Minister to visit Calais as anti-migrant tension rises

Earlier this year local authorities cleared shelters in parts of the site in a bid to persuade migrants to move into other accommodation or neighbouring camps on the northern coast.

He denied suggestions by one of France’s police unions that the Calais camp now holds up to 10,000 migrants.

The state estimated the number of migrants living in the makeshift camp in August at almost 7,000, while aid groups put the count at more than 9,000.

The mayor of Calais has pledged to turn out in support of a blockade of the Port of Calais on Monday.

A local police trade union and several aid associations said that up to 10,000 migrants were living in the camp in August; however, this information was quickly refuted by Mr Cazeneuve.

“I am in Calais today fully aware of the serious difficulties you face each day”, Cazeneuve said Friday.

Also on Friday, the French interior minister told the regional newspaper Nord Littoral that he would press ahead with the closure of the camp “with the greatest determination” and destroy the site in stages.

The minister said that fully dismantling the camp – half of which was razed in March – is the goal but he wants it done “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. Overcrowding has also increased tensions between migrants, and two died in fights within a month.

The organizers plan to block the A16 motorway leading to the port with a “human chain”, and are pledging that they will not break it until the “Jungle”, blamed for the worsening security and economic situation in the area, is totally dismantled.

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.

A planned blockade by lorry drivers protesting about the migrant crisis in Calais has been downgraded to a “go-slow”.

The groups called on the French government to demand that Britain shoulder its responsibility — or threaten an end to the Touquet accords, signed in 2003.

Demonstrators say they are facing an increased threat from gangs of migrants attempting to enter the United Kingdom, whose tactics include blocking roads with trees to allow them to climb aboard vehicles. “We started running out of food about three weeks ago”, said Marie Eisendick, who works for the Refugee Community Kitchen.