Migrant centre closure on hold while camp is cleared
Kent County Council has put on hold a decision to close one of its centres for child asylum seekers as the dismantling of the Calais migrant camp got under way.
Work began on Monday to clear the camp, known as the Jungle. But overnight on Tuesday and during Wednesday fires began raging at the camp, leaving parts of it in ashes. It is not known who started them.
KCC was considering the future for the two centres to save money in the face of rising costs for looking after vulnerable children.
The two venues are the Swattenden centre in Cranbrook and Millbank in Ashford.
In a statement, KCC said: “Any decision is on hold pending further clarity on the government’s intentions as regards the children currently in Calais.”
The government has indicated it will allow children with family already in the UK to leave the camp but the process of evaluating claims could be lengthy.
KCC says looking after so many unaccompanied teenage asylum children and the failure of a government scheme to disperse new arrivals to other areas is costing millions it cannot afford.
The council’s budget for asylum seekers is overspent by £2.3m, and the figure will rise because the government’s voluntary dispersal scheme is failing to keep pace with the rate of arrivals – even though those numbers are slowing.
In September last year the council reopened the Swattenden centre and it immediately took in 28 teenage boys. It has space for 40 youngsters.
This week a mass dispersal of 7,000 refugees and migrants from the Calais site to 240 centres across France began and French authorities confirmed this was completed by Wednesday night.
The French government said about 5,000 migrants were taken to camps around France, and 1,200 children were registered to enter a temporary centre made out of converted shipping containers near the camp.
Some children and teenagers have been coming to the UK during the last few weeks – some with family in the UK and others judged to be vulnerable.
Social workers from Kent were put on standby to help assess the ages of child migrants.
It followed criticism of the government last week over checks on child migrants and their ages.