France To Move 1,000 Migrants From Calais Jungle
KABUL: (MEP) French government authorities said Friday they would move up to 1,000 migrants living in the notorious Jungle camp in the northern port town of Calais.
The presence of thousands of migrants in the camp who are desperately trying to reach Britain has become a political hot potato both within France and between Paris and London.
“The time has come to move on, no one must live in the southern part of the camp, everyone must leave this section,” said Fabienne Buccio, the national’s government local representative, estimating some 800 to 1,000 migrants would be affected.
Local authorities have been trying to persuade migrants to move out of the camp as conditions worsen in the winter.
Buccio said government representatives would visit migrant communities on Monday “to explain” the plans.
“We will give them a week to take up places that will be made available,” she added.
Some 4,000 migrants, most of them from North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan, live in the makeshift camp from where they launch their often desperate efforts to reach Britain, across the Channel.
The southern part of the camp, however, has sprung up on its own, and is viewed by authorities as a slum area. In January, it ordered parts of the southern camp to be torn down.
In January some 600 migrants were evacuated from a strip of 100 metres near a main bypass for safety reasons and authorities now want to reduce the massive camp by about half.
