Tensions were high at a sprawling migrant camp in northern France on Thursday as hundreds of refugees defied efforts to move them to a more permanent encampment as the winter cold kicks in.
Tensions were high at a sprawling migrant camp in northern France on Thursday as hundreds of refugees defied efforts to move them to a more permanent encampment as the winter cold kicks in.
Known as “The Jungle”, the camp in the northern port city of Calais is home to thousands of refugees and migrants.
The French authorities are trying to persuade around a quarter of the camp’s 4,000 residents to move out of their ramshackle homes into metal shipping containers kitted out with heaters, electrical sockets and cots for babies.
But the plans have been met with defiance, with many people unhappy about leaving an area where they have established a community and concerned that new security measures involved will be used against them.
Instead of moving into the containers, many migrants were on Thursday picking up their tents and shelters and moving them deeper into the camp.
The aim appeared to be to move their shacks closer together in order to complicate any efforts to remove them by force.
