French to dismantle rest of ‘Jungle’ migrant camp

I say it very clearly that all these actions will be put into place until the final closure of the camp, which is my aim.

He said: “There are 6,900 – not 10,000 – migrants living in the north zone of the Calais Jungle camp”.

In February and March, French authorities dismantled the southern half of the refugee camp, which is situated around the Channel Tunnel, the undersea passage into Britain.

Speaking to radio station Europe 1 earlier this week, Calais mayor Ms Bouchart said she was exhausted of hearing members of the government say the “Jungle” migrant camp would be dismantled “in stages”. Seven others were killed this year on the roadways where they try each night to hop trucks crossing the English Channel via Eurotunnel freight trains or ferries leaving the port.

Bouchart, who has often clashed with the government over the camp, claims it could soon contain as many as 15,000 migrants if authorities take several months to dismantle it.

“There will be two migrant camps, one for men only, and one for women and children”, Hidalgo said, as cited by France Bleu newspaper.

Crowding at the camp is causing fresh tensions.

The Jungle’s population also includes large numbers of Somalis, Kurds and Syrians.

Franck Esnee, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres added: “The government needs to encourage initiatives by local mayors who are proposing to take in migrants in their towns”.

But, pointing to Ms Bouchart having set up the camp in the first place, Mr Elphicke said: “She is protesting against a problem of her own making”.

The government should also encourage the requisitioning of public buildings to house migrants, he said.

Intensifying the efforts to get those in Calais to leave voluntarily, another 8,000 places elsewhere will be created this year, a lot of them for people registering as asylum-seekers, with thousands more places to follow in 2017, said Cazeneuve.

Calais has come under political scrutiny in recent days as France limbers up for next year’s presidential election.

The groups called on the French government to quickly expand its ability to take in migrants elsewhere and demand that Britain shoulder its responsibility — or threaten an end to the Touquet accords.

Cazeneuve was speaking to the Nord Littoral daily the day before visiting the camp.

Controversy broke out last month at a proposal to allow migrants to lodge United Kingdom asylum claims on French soil – a plan dismissed by a Home Office source as a “complete non-starter”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was in Paris on Tuesday, when she and Mr Cazeneuve, pledged “close co-operation” in dealing with the growing migrant crisis.