Paris Jungle torn down
2,500 migrants cleared out of squalid camp near Eurostar but how long before they’re back?
A SQUALID camp dubbed the ‘Paris Jungle’ was torn down yesterday after hundreds of riot police forced 2,500 migrants to leave.
Officers wearing body armour and carrying shields raided the camp near the Eurostar terminal at dawn, and ordered to its inhabitants onto coaches.
The migrants, many of whom are aiming to reach the UK, were taken to 60 ‘ holding areas’ in the outskirts of Paris. However, some fear that it may be only a matter of days before they return to the Jardins d’Eole camp in the French capital.
The clearance marks the 23rd time French police have removed migrants from makeshift Paris camps during the past 12 months.
The latest clean-up comes just days before the arrival of hundreds of thousands of football fans for the European Championships, which start in France on Friday.
Speaking to the Mail, 25-year-old migrant Hafaz Adam, from Darfur in Sudan, said that despite being moved on, he plans to head back to the middle of Paris ‘where it is easier to move about’.
Mr Adam paid smugglers £300 to sail in a crowded fishing boat from Libya to Italy. He revealed: ‘I left Libya by boat 20 days ago and am making good progress. I’ve heard so much about England. This is where I want my life to be.’
Many migrants fear spending too long in official centres will damage their chances of reaching Britain. In just over a week, the unofficial Jardins d’Eole camp was transformed into a shanty town for mainly African and Asian migrants.
The influx turned the tree-lined park into a scene reminiscent of the early days of the notorious Jungle camp in Calais. The latest clear- ance comes after Paris’s socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to build the first international refugee camp in the capital, a decision that is thought to have attracted many to the city.
During its brief existence, the camp became a magnet for people smugglers, offering migrants British passports for around £2,000. Yesterday French housing minister Emmanuelle Cosse, who attended the Jardins d’Eole clear-up, warned that camps are ‘not the solution’.