Paris builds two migrant camps close to Eurostar
THOUSANDS of UK- bound migrants are to move into Paris’s first two official refugee camps by the end of this month, the city’s mayor announced last night.
Anne Hidalgo ordered the camps to be built to cope with more than 100 migrants a day heading to the French capital – with the vast majority wanting to get to Calais and then Britain.
Now she has confirmed the camps will be close to the Gare du Nord Eurostar terminal – the only station in Paris with high-speed trains direct to London.
Other trains leaving the station head to ports on the coast of Normandy and Brittany, where many migrants will try to sneak on to lorries and into the UK.
The location of the camps means they could become magnets for migrants – like Calais’s controversial Jungle camp, where numbers have swollen from about 3,000 to 10,000 in a matter of months.
Miss Hidalgo, a Socialist ally of President Francois Hollande, said yesterday: ‘There will be two migrant camps, one for men only, and one for women and children.’
They will include beds, washing and cooking facilities, and fresh running water for arrivals from war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria.
Advice will be handed out on everything from health to claiming asylum.
The move comes as France prepares for a spring presidential election, in which immigration is likely to be a key issue.
Right-wing Republican candidates Alain Juppe and Nicolas Sarkozy have already called for a review of the Le Touquet agreement that allows UK officials to carry out passport checks on French soil, dramatically cutting illegal immigration.
And Xavier Bertrand, head of the regional council that covers Calais, has called for migrants to have their applications for UK residence processed in France – creating ‘hotspots’ that will attract thousands
‘A base to sort our journey to England’
more migrants. Under the Dublin convention, migrants must currently apply for asylum in the first EU country they reach. But many choose to head to Britain if they are turned down by France.
Trains from Paris to Calais, 185 miles away, are already full of migrants at all times, with police finding it increasingly difficult to stop them getting on board.
Political leaders in Calais want their camp razed, or moved across the Channel to Dover. This means that the two opening in Paris will become immensely popular, and are likely to become a magnet for thousands more asylum seekers.
Miss Hidalgo told France Inter radio that work on the camps was well underway at undisclosed locations ‘near the Gare du Nord and Boulevard de la Chapelle’.
Paris is already inundated with migrants who sleep rough in parks, or under flyovers and bridges. Riot police regularly destroy the illegal settlements, but it is impossible to move the migrants on, as they almost always come back.
Before her announcement, Miss Hidalgo said current facilities for refugees in Paris were ‘shameful’, adding: ‘I hope that this centre will offer day care to assess people’s situation, while also providing accommodation for people arriving destitute.’
She said the site was being built according to the model used in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk. The Grande-Synthe camp opened in March, and currently looks after around 2,500 people who want to get to Britain. Purpose-built wooden huts are used for accommodation and there are more permanent buildings for handing out meals and advice.
Miss Hidalgo said the new Paris camps ‘will build on what has been done in Grande- Synthe’ and respect guidelines compiled by organisations including the UN refugee council.
Khalif, a 26-year- old originally from Jalalabad in Afghanistan, who is now in a squat close to the Gare du Nord, said he was ‘extremely pleased’ at the chance of moving into one of the new camps.
He added: ‘It will give us a good base to sort out our journey to England … we need somewhere official.’
Home Secretary Amber Rudd was in Paris on Tuesday, where she and French counterpart Bernard Caze- neuve pledged ‘close co-operation’ in dealing with the migrant crisis.
Meanwhile, Angela Merkel has insisted ‘Germany will remain Germany’ despite the country’s mass influx of migrants. The chancellor’s remark comes almost a year after she welcomed thousands of arrivals across the border with Hungary.