Remaining Migrant Children Leaves Calais ‘Jungle’

A week after the demolition, French Authorities started transporting a total of 1,500 minor migrants out from the Calais ‘Jungle’ Camp.

Based on reports, French authorities first bussed the minor migrants out of the camp around 08:30 local time. The unaccompanied minors will be brought to the relocation centers. Before the demolition, the children were housed in converted shipping containers, hoping to move to the UK.

Citing asylum application, French authorities released a document stating that no UK application transfer will be processed in Calais.

French President Francois Hollande released a statement last Tuesday in La Voix du Nord newspaper. He said, “Their cases could now be investigated individually by UK officials once they have been transferred to reception centers in France”.

Meanwhile, the two countries, France and the UK argued over who should take the responsibility for the children in Calais.

Records show that the UK adopted around 270 minors with families residing in the UK or are considered as vulnerable.

“The others will be looked after in France”, Mr. Hollande said.

The first out of 30 some buses were scheduled to travel going to Carcassonne in south-western France. The next will go to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Montpellier in southern France.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, “more than half of the children had left Calais during the morning and expected the operation to be over by the end of the day.”

According to Mr. Holland, “No-one will be allowed back into the dismantled camp, a staging post for irregular migrants fleeing war and poverty and trying to cross the Channel to the UK.”

After transporting 7,000 people to relocation centers somewhere in France, authorities totally demolished the remaining houses in Calais.

Major scuffle

On Tuesday night riot police were called to the camp when fighting broke out between Eritrean Christian and Afghan Muslim teenagers.

Police said about 100 youths were involved. Dozens of Eritreans reportedly took sanctuary in a makeshift church due to the fighting.

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