UN reminds France of duty to war refugees

FRANCE yesterday defended its decision to close a makeshift migrant camp known as “The Jungle” as the UN refugee body warned it had a duty towards people fleeing the world’s war zones.

Immigration Minister Eric Besson has announced that police will move in by the end of next week to clear out the zone near the Channel port of Calais, where hundreds of migrants gather to try to gain passage to Britain.

Officials say the camp has become a haven for people-smuggling gangs and a no-go zone for locals, with appalling sanitary conditions blamed for an outbreak of scabies in the past few months.

“This will put an end to a lawless situation which had become unbearable for local people,” said Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart, who has denounced a spike in “serious offences” against residents in recent weeks.

Thousands of mainly male migrants, from Afghanistan, Iraq and other troubled and impoverished nations, have headed to Calais in the past decade to try to jump on a ferry or a train crossing the Channel tunnel to Britain.

A French state official in Calais, Ivan Bouchner, said France was determined to “choke off the migratory pattern” drawing migrants to the Channel port.

“The state is here to protect the people of Calais and its region,” he said, complaining the Jungle was fuelling a wave of theft and vandalism, with local gardens trashed and animals stolen for food.

He said the closure operation had been planned for six months as part of a crackdown on human-trafficking in the area.

“The aim is to send the message that you can’t cross the Channel in Calais and to hit at the traffickers’ logistics base.”

Immigration ministry officials say the number of migrants in the area has already been cut from 700 three months ago to about 300.

William Spindler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Calais said: “We understand the French authorities’ position. The living conditions for migrants in these camps are unacceptable.

“But if we close ‘The Jungle’, it is important that the migrants are given a chance to apply for asylum, in particular those who come from Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan,” he added.

Besson said an “individual solution” would be found for each person in the unruly zone – whether a voluntary return home, an asylum request or expulsion – but said there would be no forced returns to unsafe countries.