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Calais 'Jungle' eviction gets go-ahead | Calais 'Jungle' eviction gets go-ahead |
(35 minutes later) | |
The French government's plan to clear part of the Calais migrant camp known as the "Jungle" has been approved by a court in Lille. | The French government's plan to clear part of the Calais migrant camp known as the "Jungle" has been approved by a court in Lille. |
Authorities say around 1,000 migrants will be affected by the eviction plan for the southern part of the camp. | |
Aid agencies say the number of people involved is much higher. | |
Local officials said public areas such as places of worship or schools would not be cleared and said it would be a "humanitarian operation". | |
Activists had asked the court to halt the evictions. Those living in the camp, mainly from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa, hope to cross the Channel to reach Britain. | |
Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said the authorities were being cautious to avoid people squatting on the site. "We're relieved by this announcement but we're vigilant." | |
Conditions in the camp are squalid and its sprawling presence has become a controversial issue in both France and the UK. | |
Belgium this week announced temporary controls on its border with France amid fears of an influx of migrants from the camp. | |
"It's our express intention to avoid tent camps like Calais in our country," Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said. | |
France has described the Belgian move as "strange". Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the very idea of Calais migrants heading for Belgium "doesn't correspond to reality". | |
The Jungle in numbers | |
Tea, rivalry and ambition at 'Jungle hotel' | |
Jungle migrants prepare to move | |
Migrants resist relocation to containers | |
Authorities plan to relocate migrants to either heated containers nearby, or to accommodation elsewhere in France. | |
But many residents have told the BBC that they do not want to leave. |