The evacuation of migrants from the “Calais Jungle”, in France, has begun. The authorities are calling it “humanitarian”, but aid organisations are sceptical.
Update, 4.40 pm
By mid-afternoon, French media reported that 1,630 migrants had left Calais. Thirty-nine coaches had been used to evacuate them so far. Demonstrations in support of migrants took place across France: in Nantes, Brest, Chateaubriand, Douarnenez, Morlaix, Rennes, Alès, Digne, Figeac, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse and Grenoble.
Update, 2 pm
During the morning, some journalists on the ground spoke of around two thousand migrants who had reportedly refused to leave the "Jungle" — information that was, however, denied by the Interior Ministry in Paris.
Meanwhile, in the pages of the local newspaper La Voix du Nord, Monsignor Jean-Paul Jaeger, Bishop of Arras, declared: "It is high time to build rather than to dismantle. Above all, we must rebuild respect for the dignity of wounded men and women who have left their lands and their families in atrocious circumstances. It is not humane, however, to use electoral slogans when the survival of vulnerable human beings is at stake. What is needed is a long process of reflection, listening and understanding."
The "Calais Jungle", an improvised refugee camp in northern France that has become the largest shantytown in the European nation over recent years, is living its final hours. As of 8 o'clock this morning, the evacuation of the site has begun: the stated aim of the French authorities is to move the migrants on the ground — mainly of Afghan, Syrian, Sudanese and Eritrean origin — to dozens of centres scattered across the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTkG0_jMLA
The transport will be carried out by around sixty coaches. Initially, however, the migrants will be gathered in a former hangar roughly 300 metres from the "Jungle". Queues of women, men and children waiting to leave the camp began forming before dawn this morning, all under the watch of hundreds of police officers.
The aim is to determine each migrant's destination based on their personal situation. Speaking to the radio station Europe 1, some of the young people explain that they are happy to leave Calais: they are hoping for a better life at centres in other French regions. But not everyone is content: for the majority of them, the goal was (and remains) Great Britain, where they might be reunited with family and friends. Moving away from the Channel therefore means giving up, at least temporarily, on reaching British territory.
For this reason too, the dismantling of the "Jungle" — which the French authorities describe as "humanitarian" — has failed to convince numerous organisations working on the reception and recognition of the rights of migrants in Calais. "The government," explained François Guennoc, vice-president of l'Auberge des migrants (the Migrants' Inn), "believes that by destroying the camp it can resolve the migration question, but that is simply not the case. A large proportion of the people who are being forced to leave today will return."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3oQecjbHZA
Part of the local population shares this view, as reported by the daily 20Minutes. Moreover, Guennoc concludes, "not all migrants will agree to leave the camp. The risk is that the operation descends into violence." Fierce protests were recorded overnight in the meantime: repeated stone-throwing targeted the security forces, who responded with baton charges and tear gas.
