Clashes broke out between French riot police and refugees on Monday, as authorities began destroying makeshift shelters in the grim shantytown on the edge of Calais known as the “Jungle.”
Police threw tear gas canisters at refugees and migrants who protested as about 20 workers moved in to start pulling down the shacks by hand, initially under blue skies as an icy wind blew.
When night fell, about 150 migrants threw rocks and struck vehicles heading for England on a port road that runs next to the sprawling camp, staying there for about an hour, some wielding iron bars, a reporter said. Police responded with tear gas.
Photo: AFP
Several trucks and cars were blocked by refugees and migrants on the stretch of road overlooking a piece of ground that had previously been part of the Jungle.
Earlier, refugees and members of the No Borders activist group, who had launched projectiles at the police, set fire to about 20 shelters at the camp, as running clashes continued throughout the afternoon.
By 6:45pm, police had retaken control of the port road, which remained strewn with debris. Three members of No Borders and one refugee were arrested, local government officials said.
The demolition of the southern half of the camp began after a court petition by charities to stop it was rejected last week.
“It’s infinitely sad to see the waste of so much work that we’ve done in the past months,” Maya Konforti of the Migrants’ Hostel charity said.
Volunteers and aid workers have spent months trying to improve conditions in the camp, built on a former toxic waste dump on the outskirts of Calais.
Local authorities, who have promised that no one would be evacuated by force, said 3,700 people live in the camp, and that between 800 and 1,000 would be affected by the eviction.
However, charities said a census they conducted counted at least 3,450 people in the southern part alone, including 300 unaccompanied children.
The evicted refugees have been offered heated accommodation in refitted containers set up next door to the camp, but many are reluctant to move there because they lack communal spaces and movement is restricted.
They have also been offered places in about 100 reception centers dotted across France.
However, the migrants and refugees do not want to give up their hopes of getting to Britain, which they try to reach daily by sneaking aboard trucks and ferries crossing the Channel.
“These people want to reach Britain and won’t leave. They will end up in even more hardship, particularly in winter,” Konforti said.
The demolition of the Jungle comes ahead of talks scheduled for tomorrow between French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Britain has put substantial pressure on France to stem the flow of refugees and migrants getting across the Channel, and has funded a huge increase in security measures around the port and tunnel in Calais.
The Jungle has played into fraught discussions about Britain’s possible exit from the EU.
Some opponents of “Brexit” said that if Britain were to leave the EU, the UK government would lose the ability to call on France to stop the refugees from trying to make their way across the Channel.
“We are carrying out our orders so that the migrants leave the camp and we will continue this work this morning... so that the destruction work can continue calmly and that the migrants are not under pressure from the No Borders activists,” Calais Prefect Fabienne Buccio said on Monday.
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