Migrants moved from makeshift camp

CALAIS (AP): CARRYING THEIR belongings in bags and suitcases, long lines of migrants waited calmly in chilly temperatures on Monday to board buses in the French port city of Calais, as authorities began evacuating the squalid camp they call home.

French authorities were beginning a complex operation to shut down the makeshift camp known as ‘the jungle’, uprooting thousands who made treacherous journeys to escape wars, dictators or grinding poverty and dreamt of building new lives in Britain.

Closely watched by more than 1,200 police, the first of hundreds of buses began transferring migrants to reception centres around France, where they can apply for asylum. The camp will then be levelled in a week-long operation. Hotels and even castles are among the hundreds of buildings officials have been converting to migrant housing.

“This is an operation we want to be peaceful and under control. So far it is,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in Paris.

Authorities say the camp holds nearly 6,500 migrants who are seeking to get to Britain. Aid groups say there are more than 8,300.

The ramshackle camp in the sand dunes of northern France is home to migrants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and elsewhere. After often harrowing journeys across land and treacherous seas, paying smugglers along the way, most reach a dead end in Calais, unable to find a way across the English Channel.

The harsh reality of the move hit migrants on Monday. Some were happy to leave, others were confused or in shock.

Throngs of migrants lined up at the registration centre where they were separated by category, like families, unaccompanied minors or adults.

TIRED OF WAITING