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France starts evacuation of Calais migrants camp under heavy security

Xinhua, March 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Under heavy presence of police, works started on Monday to dismantle the southern part of migrants camp in Calais, north France, local media reported.

According to the daily Le Figaro, about one hundred police officers have been deployed in the shanty town to allow workers clearing the site where about 3,000 migrants were staying.

"We intend to handle it smoothly, things do not happen in a day," Bruno Christmas, Regional Secretary Alliance Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy, was quoted as saying.

Local reports added a British activist from the No Border, a network advocating freedom of movement and smoother migration policy, was arrested earlier on the day.

On Feb. 25, an administrative court in Lille, north France upheld the decision to evacuate thousands of migrants camping in Calais, rejecting NGOs' request to halt the eviction order.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve promised the camp's evacuation would be done "progressively, by persuasion and with respect for people's dignity."

Local authorities proposed to relocate them in a state-run container shelter nearby or other refugees centers across France.

Wars, political instability and poverty in many Arab and African countries forced thousands of people to displace and seek better life in European doors. Enditem