France clears 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais, children in limbo
26 Oct 2016 9:46 AM IST26 Oct 2016 9:46 AM IST
French workers escorted by riot police on Tuesday began tearing down shacks and tents in the Calais \"Jungle\" vacated by migrants.
French workers escorted by riot police on Tuesday began tearing down shacks and tents in the Calais \"Jungle\" vacated by migrants who have been bussed to shelters around the country.- The town's Mayor Natacha Bouchart said seeing people queue to leave the camp was \"a great relief.\" But many locals fear more settlements will sprout up in the area once the Jungle is razed.
- The Jungle's thousand-plus unaccompanied minors have been the main focus of charities' concerns, and hundreds of anxious youths queued at a hangar Tuesday for interviews with French and British officials who will decide their fate.
- Fire trucks were dispatched into the camp on Tuesday evening after a handful of shacks were set alight, apparently by migrants resisting the Jungle's closure.
- The authorities have said those who agree to be moved can seek asylum in France. Those who refuse risk deportation.
- After an initial stampede for the buses on Monday, the pace of departures slowed Tuesday with 1,264 people being driven away, down from 1,918.
- The numbers represent around half the camp's estimated population before the operation began, according to official figures.
- As part of the camp's clearance, 3,182 adults have been transferred to centres around France since Monday and 772 unaccompanied minors have been moved to a container park in the Jungle serving as a temporary shelter, the interior ministry said.
- Situated next to the port of Calais, the Jungle has for years been a launchpad for migrants attempting to make it to Britain by sneaking onto lorries of jumping onto trains heading across the Channel.
- Workers in hard hats and orange overalls used electric saws to reduce shacks to piles of wood and plastic that were removed by diggers. Mattresses, blankets, clothes, pots and suitcases left behind by the migrants were also carted away.
- The camp has become one of the most notorious symbols of Europe's migrant crisis.
- The demolition work began on the second day of a massive operation to clear the squalid camp in northern France, where an estimated 6,000-8,000 migrants, mostly Afghans, Sudanese and Eritreans, have been living.
French workers escorted by riot police on Tuesday began tearing down shacks and tents in the Calais \"Jungle\" vacated by migrants who have been bussed to shelters around the country.
French workers escorted by riot police on Tuesday began tearing down shacks and tents in the Calais -"Jungle-" vacated by migrants.
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