France: Scabies-Infested Hordes Evicted from Make-Shift Barracks at Calais

Telegraph
May 29, 2014

140528074358-01-calais-0528-story-top
An Afghan migrant argues with French police officers after French authorities started to dismantle makeshift camps in Calais.

Hundreds of migrants were evicted from three makeshift camps on Wednesday at the port of Calais from where they hope to reach Britain, with police citing concerns over an outbreak of scabies and increasing violence.

The authorities insisted the areas needed to be cleared and razed because of “deplorable hygiene” conditions. They said they had also received complaints from locals that the number of migrants “under the sway of human traffickers” in the port area had doubled in the past few weeks.

Officials said it was a coincidence that the operation took place just three days after the far-Right anti-immigration Front National caused a political earthquake by coming first in European elections in France.

Early in the morning, around 200 riot police surrounded the camps containing an estimated 550 migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria after a deadline to leave expired. The camps were later bulldozed.

In total there were up to 850 migrants believed to be in the Calais area on Wednesday – most of whom were aiming to reach Britain. Doctors said around 25 per cent of the migrants had scabies.

Such camps have sprung up in the Calais area since the French authorities closed down the infamous Sangatte immigrant detention centre in 2002, which housed around 2,000 people at one point.

PX*3151125
Illegal immigrants wait to be expelled from their camp at Calais, northern France.

The last major camp to be dismantled previously was in 2009 when an area of scrub known of the “jungle” was cleared. Many migrants took refuge there on Wednesday.

There were scenes of confusion and anger at one of the largest camps housing some 400 people – mainly Syrian and Afghan exiles.

Overlooking the port of Calais within view of the ferries leaving for Dover, the “Syrian” camp, as it is known, was bulldozed despite the migrants erecting improvised barricades.

It had been home to Asif Hussainkhil, the 33-year old Afghan who hit the headlines in the UK for trying to sail to Britain in a boat he made with crutches and a bed sheet but was caught and returned to France.

Mr Hussainkhil had already left the area to sleep in the dunes where he is building a new boat out of bottles and which he says is “half finished”. Friends said he briefly returned to the camp yesterday to offer support.

Denis Robin, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, defended the operation.

“It’s above all a public health issue. All the studies indicated that there was a scabies epidemic. These camps are very big and they are located right in the heart of Calais,” he said.

Mr Robin also said the camps had grown to the point that they posed a security threat for local residents.

PX*3144798
It is either us, or them. There can be no place for sentimentality when the survival of our nations is at stake.

Read More