Migrant children leave France's 'Jungle' camp for UK

The Calais authorities confirm that more than two dozen unaccompanied minors lare bound for a new life in Britain.

A shop at the Jungle mirant camp in Calais, France, spray-painted with spray-painted with the words "Please do not destroy the Jungle" , October 12, 2016. French authorities are preparing to raze the Show more

Calais // Unaccompanied children from the Jungle migrant camp in the port city of Calais began arriving in Britain on Saturday, French authorities said.

The Calais prefecture confirmed that more than two dozen unaccompanied minors were bound for a new life in Britain, where they had family members.

“Five Syrian minors and one Afghan minor have just been transferred to the United Kingdom. From Monday, a dozen more minors will follow, then on Tuesday, a dozen more,” a spokesman said.

He added there was “no deal for a larger-scale plan” to send more children from the Jungle, who number about 1,300 according to figures from French NGO France Terre.

The children have been living in squalid conditions in the Calais encampment where charities estimate up to 10,000 migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia have settled in the hope of reaching Britain. The camp faces demolition.

Saturday also saw the start of construction on an “anti-intrusion” wall to block migrant access to the Calais port, a magnet for would-be stowaways who target UK-bound lorries, with the first four-metre-high concrete panels were moved into place.

When complete, the wall will stretch for about a kilometre and add to roughly 30km of existing wire fencing along the road leading to the port.

“Work is being undertaken on schedule and should be finished by the year’s end,” said a spokesman said the Calais prefecture.

The wall is expected to cost €2.7 million (Dh20.9m), which Britain has agreed to finance.

The Jungle has become a symbol of the Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War and a major source of Anglo-French tension, leading French president Francois Hollande to demand that the site be demolished before the end of this year.

The French government has yet to give an official date for dismantling the camp.

Initial indications that it might happen as early as this Tuesday, however, proved premature and the plan has been put back at least a week, sources indicated.

Work has been stepped up on the creation of reception centres across France to house as many as 9,000 people from Calais.

On Friday, about 200 people demonstrated at Croisilles, about an hour inland from Calais, against the proposed creation of a migrant reception centre for up to 60 people once the Jungle actually closes.

The rally, which the local mayor said was organised by locals but had attracted a number of far-right National Front supporters, passed off without incident.

Also on Saturday, 50 lawyers arrived at the camp to provide the migrants with advice so they could fill in forms and be “aware of and assert their rights”, said Flor Tercero, head of an association of lawyers for foreigners’ rights.

“We are well aware that the Jungle is a place where living conditions are undignified and inhuman and that cannot go on,” Mr Tercero said.

Earlier on a French fishing boat came to the aid of four migrants who ran into difficulties in the English Channel as they made for England in a makeshift vessel, local authorities said.

The fishing boat rescued the group, all four of whom were suffering from hypothermia, and handed them over to police.

* Agence France-Presse