Thousands to leave Calais camp in coming days
October 24, 2016
Several hundred people lined up in front of official meeting points as French police began evacuating the refugee camp in the northern French town of Calais.
"I feel very happy, I've had enough of the Jungle," Abbas, a 25-year-old from Sudan, told news agency AFP.
"There are a lot of people who don't want to leave. There might be problems later. That's why I came out first," he added.
People carrying multiple suitcases and bags lined up "to take their chances in France," reported DW's Teri Schulz from Calais.
The migrants were questioned before being redistributed around France, a spokesman for the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais told news agency dpa.
Some 6,000 to 8,000 migrants will be separated into four groups for families, single men, unaccompanied minors and others considered vulnerable. They will then board buses that will take them to nearly 300 shelters nationwide. The first buses left less than an hour after immigration officials began the operation. Some 2,500 migrants are estimated to leave on the first day.
Around 600 people had left the camp by noon, reported DW's Teri Schultz, adding that the situation remained calm during the morning, but some fights broke out in the long evacuation line as tempers frayed.
Police fired tear gas overnight as dozens of migrants hurled rocks and protested against the imminent demolition of the makeshift refugee camp.
The French government started evacuating the slum-like settlement early Monday, ahead of sending the more than 6,500 people living there to official refugee shelters around the country. The operation to clear and then destroy the site is expected to take several days.
Around 1,250 extra police officers have been deployed to the area to maintain order.
New life in Britain
The camp at Calais has been home to migrants from a range of crisis-hit countries, including Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. Most of them traveled to the French port in the hope of ultimately crossing the English Channel to get to Britain.
Aid workers told the German press agency dpa that many of the camp's residents were reluctant to leave the area for an unknown part of France. Some have expressed fears about the possibility of ending up in unwelcoming villages with few work opportunities. Others, still determined to reach the UK, vowed to stay put in Calais.
Pascal Brice, head of the Ofpra asylum agency, said his staff were trying to convince migrants that Calais was a "dead end" and that their asylum requests at the refugee shelters in France would be processed "very quickly."
The French government said unaccompanied minors would be allowed to remain at the Calais camp in modified shipping containers after the site is shut down. Almost 200 child refugees have been granted passage to the UK as part of a fast-tracked process implemented one week ago.
rs, nm/cmk, jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)