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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France: New Law Allows Transgender to Legally Change Gender Without Going Through Sterilization

The French legislative body finally passed a petition on Thursday allowing transgender people to legally change gender without enduring sterilization. The rights activists rejoiced in victory as the long-awaited legislation was finally approved.

The decision came out after several European nations supported to improve the rights of transgender people. They urged other nations to remove sterilization as a legal requirement. In order to legally recognize the desired gender, transgender people need to undergo a medical procedure of sterilization. The United Nations strongly condemned the procedure as a violation of human rights.

Denmark, Malta, and Ireland started the reform in 2014 where they made changes in their policies. These nations implied a policy which only needs informing authorities of the desired gender without medical intervention.

For two years, the ILGA-Europe network of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups campaigned for the legislation of the French law. The group is based in Brussels, Germany. Sophie Aujean, spokeswoman of ILGA said: “These are years of sparring that finally come to fruition”. She then added in a phone interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation, “There is no other population in the world that is asked to be sterilized apart from transgender.”

French transgenders still require court approval

However, the new legislation is not as liberal with other nations like Denmark, Malta, and Ireland. The French law still requires transgender people the need to go to court for them to change their desired gender.

According to Delphine Ravisé-Giard, a spokeswoman for the National Transgender Association or ANT, “France has sometimes done revolutions, but this is not a revolutionary law”.

France disregards any statistical data of the transgender people. Similarly, France does not hold any official record in the numbers of transgender people. Although activists claim there are tens of thousands living in the European country.

In a European Union report published in December of 2014, transgender people tend to be gay and usually prone to be attacked, threatened or insulted.

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