Demolition of the migrant camp known as the “Jungle” was set to resume in the French port city of Calais on Tuesday, following a day of violent destruction on Monday and clashes between residents and riot police overnight.
A demolition process began on Monday to clear part of the site — which is home to between 4,000 and 5,500 people — after the French government won a legal battle to force migrants to move to a nearby park of converted shipping containers or other reception centers in France. It wants to reduce the camp’s size to a maximum of 2,000 residents.
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Charities working in the camp reported the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, bulldozers, mallets, and chainsaws, despite a promise from French authorities that the eviction process would be gradual and peaceful.
“Appalled and saddened,” wrote NGO CalAid on Monday. “French demolition teams are in the southern section of the camp ripping apart shelters and moving residents out of the camp. Rubber bullets and tear gas for the people, mallets and Stanley knives for their homes. Volunteers being prevented from entering the camp. Refugees hitting the road with nothing but a sleeping bag.”
Before the evacuations began, Xavier Bertrand, head of the northern Pas-de-Calais region, told reporters that the actions were necessary due to conditions in the camp.
“To be firm is a sign of humanity. Most of you know it, it’s not the first time you’ve been in Calais, you’ve seen the living conditions in the jungle… I don’t want to hear people talking nonsense saying that living conditions in the Temporary Reception Centre are undignified, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s over there that it’s undignified, and here it’s dignified,” Bertrand said, according to Reuters.
A burning shelter at the start of the demolition of a part of the Jungle migrant camp on Monday. (Photo by Laurent Dubrule/EPA)
Refugees in front of French riot police on Monday. (Photo by Laurent Dubrule/EPA)
Many people living in the camp do not want to move as they will be required to have their hand prints recorded, and they believe they will be forced to apply for asylum in France and be under constant security presence.
Most want to get to England because the success rate of asylum requests is almost double that of France’s (41 percent versus 25 percent), the unemployment rate is about half (5 percent versus 10 percent), and many have family members already in Britain.
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Overnight, police fired tear gas at migrants who were throwing rocks at the demolition squads, reported the BBC, and at around 150 people who were trying to get onto trucks heading towards the port — some carrying sticks and iron bars.
Around 100 shelters were dismantled, while others were set on fire. Police used water cannons to put the fires out.
“Many refugees who had come to France to escape genuine war zones lost their belongings and homes again today,” said a statement on Monday from Help Refugees, an organization which has been working in Calais for months.
“The morning began with 55 CRS vans pulling up and unloading hundreds of riot police,” it said. “The police formed a human shield preventing refugees from collecting their valuables and used tear gas to repeatedly drive back residents as they dismantled occupied and unoccupied homes.”
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The charity also expressed concern about the hundreds of unaccompanied minors in the camp, as well as the children being caught up in the tear gas.
“In the course of the confusion and panic sweeping through the camp after the events of today we fear that these vulnerable young people will scatter leaving them without the basic primary care our network of volunteers gives them and adding them to the 10,000 child refugees already ‘missing’ in Europe, according to Europol. Many of these children have family members is the UK,” it warned.
Follow Miriam Wells on Twitter: @missmbc
