Calais clearout in chaos as migrants fight police
FRENCH plans to demolish the Jungle migrant camp in Calais descended into chaos last night.
On the eve of the long-awaited operation to tear down the squalid camp, defiant migrants said they were staying put and would continue trying to get to Britain.
And as their protests turned violent, French police issued an extraordinary statement saying anarchists from a UK-based group will attempt to disrupt the operation.
Migrants protesting against the camp’s destruction lit fires and threw rocks at French riot police, who responded by setting off tear gas and charging at groups of young men.
French police last night admitted there was a ‘high risk’ of violent opposition from UK-based anticapitalist group No Borders against the move to clear the Jungle.
The police, who have set up an exclusion zone, said they were concerned activists ‘will attack agents of the state to prevent the departure of the migrants’. Christian Salome, president of the charity Immigrant Shelter, said there had already been violent skirmishes.
‘People have come for the violence,’ he said. ‘No Borders attack anyone, and we’ve already had some injuries.’
Some 60 coaches will be laid on today to transport 3,000 of the estimated 10,000 migrants living in the Jungle to reception centres around France. The aim is to empty and destroy the camp by the end of the week.
But migrants are putting on a united front in the face of the camp’s planned destruction. Last night tensions escalated and there were clashes between refugees and more than 1,000 deployed police.
And dozens of young men yesterday made last-ditch attempts to get to the UK aboard lorries as riot officers violently repelled them.
Niebullah, 19, from Kunduz, Afghanistan, said: ‘It was very d ifficult to get to Calais. I went through many countries and I am so close to England now, why would I give up?’
The mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart said she hoped the whole demolition of the camp would pass off ‘smoothly’, but said heavily armed security were ready to deal with any trouble if required.