Busloads of riot police arrived Tuesday morning in Calais, north of France, to dimantle the camp of illegal immigrants known as the "jungle" of Calais.
French Immigration Minister Eric Besson confirmed to RTL radio that the district government had launched the operation just before 8 a.m. and said he would visit the site that morning.
"There were 250 immigrants in the camp there last morning," the minister said. However, some media reported French riot police detained more than 270 migrants during the raid.
According to witnesses, most of the migrants, mainly Afghans including many minors, watched police detroy their shelters, while some held up placards protesting the action.
Migrants were blocked from the site while police removed their makeshift tents and several men were arrested after wrestling with police while trying to break through the blockade.
Many illegal migrants from war-torn Afghanistan and some Arab countries head to France as a transit point, from where they try to enter England but, with entry into Britain becoming more difficult, the number of migrants stuck in Calais has increased, as has their shabby tent city.
Humanitarian groups criticized the French government for violating human rights, but Besson defended the police action, saying the "jungle" "is not a humanitarian camp. It's a base for people traffickers."
In 2002, a Red Cross camp near the opening of the Channel Tunnel, at Sangatte, was closed under then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, but many migrants went back there after the shutdown.
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2009)
