Paris, September 22: Riot police have raided a refugee camp in northern France, detaining nearly 300 asylum-seekers mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq during a dawn operation.
Hundreds of French riot police armed with flamethrowers, stun guns and tear gas moved in to raze a squalid Calais migrant camp, known as “the jungle”, early Tuesday morning as part of a government plan to clear the area of illegal migrants.
Police say “the jungle” has become a haven for people-smuggling gangs and a no-go zone for locals.
Witnesses say there was one police officer for each migrant at the site and some jostling and scuffling between policemen.
Human rights activists rushed to the scene in an attempt to stop the raid.
“I think it’s inhumane. They dragged people out of their tents. It isn’t fair”, an aid worker said.
The detained refugees, half of them minors and mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, were bussed to police stations to be processed. They will later be sent back to the countries where they entered the European Union.
Police say many of the inhabitants of “the jungle”, mostly women and children, have already fled the makeshift camp, which is being used by asylum-seekers trying to reach Britain to find work and a better life.
Bulldozers have encircled the camp to raze it to the ground.
—–Agencies