Violence flares as migrant camp closes
FRANCE: Calais was gripped by violence as police clashed with migrants and fired tear gas into the crowds before the biggest refugee evacuation in France for decades.
Hundreds of officers and heavy vehicles were brought in and a security cordon put around the camp on Sunday to thwart attacks by anarchists, many from Britain, bent on stirring up violence.
The French government vowed to deal severely with the ‘‘No Borders’’ militants, who have urged followers to confront the police as evict all inhabitants of the ‘‘Jungle’’.
Radicals were rounded up at motorway checkpoints on their way to Calais but police admitted that several dozen were already inside the camp, having infiltrated it in the past week.
Officials and charity workers fanned out through the muddy shantytown trying to convince the 6000-8000 people there that they had no option but to accept transport to one of nearly 300 new ‘‘temporary reception centres’’ around France where their cases will be processed.
Home Office officials sped up the processing of applications from children with ties to Britain and ‘‘vulnerable’’ children who will be accepted under certain conditions. Nearly 200 children have left for Britain over the past five days and the French hope that Britain will take a total of 600 by the end of this week. About 1300 minors remain in the camp, where they will be lodged in a ‘‘village’’ of containers while their cases are assessed.
The Home Office was accused of ignoring warnings that the arrival of hundreds of child refugees would exacerbate the shortage of foster carers. The Local Government Association (LGA) said it had been warning ministers for a year that a plan would be needed to fund and locate foster places for the children expected to arrive.
David Simmonds, of the LGA, said: ‘‘We are told now to expect the arrival of a large number of children, some of whom have been arriving over the weekend. That is a huge challenge for councils being asked to find foster placements . . . and also to carry out family checks, very quickly.
‘‘This is a situation that has been on the boil for the best part of a year now . . . The process would have cost a lot less and been a lot more straightforward if we had used that time to plan it.’’ - The Times
New Colombia talks begin
Negotiators for Colombia and the longtime rebel organisation Farc met yesterday to begin talks on a new peace deal, after one previously agreed upon was rejected in a referendum. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos sent his Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo to the talks in Cuba. Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, aka Timochenko, wrote earlier on Twitter that the mood was optimistic as the two sides returned to the negotiating table in Havana. Negotiators are under pressure from Santos to come up with a new version of a peace deal quickly. The last version took four years to negotiate and was narrowly rejected in the October 2 referendum. The deal seeks to end decades of violence in the country.
Sailors freed after four years
Twenty-six Asian sailors freed after more than four years of captivity in a small fishing village in Somalia arrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi yesterday ahead of flights home, a maritime expert said. The crew from China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan were seized when the Omani-flagged FV Naham 3 was hijacked by Somali pirates close to the Seychelles in March 2012, when pirate attacks were common in the area. The pirates handed the group to authorities in the northern Somali town of Galkayo on Sunday. Their period of captivity is one of the longest among hostages seized by pirates in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
Banker goes on trial
A British banker accused of the grisly 2014 killings of two Indonesian women pleaded not guilty when he went on trial yesterday in the High Court in Hong Kong, in a case expected to highlight the Asian financial hub’s inequality and privileged lifestyle of its wealthy expat elite. Rurik Jutting entered a plea of not guilty. Prosecutors rejected his attempt to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Jutting is charged with the murders of Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih, whose bodies were found in his upscale apartment near the Asian financial centre’s Wan Chai red-light district.