NEWS
EVENTS
France to resettle inhabitants of Calais' 'Jungle' camp
Riot police have been deployed at Calais' 'Jungle' migrant camp to help register the refugees and resettle them across France before work begins in taking the camp apart.
The 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais will be dismantled by the French authorities by at least Friday. The camp, that houses around 7,000 - 8,000 migrants, has become a symbol of the ever-growing migrant crisis in Europe.
French officials want the camp gone by winter after months of tensions between the refugees and the residents of Calais. Though to remove the camp means moving the thousands of migrants - many desperate to come to the UK.
The French have set up a clearance process at the camp which will register migrants before busing them across France to resettle where they have the chance to claim asylum or face deportation.
Monday saw 2,300 voluntarily leave the camp - today hundreds more have joined them, but the process has slowed down.
The planned demolition was hoped to have started by midday today, but as the registration process was slow it has been held off. French authorities have called the departures of the camps inhabitants the priority, and demolition work could start as late as tomorrow.
So far the process has been without issue - with most migrants choosing the move elsewhere in France and claim asylum there. Though Christian Salome from the charity Auberge des Migrants said that this was because those leaving were doing so though their choice.
"I'm much more concerned about later in the week when the only ones remaining are those who do not want to leave, who still want to reach England" he added.
The operation to take apart the camp will take around three days and has seen 1,200 police officers deployed.
Pressure is mounting on the Home Office to process the children migrants faster. So far nearly 200 have arrived in Britain in recent days with more expected, despite 1/4 of English councils refusing to resettle refugees.
