A French court gave the state the green light Thursday to raze makeshift tents and lean-tos used by hundreds of migrants at a sprawling slum in Calais, where many dream of slipping into Britain.
Tamping down fears of a violent confrontation, France’s interior minister promised to treat the migrants humanely and not send in bulldozers to evict them.
The camp in the northern port city — known as “the jungle” — has been an embarrassing chapter in Europe’s migrant crisis, and France announced this month that its densely populated southern half would be razed. The move prompted rights groups and migrant advocates to sue.
The court in Lille ruled that the makeshift shelters used by the migrants can be destroyed — but that common spaces like places of worship, schools and a library must be left standing.
Calais’ prime location — with a major ferry port, Eurotunnel rail system and truck traffic crossing the English Channel — has put it in the crosshairs of the migrant crisis. Weary travelers come driven by a dream that they will find peace and prosperity in English-speaking Britain. Lacking any papers, they have to sneak across the Channel, and at least 20 migrants have died trying since late June.
Officials say moving migrants out of the Calais slum will be a better solution for all, since many have been languishing in poverty and hopelessness after nearby borders have been sealed by increasing security. Officials estimate the number of migrants who will be affected at 800 to 1,000, while humanitarian organizations say over 3,000 migrants live there.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve lauded the court’s decision, saying it “fully supported” the government’s strategy for dealing with the camp.
“It has never been our intention to send in bulldozers to destroy the camp,” Cazeneuve added.
Another filthy camp known as a haven for smugglers near Dunkirk, France, is being relocated to a more hygienic site with heated tents under the supervision of the charity group Doctors Without Borders.
Moving the migrants out will be France’s most dramatic step yet to end Calais’ yearslong migrant problem, which has transformed the city of nearly 80,000 into a high-security tension point, fueled far-right sentiment and defied British and French efforts to make the issue go away.
The same court in Lille ordered the state in November to clean up the camp by adding running water, toilets and garbage bins, count the number of minors without families — now 326 — and help those in distress.
As of late, however, an increasingly vocal backlash against the Calais migrants has been punctuated by militia-style violence. Truckers have grown exasperated or fearful of increasingly bold migrants trying to sneak rides across the English Channel.
A sense of anxiety mounted in the camp Thursday ahead of the court ruling. Nearby Belgium, concerned about an influx of Calais evacuees, implemented border checks.
“Obviously, they are scared and concerned about what is going to happen,” said Ed Sexton of Help Refugees, one of numerous British charities working in the slum. “The people have been here months, living in terrible conditions, but they don’t want their shelters destroyed.”
Camp residents were offered the choice of being sent to temporary welcome centers around France, or staying in one of 125 heated containers set up last month behind the camp.
Humanitarian workers predicted those who refuse to leave would simply gather in small groups elsewhere around Calais and the northern French coast.
“You’re basically going to scatter a lot of people,” said Maya Konforti of the group Migrant Shelters.
An Afghan who identified himself only as Jan said he would look elsewhere if the Calais migrant camp was closed.
“They are the government … we can’t fight them,” he said.
It’s far from certain, however, that razing the slum will be a turning point for Calais.
A Red Cross-run camp in nearby Sangatte — which was used during its three-year existence by 68,000 refugees — was shut down in 2002. Afterward, hundreds of migrants simply moved up the coast to set up small camps around Calais.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
There are over 40 muslims countries, why should be they allowed to stay in Europe? They are looking for the European freebies that they will not have in muslims countries and then they start the demands just because they are muslims. This situation this people create is chaotic and unnecessary.
Muslims will take over the world in 20 years, Our president is one but dumb democrats and women love him ????
we will line up to be shot and give them the amo also.
I disagree if Trump gets in He will get the bull by the horns and if anyone
Doesn’t respect the lows of our Land he will
them where they came From one way or
Another he is our last
Chance to make America great again
Thank god I hope
He makes it
Enjoy your single-payer Government Health.
Amen
I am a woman and it insults me to say women love him. You are dead wrong! I can’t stand him.
WHY DONALD TRUMP? HE’S HIS OWN MAN, NOT BIG MONEY PACS, OR, THE NEWS MEDIA. HIS IQ IS 156+. 99.9% ABOVE THE WORLD. SMARTER THAN ANY NEWS MEDIA, OR POLITICIAN.
MSNBC HATE HIM, DEMOCRATS HATE HIM, CNN HATE HIM, REPUBLICAN PARTY HATES HIM, FOX HATES HIM, KELLY HATES HIM, POLITICAL ESTABLISHMEN HATE HIM, AND THE NEWS MEDIA HATE HIM. NONE CAN CONTROL HIM.
HE MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.
WE DO NOT NEED 1ST YEAR POLITICIANS, OR GOVERNERS THAT HAVE SOLD OUT TO BIG MONEY PACS.
1—HE DOES NOT NEED A JOB, 2—DOES NOT LIE TO YOU, 3—DOES NOT NEED BIG PAC MONEY, 4—DOES NOT NEED A BOOK DEAL, 5—IS TIRED OF SEEING OUR COUNTRY GOING DOWN THE TOLLET.
A NEW BRAND OF POLITICS, THE TRUTH. IN MY 85 YEARS, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE QUALIFIED, SELF FUNDING, WITH NO OBLIGATIONS, PERSON RUN FOR ANY OFFICE.
TRUMP WANTS TO FIX THIS NATION. GET OUT AND WORK FOR HIM THEN VOTE FOR HIM.
TRUMP IS THE ONLY ONE QUALIFIED TO RUN THE LARGEST BUSINESS ON EARTH, THE US GOVRNMENT. AGAIN, WE DO NOT NEED, FIRST YEAR SENATORS, MAYORS, OR GOVERNERS ALL OBLIGATED TO BIG MONEY PACS WITH NO BUSINESS EXPERIENCE, WE NEED DONALD TRUMP.
You Hit the nail on the head my friend !!!!!!!! I Totally agree.
Totally agree with your great post! Hopefully this will resonate big time and that Trump takes all. This is one angry country at the moment and I am one of the angry.
I agree completely!
But can he beat the witch? Donald has a past that is not squeaky clean, e.g., bankruptcies, womanizing, infidelities, using foreign labor, Trump University, etc., that will be brought out by the Democrats in the general election.
Please turn off the “caps lock!” Beside being considered rude shouting, it is very difficult to read. Personally, it gives me a headache. I always skip over any post written in all caps.
And my mom hates him. Has for years. And of the two most important things I look for in a candidate, I don’t know about one, and of the other, he’s said he supports a single-payer Government-run health care. The one thing he insists on is one thing I’ll flat-out disqualify a candidate for.
You forget that Donald is beholden to the Bitch. He supported their operations a few years back. He can’t blame her for anything, because she will just point out that he helped by donating money. There are a few more flies in the ointment regarding Donald’s corrupted, Trump University. Wish it weren’t so, but it’s out there.
You forget that Donald Trump was a private citizen running many, many business’ which made him very, very wealthy. Nothing wrong with that. Hillary has been corrupt, a major liar and certainly not working as a servant of the people she was elected to watch over. She was supposed to be working for the American people…paid by the American people and she showed her disdain for all of us and is a major part of the elite, corrupt politicians who have just about destroyed this country. I totally believe Trump will be using all of his many talents to give back to this country that gave him his chance to become the best he could become. Look at his children….they are all uniquely talented and successful. We need an intelligent, no holds bared, strong leader to start cleaning up the horrendous mess left by Obama and all the career politicians who only look out for themselves and their next election. It must be nice to have such a job where you don’t have to work hard and get more days off than any other industry. Then, you get a huge retirement check for the rest of your life, paid for by the very people you screwed.
I so agree. Bravo!
I agree with you. The problem is simple. There is no Allah in the Future for them and, they just want what we have. Peace and quiet and a chance to raise as many children they need so that the world will be a better place for them and their kids. It does not matter how many peoples, Christians, Hindu, Buddhists, they have to kill to get what they think Alllah wants of them….. Since there is no Allah in a heaven that does not exist, and never has, the followers of the Muslim faith have been deceived by self called profit who never did a privacy that came true, Mohammad or Mohammed by name, who was the bigest liar this planet has ever had… Perid. . Belive it or not. Its the truth.
That clears that up, thanks,
The Muslim countries don’t want them. pure and simple, these refugees are invading and colonizing the world for Islam! The Europeans are learning this the hard way. Is America waking up to what’s going on? Who knows?? Too many liberal Clinton/Obama followers don’t really know and/or understand what Islam and Sharia law is actually all about. Just because Clinton/Obama want it, the uninformed want it. Sheesh!
The eu has created a gypsy culture by letting in immigrants in hopes of cheap labor and not foreseeing problems
I am part gypsy and read palms to tell people the past and their future. We will all be Muslims in just 20 years.go O’bama keep up the work. most of the dark skin people will be Muslim soon Then the Latinos only ones left will be the Jew’s. Then it will be late for white people.
You have a vary narrow view of what religion is. Christianity may have been losing ground, but it’s not all to Muslims. European-descent Americans are embracing Native American religions, Wiccans are coming out of the broom closet, and many “New Age” practitioners are finding guidance in the teachings of the ancient gods. Christians may wail and wring their hands, but the rest of the world is moving forward. And not to “Islam.”
SO, THEN HE JUST BRINGS UP WHITE WATER, FILEGATGE, TRAVELGATE, BENGHAZI, THE $6 MILLION DOLLARS THAT DISAPPEARED WHEN SHE BECAME SEC’TY OF STATE, ALL THE SCANDALS WITH E-MAILS, THE CLINTON FOUNDATION MONEY LAUNDERING AND THERE IS MUCH, MUCH MORE IF YOU LOOK INTO HER & BILL’S PAST.
PERSONALLY, I THINK YOU ARE A “SICK” GYPSY. IF YOU WERE SMART, YOU WOULD REALIZE YOU NEED WHITES TO SURVIVE!! JUST LOOK AT THE DISASTER IN ALL OF YOUR MUSLIM COUNTRIES AND YOU WILL SEE NOTHING BUT DESTRUCTION. MUSLIM WOMEN THAT DON’T REVOLT AGAINST THEIR SO CALLED RELIGION ARE ALL DOOMED TO BE THE EQUIVALENT OF GOATS. IN FACT, THEIR HUSBANDS PROBABLY LOVE THE GOATS MORE!! MUSLIM WOMEN WILL NEVER CHANGE BECAUSE THEY WERE INDOCTRINATED WHEN THEY WERE CHILDREN. THEY TAKE RAPES AND BEATINGS REGULARLY THEN GO ON THEIR PRAYER RUGS AND ASK FOR MORE. YOU CALL THAT A RELIGION???
Why don’t these European countries deport these hooligans back to their countries of origin and spend their Euros in developing businesses and opportunity there. This social experiment has been an unmitigated disaster for the migrants and citizens of European countries putting their way of life in jeopardy and fomenting great mistrust and resentment among them.
They are, but it takes time to reverse course. Especially when there’s so many bleeding hearts that haven’t faced the reality of what’s coming in. It’s like a farmer trying to convince an urbanite that a shotgun is a perfectly valid form of euthenasia for a cat that got stepped on by a cow.
I NEVER thought that I’d be saying this but, why can’t our leaders be as STRONG as those in France ???
Our leaders are strong enough to ignore the will of the people. France’s aren’t.
all non citizen mussies need to go back where they came from. They are not acting like Frenchmen/women. they are acting like lawless cannibals and savages. Muslims do NOT belong anywhere in Europe OR the USA. When they learned how to ACT like they live in the 21st century, that will be a different story. but I don’t forecast that anytime in the next 1000 years.
Have they heard the word deportation? IF France lets them stay then more will follow. Soon the Muslims have taken over the country. This is what is happening right here in the USA. Obama has a plan, and that is destroying America, and giving it to the Muslims. Other countries such as France will be the same if these people aren’t sent back to their own countries.
France has been dealing with the Muslim immigrant problem far longer than we have (I know it’s been a problem since at least the ’90s, probably decades earlier). They enter France almost as easily as Mexicans enter the US.
Obama was born a Muslim and remained one until16? By his own admission.
Under Sharia law those who convert are condemned to death. Unless, of course, you can fake it.
Obama is still alive.
What is the conclusion?
Is he a traitor??
Donald Trump is a Socialist. He is for Government controlled healthcare. He likes Planned Parenthood’s because “they do great things for women.” He is for “Touch-Back” amnesty. He gave millions of dollars to prominent democrat politicians. Trump is not Conservative, he is a liberal Trojan Horse.
The human mind is easily programmed when the indoctrination begins at an early age, as evidenced by how we come to have pride in our nationality as one among the many–or much worse: when the human mind is corrupted to thoughtlessly condemn all other nationalities with specific “way of life” behavioral training that has no emphasis on free will. The former establishes the framework for a healthy approach to life; the primitive latter subjects life-threatening torment on anyone in the way of such a psychopathic outlook.
If the only option for dealing with masses of migrants from ruined countries is to hold them in containment centers like Calais to prevent them from degrading other countries (Britain) with their population numbers, then the logical conclusion is to return them to their home countries–though shielded from the authoritarian effect that forced them to migrate.
Sharia laws are for those whose minds have been ruined a very long-term defective social system which holds that human beings must be absolutely controlled in mind and body. Without righteous training the mind cannot reason properly, and adding cocaine, methamphetamine or captagon fenethylline to the neurological confusion renders the mind (and the body it controls) useless, except to cause certain death and destruction to the overall human condition.
Search for the basis of the social destruction of the common people where the concentration of ill-gotten wealth/power is held. The common people of all nationalities have endured enough of the social engineering used against them.
Since most religions are based on miracles and magic that don’t hurt other people we find it hard to understand a religion that wants to take over the whole world and have already started the process by forcing their own people to flee to other lands.The only solution I can see is to get rid or the leaders in the Arab countries as well as all the people over there who are our sworn enemies. That will involve a bloody war hopefully by all the NATO people working together. We will then send the migrants back to their countries of origin. Their new leaders must be elected by the people. If the new leaders start talking war and Sharia law NATO should have the power to remove them from power.