French Dunkirk camp cleared as migrants try to reach UK
French police have begun an
operation to evacuate a gymnasium and a tent camp near the northern port
of Dunkirk amid an increase in migrants trying to cross the Channel.
Some 1,000 people, many of them Iraqi Kurds, have been living on the Grande Synthe site.
The gym was made available for migrants seeking shelter by the town last year.
Now a court has ordered the gym to be closed to migrants because of local complaints.
There are fears this may all prompt a further spike in crossings to England.
At the weekend 41 people were stopped in three small boats and a kayak by UK border officials, and 86 people were intercepted a week ago by the UK's Border Force. A further 29 migrants were stopped as they headed towards the Kent coast on Monday.
After Calais, Dunkirk is one of the closest French ports to the English coast and authorities had already moved in to clear the camp in October 2018 when almost 1,800 people lived there.
When the gym opened up to migrants in December 2018, the original aim was to close it in the spring, but by August 2019 170 people were being housed there and a further 800 were in tents nearby.
Gendarmes and riot police moved in at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) almost a fortnight after a judge in Lille ruled that the camp was a risk to public security. The ruling cited smugglers and criminal networks operating at Grande Synthe, as well as brawls and violence.
People were being seen being driven away in buses during the morning. Reports said the migrants had been split into families, unaccompanied minors and others. Officials said most of them would be driven to emergency shelters throughout the north-west of France.
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