According to the mayor of Calais, Jacques Billant, this camp was built a few months ago on private land “the largest migrant settlement in Calais”.
His evacuation follows for the mayor court decisions have been made it was in March “absolutely necessary” given the “unsafe and unhealthy situation”.
The French commune said that of all the migrants present in the camp this Thursday morning, nearly 300 agreed to be transported to reception centers in northern France, in a operation which, according to the authorities, was “carried out in peace”, despite the fact that five migrants were detained.
However, Pierre Roques, coordinator of a migrant support organization, said so only 50 migrants were seen voluntarily leaving the campadmitted that the rest were forced to board the buses that transported them to the north of France.
Roques regretted that the evacuated migrants had to return to this camp within days, as has happened in recent moments.
On Wednesday, a Sudanese immigrant died after being run over by a heavy truck he was trying to get into to reach England.
French authorities have tried to prevent the country’s northern coast from being used as a holding point for migrants trying to reach the English coast.
In 2022, about 46,000 migrants managed to cross the English Channel in makeshift boatsa record number, and 8,000 were rescued in French waters.
Source: DN
