Calais ‘Jungle’ demolition begins as migrants leave

French government says it is ‘determined to stop people coming back to Calais’

Wrapped up in the cold of the early hours of the northern French morning, hundreds of migrants queue at Calais as they are bussed out of the ‘Jungle' camp. Video: REUTERS

Demolition of the migrant camp known as the Calais "Jungle" has begun with heavy duty machinery being used to tear down the ramshackle buildings.

A small yellow bulldozer could be seen crushing the structures and lifting debris into a large red skip.

Workers in orange jumpsuits and white helmets helped by dumping the pallets, fabric and plastics which once housed migrants into the industrial container.

Earlier, scuffles broke out in the camp less than an hour after French authorities began a second round of processing refugees and migrants for relocation to other parts of the country.

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Some 16 buses transported 656 migrants to six regions in France on Tuesday morning, the French interior ministry said, while 139 minors were also processed.

Since Monday, more than 3,000 migrants and refugees have passed through the registration centre.

Elsewhere in the camp the once-bustling main thoroughfare was quiet, with most of the shops and restaurants abandoned.

The earlier spat is thought to have started as unaccompanied minors were being separated from the main queue and taken to the front.

Someone shouted into a loudspeaker: “Sit down, the door is closed. Stop pushing”, while cries of “Help, please help” were heard as people started to panic.

Migrants and refugees believed to be minors could be seen crouching down by metal barriers while police formed a protective circle around them.

The gate to the processing centre was temporarily closed while the chaos continued.

Numbers were fewer than on Monday, when hundreds of camp residents with holdalls, rucksacks and wheeled bags queued up in the dark more than an hour before the registration centre opened.

Many migrants were studying sheets of paper given to them by aid workers which included information in Arabic and English and a map of France.

A further 85 buses are expected to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, with officials saying the entire operation will last at least a week.

‘Calais is a blind alley’

The French government is “determined to stop people coming back to Calais,” the French ambassador to London, Sylvie Bermann, told Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We won’t let them come,” she said. “It has to be clear that Calais is a blind alley and you can’t come to this country.”

Refugees who turn up at the former site in the hope of reaching Britain will be transported to other parts of France and “convinced to claim asylum”, she said.

Christian Salome, the head of charity Auberge des Migrants said that the process was “working well because these are people who were waiting impatiently to leave”.

"I'm much more concerned about later in the week, when the only ones remaining are those who do not want to leave, who still want to reach England, " he said, estimating their number at about 2,000.

Agencies