Calais: fears grow for dozens of children amid chaotic camp shutdown

Charities working at the site estimated about 100 children remained there without adequate safeguards, and called for the dismantling of the site to be halted amid growing concern for their welfare. 

Save the Children said it was “extremely concerned” about children who had not been registered as parts of the camp went up in flames. About 100 were still in the queue when the registration centres were “swiftly” closed, the charity said.

Converted shipping containers set up near the camp to house children were full, and “hundreds” of youngsters remained outside with nowhere to go, the charity added.

Earlier in the day, Help Refugees said it had reports of up to 300 unaccompanied minors being turned away from the registration centres and sent back to the camp while fires were still smouldering. In a Facebook post, it also said volunteers were trying to find places for them to stay. 

Some of Help Refugees’ representatives said they could not stop children running into the camp to collect their belongings despite the fires. Josie Naughton, the charity’s co-founder, described the situation as a “humanitarian emergency”.

Doctors of the World said they were very concerned about the children. “Everything has been destroyed, so we are very worried about the unaccompanied minors. We’ve been told the container camp is full, we’ve also had reports of children who’ve lost their wristbands giving them entry or those who’ve had them ripped off them in the struggle to get access. Where they will sleep tonight is a massive concern,” said a spokeswoman for the charity.

The relief organisation said it had got the impression that French authorities had “washed their hands of the site” and expressed concerns about what would happen if the police returned to move people on.

Charities have called on the local authorities to provide emergency shelter after attempts to persuade hotels to take in minors had failed.

Politicians in Britain said they were worried about the reports and called on the French authorities to act. Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, said she was “deeply concerned” children were being turned away from the container camps meant to keep them safe. 

She said: “There is nowhere else for them to go and at a time when parts of the camp are ablaze this is clearly a perilous situation. The French authorities need to urgently act. They need to immediately open up emergency accommodation such as the Jules Ferry centre in the camp to ensure that all lone children have a safe space to go to.”

A Home Office spokesperson later said: “We are aware of these concerns and have raised them with our French counterparts as a matter of urgency.”

British officials added that the French interior minister had made a specific commitment to take responsibility for all children in Calais during the search operation, and that UK officials had been working closely with French counterparts over recent days.

French authorities earlier indicated the camp clearance operation would be over on Wednesday night. Pascal Brice, head of the Office for Refugees and Stateless People, told PA: “The operation will be over tonight because all the people who were leaving the ‘Jungle’ are now welcomed in France, in good conditions in accommodation centres.

“It is a matter of satisfaction for the French administration because all those people now are in centres all around France and the [camp] is over.”

Government buses taking refugees and migrants to relocation centres across France will stop at the end of the day, and demolition will be speeded up on Thursday, with larger machinery moving in, officials added.

In total, the French authorities said they had relocated 4,404 migrants and registered 1,200 children, who were either transferred to the UK or sent to the container site. They added that 233 children had been received by the UK since 17 October.

Some of the people leaving the camp set tents and shelters ablaze, but riot police and fire crews moved quickly to extinguish flames. The fires were blamed on disgruntled camp residents – four migrants were arrested in relation to the fires.

One young Sudanese male, who said he was 15-and-a-half, said he had lost his tent in the flames. “Tonight I will sleep here on the road, there will be many more,” he added.

The fires, which ravaged large parts of the camp, started in various areas but soon spread through the tents, caravans, makeshift homes and shops. Gas canisters for cooking stoves exploded, sending burning shrapnel through the air and starting new fires. Refugees scrambled through the streets with the bags they had prepared for a more organised departure. Many of those who had not packed lost everything.

After about two hours, police allowed people back into the camp, despite the fact that some fires were still burning. Those remaining in the area will sleep in surviving tents, surrounded by ashes, or outside the camp altogether.

Hamid, 30, from Afghanistan, who said he had been among those setting fire to shelters, told Reuters: “We don’t care about problems that are to come after this. We did it because we don’t want to stay in France. We want to go to England and England only. It doesn’t matter if I go to jail here.”

In London, about 100 demonstrators, including the model Lily Cole, called on Britain to help more children caught up in the camp’s demolition. Protesters took to the Millennium Bridge, near St Paul’s Cathedral, carrying placards and large red hearts, urging the immediate resettlement of more children from the camp.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/26/operation-to-clear-calais-refugee-camp-finishes-ahead-of-schedule?CMP=fb_gu