Court clears Calais camp clearance

CALAIS, France (AP) – A green light Thursday from a French court sets in motion the evacuation of a large swath of a sprawling migrant camp in Calais where thousands dream of getting to Britain, with promises of a progressive and humane process in what could be a slow death for the wind-swept outpost.

The area can not be razed entirely because the court ruled common social areas such as schools, churches and mosques must be kept.

State authorities say up to 1,000 migrants will be affected by the move but charities warn as many as 3,455 people could be forced to find new homes.

An official deadline for at least 1,000 migrants to leave the southern part of the camp expired on Tuesday.

But aid agencies said there are not enough containers to house those displaced by the bulldozers.

Humanitarian workers predicted those who refuse to leave would simply gather in small groups elsewhere around Calais and the northern French coast.

Following days of legal wrangling, Judge Valerie Quemener chose to ignore protests by humanitarian groups and the migrants themselves.

But Caroline Anning of Save The Children said: “What’s the point of community infrastructure without a community?”

Migrants taking refuge in “the Jungle”, an infamous camp in Calais, will be uprooted again.

Those living in the “Jungle” – migrants and refugees mainly from the Middle East and Africa – came to Calais in the hopes of reaching the UK.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said most of the migrants now in Calais eventually wanted to get to Britain and failing that, would use Belgium as a transit route via the port of Zeebrugge.

Volunteers help migrants build shelters in a makeshift camp for migrants near Calais, France, Thursd …

Belgium’s response was criticized by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday.

The letter also called on the government to allow those children in the camp who have family in the United Kingdom to be reunited with them “with immediate effect”.

The people from the southern part of the camp will be dispersed withing France, but will effectively be made homeless.

However, British hauliers welcomed the judgment.

The FTA’s head of European policy, Pauline Bastidon, said: “We appreciate the need for careful consideration as the clearance of the camp could be seen as violating the fundamental rights of the migrants”.

FTA officials said a solution needed to be found to protect the £89 billion worth of United Kingdom trade which passes through the cross-Channel ports annually.