Calais erupts in violence as ‘Jungle’ migrant camp is dismantled
FRANCE: Calais was gripped by violence yesterday 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 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 they start to evict all inhabitants of the ‘‘Jungle’’ today and dismantle the sprawling migrant camp.
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.
‘‘The state will be absolutely tough with them,’’ said Patrick Kanner, the town’s minister. Fabienne Buccio, the state administrator for Calais, spoke with camp community leaders. ‘‘Several are worried and asked for more security,’’ she said.
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 go to one of nearly 300 new ‘‘temporary reception centres’’ around France where their cases will be processed.
Home Office officials speeded 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 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.’’
- 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.
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.
Anti-war activist dies
Tom Hayden, the famed 1960s antiwar activist who moved beyond his notoriety as a Chicago 8 defendant to become a California legislator, author and lecturer, has died. He was 76. His wife, Barbara Williams, says Hayden died yesterday in Santa Monica of a long illness. Hayden made headlines in the 1960s with his radical activism, his marriage to actress Jane Fonda and his trips to North Vietnam during the Vietnam war. But he changed paths, winning election to the California Assembly and state Senate where he served for nearly two decades.
Druggies in mass escape
More than 500 addicts have escaped from a drug rehabilitation centre in southern Vietnam.The addicts broke through the gates of the centre in Dong Nai province on Sunday night (local time) before heading towards the trans-Vietnam highway, Huynh Van Tinh, director of Dong Nai province’s social affairs department said.There are an estimated 180,000 drug addicts in Vietnam, most of whom abuse heroin or methamphetamine.