French authorities begin evacuating migrants from Calais camp

French authorities began making the rounds in a Calais migrant camp Friday (February 26) to alert residents that they would need to leave, after a French judge approved the partial demolition of the shantytown dubbed the “jungle”.

An official deadline expired on Tuesday (February 23) for at least 1,000 migrants to leave the southern part of the so-called “jungle” camp, on the outskirts of the northern French port town.

Authorities have said they will use force if necessary to move them to alternative accommodation in a nearby container park and other reception centres.

So-called “living areas” including schools, places of worship, legal centres and theatres would remain in the camp, local authorities said.

Migrants’ repeated efforts to force their way through the Channel Tunnel or to stow away aboard trucks have disrupted traffic across the vital link between France and Britain, caused tension with the local population and forced French police to maintain a large deployment in the area.

The founder of the Secular School of Dune Way in the jungle camp, Zimako Jones, said migrants were now faced with a question of where to go next.

“Here they will not fight, but I’m not sure they will leave because they said, ‘Where we will go?’ One theme emerges every time, it’s ‘We didn’t come here to stay in France, we want to go to England and we are free to choose our country’,” he said.

Altogether some 4,000 people are believed to live in the “jungle”, down from about 6,000 in September. The authorities would like to see this number fall to around 2,000.

Humanitarian groups say forced evictions would breach the migrants’ fundamental rights and worsen the plight of some 350 to 400 minors in the camp, some of them unaccompanied.

NGOs estimate the southern part of the “jungle” earmarked for demolition has become home to some 3,400 migrants, more than triple the official figure.

“So there are 3,000 people, the government says there are 1,000. The government has 1,000 places, not 3,000. Where will the other 2,000 go? This is a big worry, it’s still very cold, it’s still winter. How can a judge accept to do this during the winter, especially when we know that there are many women, children and unaccompanied minors?” said Maya Konforti, who works with local organisation L’Auberge des Migrants.

The first of many buses that will take migrants to welcome centres across the country was stationed outside the camp Friday morning — its destination was Saint-Brieuc, in northwestern France. Only about 10 migrants boarded the bus, a Reuters witness said.

A state-run park of converted shipping containers opened last month and has about 200 free beds out of a total capacity of 1,500, but it lacks toilets and showers.

The government says other various reception centres spread across France can absorb the remaining migrants, with 600 beds immediately available, but many refugees told Reuters this week they would continue to try to reach Britain, where they believe a better life awaits them.