Britain braced for more migrants as Calais camp is cleared
A makeshift migrant camp in Calais that had been home to around 500 people, including young children, has been cleared.
French officials swooped in and evicted migrants who had been living in wasteland on the outskirts of the French town.
It is the second operation within two days but refugee charity workers have said the move is ‘just for show.’
They said the people will return within a matter of hours as they are desperate and have nowhere else to go.
Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley told Metro.co.uk: ‘The police went in this morning but we have been expecting it for a few days.
‘These people are sleeping on scraps of wasteland and each time there is a clearance, they fence off another area.
‘But until the whole of Calais is behind a fence, these people will find somewhere new.
‘That’s the nature of refugees, they will always come back.
‘This action is just for show. It’s so the governments can say they are doing something. But they are just hurting the most damaged and traumatised people in our society. It’s barbaric.’
The site is just 200 metres from the infamous ‘Jungle’ camp near the Channel Tunnel terminal at Coquelles that was shut down in 2016.
Since then migrants – mainly from conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Somalia – have been bedding down in rat-infested squalor on an industrial estate.
The United Nations has called it a breach of human rights.
Within the last 48 hours, police have been patrolling the area as rubbish collectors clear tents.
Migrants are walking around the area carrying all their belongings in bin bags.
There is a larger camp in a disused Dunkirk gym, which houses mainly families, and which is also expected to be cleared in the coming days.
The latest round of evictions comes amid a spike of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats.
Two people have drowned in the last month – one who attempted to swim to the UK and another whose boat overturned.
Some 86 people made it into the UK on Tuesday – a record for a single day – and 21 people arrived on Wednesday.
There are fears that the clearings could push already vulnerable people into the hands of people smugglers and make the perilous journey over the sea in overcrowded vessels.
Field manager at Help Refugees, Josh Hallam, added: ‘Some people haven’t been able to sleep and are in a very desperate situation. The site has been described as a breach of human rights laws.
‘The situation that’s been created definitely pushes people into the hands of people who want to exploit them.
‘More and more people could be crossing the Channel.
‘Children as young as seven are living there without their parents. They have no responsibility from the government.
‘They have no legal rights for people to access, so they have to take incredibly dangerous risks through criminals and people willing to exploit them.’
At its height, the Calais jungle had more than 6,000 migrants living there.
There are now substantially fewer people living on the streets of the French port, many of whom will end up playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities in a bid to get into the UK.
Ms Moseley said only around 3% of migrants who make it to Europe end up in Calais and around one-fifth are unaccompanied minors.
She added: ‘No-one wants to be in Calais. It’s a very small percentage of refugees and they are the ones who have strong reasons to get to the UK.
‘They have family ties and they speak the language. Some are from Afghanistan and worked with the UK during the war and believed they would be helped.’
She continued: ‘These people are feeling frustrated, angry and battered. They don’t know what to do.
‘We need to understand that these are real, ordinary people and they have done nothing wrong.
‘Yet Britain is doing less than other European countries to help.’
Care4Calais has called for UK officials to allow migrants to start their claim for asylum in the UK from France.
They said setting up a kiosk in Calais to start the legal process would reduce the number of people trying to get across the water.
So far this year, more than 1,000 migrants are believed to have crossed the English Channel.
Last month, new Home Secretary Priti Patel said urgent action was needed after she met French interior minister Christophe Castaner in Paris.
The Home Office has always said it was ‘an established principle’ that those in need of protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.