France takes tough line on Calais migrants

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French President Emmanuel Macron's new government took a tough line on Calais migrants on Friday, with his interior minister saying he does not want the northern port to become an "abscess".

Making his first visit to a city which has for years been a magnet for migrants and refugees hoping to cross to Britain, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb ruled out building a reception centre for asylum-seekers in Calais, saying it would only encourage more people to come.

"We've seen this before, it starts with a few hundred people and ends with several thousand people who we can't manage," Collomb said as he met with security forces, officials and aid workers in Calais.

Calais's refugees sitting on the highway. /AFP Photo

Collomb said, "we are going to reinforce security with the arrival of two additional mobile security force units to stop any new camps from forming."

Authorities shut down the notorious "Jungle" camp in Calais, which at its height was home to some 10,000 people living in dire conditions, last October.

But hundreds of migrants – mostly Afghans, Sudanese and Eritreans – are still at the port, clashing sporadically with police as they try every night to stow away onto trucks heading to Britain.

While the tent city of the Jungle is gone, migrants say conditions in Calais are bleaker than ever.

Migrants queue outside a hangar where they will be sorted into groups and put on buses for shelters across France, as part of the full evacuation of the Calais "Jungle" camp, in Calais, France. /Politico Photo

"There is no tap and we cannot drink, we cannot wash. There is nowhere to sleep. At night I sleep without a tent on the 'mountain'," said Jamal, a 24-year-old Afghan, pointing to a huge rubbish dump.

Collomb pledged on Friday to present Macron with a plan for asylum reforms in the next two weeks, vowing in particular to tackle African people-smuggling networks at their root.

An aerial view of the Calais "jungle" camp. /AFP Photo

Eleven charities went to court on Wednesday demanding the construction of a government refugee centre in Calais, deploring the miserable conditions in which migrants find themselves.

Collomb argued that past experience showed that any official asylum facility in Calais would quickly overflow with arrivals, leaving authorities unable to cope.

"I'm suspicious of centers that are supposedly ready to welcome migrants for only a few days who end up staying for a long time," he said.

(Source: AFP)

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