Hollande vows to clear Paris of makeshift migrant camps
PARIS — French President Francois Hollande vowed Saturday to shut down a bulging migrant camp in Paris, after his government moved 5,000 people from a camp in northern France in an overdue effort to tackle the migrant crisis.
The makeshift camps in Calais on the English Channel and in the French capital have become symbols of the country’s struggle to accommodate migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe.
Hollande also urged Britain to do more to help underage migrants in Calais, a port city that has long been a magnet for desperate travelers from the Mideast and Africa seeking to reach British shores.
“We cannot tolerate camps,” he said, calling the street encampments “not worthy” of France.
He played down concerns that the closure of the Calais camp has driven its residents to the sidewalks of Paris, notably near the Stalingrad subway station.
Most migrants recently amassing around the station are part of a “new migratory current coming from Libya these last weeks and months,” Hollande said.
Migrant camps routinely sprout up in Paris, are cleared out, then sprout up again. Paris regional authorities say 19,000 migrants have been shifted to temporary housing since June 2015.
Hollande insisted that France would shelter asylum-seekers and deport those without the right to asylum. The migrants in Calais and Paris include war refugees, as well as people fleeing poverty and seeking jobs.
Hollande said 5,000 migrants were evacuated from the Calais camp and transferred to some 450 reception centers around France. About 1,500 underage migrants remain in Calais.