: "I'm feeling not worried, not happy at all. I never laugh, I never cry. Just nothing, but I want to go from this place."

Speaking of his home, Aziz said: "In Sudan there is insecurity, there is war, there is a terrible situation, discrimination ... it is not possible to stay."

Unaccompanied minors are believed to be the only group staying in Calais, where they will be taken to containers within a secure area of the camp.

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3 min read
Published 24 October 2016 5:39pm
Updated 25 October 2016 11:39am
Source: DPA

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