Evacuation in progress, crews tear down Calais ‘Jungle’ camp
CALAIS, France — Crews in hard hats and orange jumpsuits on Tuesday started dismantling a makeshift camp in France that has become a symbol of Europe’s migrant crisis while thousands of people remained there waiting to be relocated.
The workers used their gloved hands to tear down flimsy plywood shelters, tarp-covered huts and other temporary buildings at the camp in the port city of Calais known as “the jungle.”
Backhoes, construction dumpsters and trucks carted off the debris.
The demolition took place under the watch of police officers as authorities are emptying the camp of an estimated 6,300 people who have been living there, down from a height of 10,000 this summer.
“I’m very sad. It’s our home here. We can’t feel anything, even life,” Ahmed Anwar, 28, of Sudan, said as backhoes tore up the first dwellings. “No one cares about us.”
Local officials said the demolition work would be lengthy given the delicate task of clearing the camp by hand and with small machines. Extra precautions are being taken to make sure no one is inside the structures and that workers are not injured.
Earlier in the day, police were deployed to keep order among young migrants as French authorities entered the second day of a planned weeklong mass evacuation and closure of the camp.
Dozens of migrants pushed barriers and jumped over railings to get to the temporary processing center at the camp, the first step to being relocated elsewhere in France and the chance to apply for asylum.
Most identified themselves as unaccompanied minors with relatives across the English Channel in the United Kingdom.