French police clear ‘security hazard’ migrant camp
More than 700 people, including families and young children, have been evicted from a temporary migrant camp in France.
The removals in Dunkirk on Tuesday morning follow a court ruling that the encampment in a gymnasium and the surrounding field was a health and security hazard.
The gymnasium opened to migrant families seeking shelter in December 2018. The encampment had grown rapidly in recent months and many people pitched tents in an adjacent field when the gym became full. […]
Single men and families were taken in separate coaches. Police searched some men, asking them to lift their shirts, and confiscated razors and lighters from their bags. The operation was watched by officials from the UK Home Office, which has been approached for comment. […]
Martina Villa, a communications executive at Doctors of the World, represented one of a handful of NGOs who saw the evictions. “It’s early to say now, but the beginning of the eviction seemed was very organised and structured,” she said.
“These evictions are a show of institutional violence, displacing people and forcing them to leave the only areas where they might have felt some safety, even if it was just tents. We are concerned about people not knowing where they are being taken and not having been able to access people we know have medical issues.”
Clare Maillot, who has worked with the local migrant charity Salam, said: “The refugees are quite happy and tranquil because this has happened time and time again. They get driven to the centres, but they always come back.”
Polizei räumt Camp bei Dünkirchen