France wants to close Jungle migrant camp “in stages”

PanARMENIAN.Net - France will gradually dismantle the sprawling "Jungle" migrant camp in the northern port of Calais, the interior minister said ahead of a visit to the site on Friday, September 2, AFP reports.

Bernard Cazeneuve told regional paper Nord-Littoral he would press ahead with the closure "with the greatest determination" and that the site would be dismantled "in stages."

Accommodation for thousands of migrants will be created elsewhere in France in an attempt "to unblock Calais", Cazeneuve said.

France has made repeated efforts to shut down the camp of tents and temporary shelters, which authorities say is currently home to nearly 7,000 migrants following a surge of new arrivals in recent months.

Charities helping the migrants in the camp say the real figure is as high as 10,000.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart claimed the camp could soon contain as many as 15,000 migrants if authorities took several months to dismantle it, AFP says.

"We want to call for this dismantling but not in the way that it has been announced," said Bouchart, who has often clashed with the government over the "Jungle".

"If we accept this situation (of a gradual dismantling), then in six months' time there will be not 9,000 migrants but 15,000."