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Police evacuate illegal migrants from an improvised camp in Calais, northern France - Source: Reuters
Hundreds of French police cleared an improvised camp dubbed the
jungle where illegal migrants, mostly Afghans, gather near the port
of Calais before trying to cross to Britain.
Dozens of charity workers formed a human wall before a group of
migrants, about half of whom were minors, who carried banners
declaring the jungle is ours; but police encircled the crowd and
made 278 arrests as they loaded migrants onto buses.
"This is the violent image of France that they want to give. It's
sad and it's a disgrace," said Vincent Lenoir, a member of the
humanitarian association Salam.
Many of the migrants cried and shouted as they were arrested and
led away from the makeshift tent city.
Bulldozers later moved in to clear the zone.
The migrants will either be escorted back to their home countries,
allowed to apply for asylum or forcibly expelled if they refuse to
leave voluntarily.
Immigration Minister Eric Besson defended the operation, announced
last week, which has been heavily criticised by humanitarian
groups.
"This operation is not aimed at the migrants themselves. It's aimed
at the logistical infrastructure and mafia-style networks of the
people traffickers who sell the trip to England at a very high
price," he told a news conference.
He said the jungle had become an open air dumping ground in which
migrants were brutally exploited by criminals in unhygienic and
unsafe conditions.
No solution
But opponents said the operation was a cosmetic move that would do
nothing to dissuade the thousands of illegal immigrants from
desperately poor countries in Africa and Asia who try to cross
European borders every year.
"As long as we don't put an end to immigration which is illegal but
at the same time understandable we won't really be able to solve
the problem," Christian Vanneste, a local member of parliament for
the ruling UMP party told France Info radio.
"We have to solve this problem at European level. This is
immigration which doesn't really concern France. We're just a
staging post," he said.
The jungle sprang up after France closed a large Red Cross centre
at nearby Sangatte in 2002 under pressure from Britain, which saw
it as a magnet for clandestine immigrants.
Besson acknowledged that European countries needed to improve
co-ordination of border controls and he said France had proposed
the creation of a Europe-wide frontier police force to control
illegal immigration.
"European policies on immigration and asylum have to be made
coherent with each other," he said.
The jungle had begun to empty even before the operation, which was
announced last week but campaigners said would-be migrants would
still gather in the Calais area before attempting the risky
cross-Channel trip.
"They can close the jungle but England will still be the same
distance away," said Monique Delannoy, a member of the Belle Etoile
association.
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