Migrants and British anarchists clashed with riot police in Calais yesterday as French officials moved to evacuate part of the Jungle encampment.
More than 1,500 miles away, at the other end of Europe’s migrant trail, hundreds tried to smash their way into Macedonia across its border with Greece.
The violence underlined the pressure building across Europe as the migrant influx continues. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had to promise that the rest of the EU would not cut Greece adrift despite demands from Brussels that it tighten its borders.
In Calais police who were pelted with stones responded with tear gas and water cannon as they tried to protect workers removing tents in the Jungle camp, which was set up by migrants wanting to reach the UK.
A pall of black smoke hung in the air as fire leapt from tent to tent. Gas canisters exploded in the heat and a crowd of hundreds — migrants, and left-wingers from Britain and Europe — whooped in delight. One man, his face masked by a scarf, darted out from behind a caravan and used a slingshot to fire a stone at police advancing along a muddy track.
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As dusk fell demonstrators burst from the camp to attack the ring road leading to the port, raining stones on police vans and on the lorries and cars that were heading for ferries. Officers scrambled to close the road before anyone was injured while others fired yet more tear gas at the protesters.
The attack on the ring road was pointless, doing nothing to further the migrants’ dream of crossing the Channel. But according to a French charity worker who looked on in dismay the activists behind the violence care little for the migrants they claim to support.
“They are only interested in their political agenda of confrontation with the state,” he said.
The clashes broke out as the French government moved to evacuate the southern area of the makeshift camp as part of a plan to halve its size. Migrants were told that they had a choice between moving to official shelters within the camp or leaving for the 102 centres set up in other French towns.
Social workers from the local council were sent in to lay out the options while a demolition team took down tents that had been abandoned. The operation had been planned for Friday but was postponed after social workers were confronted by activists.
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Serge Szarzynski, director of social cohesion in the Calais area, said that he had been spat at and insulted by British and French extremists. His colleagues were pushed and shoved and their clothes covered with paint, they said. Activists told migrants that they would be deported if they agreed to leave Calais. “This is a lie,” Mr Szarzynski said.
Fabienne Buccio, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais département, said that most of those responsible for Friday’s violence had been British. She sent 40 vans full of riot police yesterday to protect social workers and the demolition team.
The result was a partial success for the government, with about 50 migrants trudging wearily out of the camp towards the coaches hired by the state to transport them from Calais.
“A life of dreams” was the slogan on the vehicles. Few believed it, but one man, an Afghan, said that he was going to Montpellier in southern France to get away from “problems with food, with showers, with the cold, with everything” at Calais.
Many migrants are determined to stay in Calais. Mohammed was one of a couple of dozen Afghans playing cricket on a dusty strip of land that was cleared by the police in January and which they have taken over for a game at 2pm every day since.
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“I’ve been here five months and I’m going to stay until I reach Britain,” he said after his team failed in its attempt to reach 126 in ten overs. “I’d move out of my tent if someone gave a better option, but no one has done that. There is no welcome for us in France. The only kindness and the only generosity we have received are from the British people who come to help us.”
They include Peter Scatchid, who works for the French charity L’Auberge des Migrants. Although he recognised the difficulties of life in the Jungle he said that it remained “the safest place” for many who have crossed the world in the hope of reaching Britain.
Five officers were injured and four people were arrested, one of them a British woman, police said. The evacuation was suspended two hours before nightfall amid fears of a full-blown riot. The operation will resume today.
1,000 children seek asylum in three months
More than 1,000 lone children sought asylum within a three-month period for the first time in seven years, according to official figures (writes Richard Ford).
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In the final quarter of last year 1,080 unaccompanied minors claimed asylum, most of them boys. It is the first time that the quarterly total has topped 1,000 since 2008 and the joint highest number since 2006.
The figure for the quarter was 80 per cent higher than the same period in 2014. Last year 694 lone children from Eritrea sought asylum, followed by 656 from Afghanistan and 456 from Albania.
It is the legal responsibility of local councils to care for under-18s who arrive from overseas seeking international protection. The increasing number has prompted fears about the impact on town halls responsible for schooling, foster care, university fees and housing.
Estimates suggest that the support amounts to £50,000 each year per child. Kent county council warned in December that its services for child asylum seekers were at “breaking point” and that it had about 950 children in its care.
