Belgium reintroduces French border controls

Judge Valerie Quemener of the administrative court in the regional capital Lille, said: “The decision will not be taken today”.

French officials want to dismantle part of the Calais camp to end long-running migrant problems and regular attacks traffic heading for the Calais-Dover ferries and the Channel Tunnel.

In Brussels, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon told a news conference he was increasing controls along the French border with 250 to 290 police officers to avoid migrants choosing Belgium as an alternative transit point for Britain.

Belgium was reinforcing its borders with France near Calais in anticipation of a potential wave of people attempting to cross if the camp is shut down.

France’s interior minister is criticizing Belgium for tightening border controls over concerns about a flood of migrants from a camp in France.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said on Tuesday it was “coordinating a contingency planning effort, to offer support in case of a humanitarian crisis both outside and within the EU”.

Maya Konforti of the aid group L’Auberge des Migrants said volunteers would stand by the migrants if authorities try to force them out.

The latest estimates by the local authorities say there are 3,700 people living in the Jungle, and the government has been trying to persuade them to move to welcome centers elsewhere in the country, particularly as the weather worsened in winter.

“European governments on this route continue to invent new and arbitrary criteria, with the sole goal of reducing the flow of people – at any cost, and in complete disregard of humanitarian needs”, said humanitarian adviser Aurelie Ponthieu. The result is that here in Athens and other parts of Greece, thousands of stranded migrants wander about with no food, money or shelter.

“They are talking about it but are not expecting a great outcome, I can see they feel very resigned”, she said.

The Austrian cap on the number of people it will admit each day prompted Macedonia to prevent Afghan migrants from crossing last weekend and to slow the rate at which asylum-seekers from Syria and Iraq were allowed to cross. Afghan migrants, who have been blocked by authorities in neighboring Macedonia, are being taken to Athens, in the south of the country.

Cazeneuve criticised the Belgian move as “odd”, saying it had not been notified in advance and he did not think moving migrants out of the squalid camp would prompt many to move north along the Channel coast to Belgian ports.

Police have removed hundreds of migrants from a camp at Greece’s border with Macedonia following a protest that halted freight rail services to other Balkan countries.

“People are obviously awaiting the (court) decision”, said Dominique Bernard, who works with Medecins Sans Frontières.

The activist group says hundreds of unaccompanied children will also be affected.

Another filthy camp known as a haven for smugglers, near Dunkirk, is being relocated to a more hygienic site with heated tents under the supervision of Doctors Without Borders.