More refugee children will be sent to UK as "Jungle" undergoes demolition - French authorities

Record ID: 84141

  • Title: More refugee children will be sent to UK as "Jungle" undergoes demolition - French authorities
  • Date: 23rd October 2016
  • Summary: CALAIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 23, 2016) (REUTERS) NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS NEXT TO FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTRY MOBILE CRISIS CENTRE UNIT FRENCH POLICE OFFICERS HANDLING SATELLITE TRANSMISSION DEVISE (SOUNDBITE) (French) PAS-DE-CALAIS REGIONAL PREFECT, FABIENNE BUCCIO, SAYING: "We set up a special processing system, this took a long time, a very particular processing system for the minors. So there will be a specific registration for minors tomorrow at the SAS (sorting centre), by a French-British team that will take charge of them. Then all these children, all these minors, will be taken to the temporary welcome centre, where they will be accommodated, hosted, within the migrant camp on the moor, at the temporary welcome centre." REPORTERS DURING NEWS BRIEFING (SOUNDBITE) (French) PAS-DE-CALAIS REGIONAL PREFECT, FABIENNE BUCCIO, SAYING: "It's true that for the past few weeks we have intensified our work (with the UK authorities). I can already give you a figure, this week, as we speak, practically 200 children were able to go to the UK. Before it was much more complicated." (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER SPOKESMAN, PIERRE-HENRY BRANDET, SAYING: "Preventive measures have been taken. Police and the gendarmerie have undertaken very tight surveillance operations, which is why a high number of security forces have been mobilized, not to facilitate the dismantlement, but to secure the area." EXTERIOR OF THE SAS (MIGRANT REGISTRATION CENTRE), REPORTERS ACCESSING THE BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2016 15:59
  • Keywords: Calais France Jungle camp refugees migrants Fabienne Buccio demolition evacuation Pierre-Henry Brandet
  • Location: CALAIS, FRANCE
  • City: CALAIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015584ZEV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French authorities on Sunday (October 23) said further efforts were being made on rehousing the most vulnerable migrants of the "Jungle" camp in northern France as authorities prepared to evacuate over 6,500 migrants ahead of a demolition planned for next week.
    A vast evacuation is set to begin on Monday with 60 buses prepared to transport a first wave of migrants to welcome centres across the country, and more expected over the coming days.
    French President Francois Hollande last month vowed to tear down the camp, populated with people fleeing troubled areas of Africa and the Middle East hoping to start a new life in Britain on the other side of the Channel.
    The dilapidated shelters and muddy alleys on a windswept scrap of land in northern France have become a potent symbol of Europe's failure to provide an adequate response to the migrant crisis.
    Regional prefect Fabienne Buccio said the authorities' main focus was the minor migrants living in the camp.
    "We set up a special processing system, this took a long time, a very particular processing system for the minors. So there will be a specific registration for minors tomorrow at the SAS (sorting centre), by a French-British team that will take charge of them. Then all these children, all these minors, will be taken to the temporary welcome centre, where they will be accommodated, hosted, within the migrant camp on the moor, at the temporary welcome centre," she told a news briefing at the migrant registration centre.
    The fate of some 1,300 unaccompanied minors still hangs in the air.
    A first busload of children arrived in Britain last Monday from the Jungle as the British government started to act on its commitment to take in unaccompanied migrant children before the camp is destroyed.
    "It's true that for the past few weeks we have intensified our work (with the UK authorities). I can already give you a figure, this week, as we speak, practically 200 children were able to go to the UK. Before it was much more complicated," Buccio said.
    Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said authorities did not want to use force but had to be prepared.
    "Preventive measures have been taken. Police and the gendarmerie have undertaken very tight surveillance operations, which is why a high number of security forces have been mobilized, not to facilitate the dismantlement, but to secure the area." he said.
    Children in the Jungle have two legal routes into Britain. One is under European Union law that allows for children to be reunited with relatives already settled in the UK.
    The other is under the so-called Dubs amendment to the Immigration Act enabling the most at-risk child refugees in Italy, Greece and France to be taken to the UK for sanctuary.
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