Calais ‘Jungle’ migrant camp to be torn down ‘imminently’… raising fears France will allow refugees to storm Channel Tunnel as Brexit revenge
The port city's mayor claims to have received central government assurances the rest of the camp's demolition will soon go ahead
THE entire "Jungle" refugee camp in Calais will be "torn down" imminently, the French port’s mayor claimed today.
Natacha Bouchart hopes the radical move will see up to 6,000 asylum seekers currently living there heading to Britain as quickly as possible.
The move is likely to raise fears refugees could be sent across the Channel as punishment for Britain voting to leave the EU.
In a series of highly provocative tweets, Ms Bouchart also called for all "migrants and trouble making activists who commit criminal offences arrested, prosecuted and expelled from the country".
She is particularly angry at the number of British left-wingers from the No Borders group who provoke violence against the police and other French officials.
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Last March, demolition experts supported by CRS riot squads dismantled the southern half of the shanty town.
The operation involved tear gas and baton charges being used against mainly young men fleeing war and poverty from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria.
Between 4,500 and 6000 migrants still still live in the remaining northern half of the camp, according to the regional prefecture and charity groups.
Now Ms Bouchart says she has received assurances from officials close to Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve that the north side will soon go the same way as the south.
In a series of Tweets, Ms Bouchart wrote: "We can't wait any longer, we need to know as fast as possible when and how the Jungle will be torn down."
In another annoucement, Ms Bouchart said Mr Cazenueve would give the green light for the dismantlement "very soon", through the prefecture.
Neither the Interior Ministry nor the prefecture would today confirm Mr Bouchart's claims.
Thousands of police and security officials remain deployed around the Jungle, as those living there make nightly attempts to reach Britain.
Favoured illegal routes include stowing away on lorries, or boarding ferries or trains.
Migrants also regularly risk their lives by trying to get across the Channel by inflatable boats, or by walking through the Channel Tunnel.
There is currently an "official" camp within the Jungle in which some 1500 people, including women and children, live in a series of converted shipping containers.
Another 400 odd mothers with young ones can sleep in the Jules Ferry centre nearby.
The rest of the vast community in the Jungle continues to sleep in tents and bivouacs.
Both Ms Bouchart and regional president Xavier Bertrand have called for the renegotiation of the border deal that allows UK Border Agency officials to carry out customs checks in France, rather than the UK.
Following the Brexit vote, Ms Bouchart said: "Britain must take the consequences of its choice."
Moving the British border away from France, and back to the UK, would mean the French could simply send all their unwanted migrants straight to the south coast of England.
Mr Bertrand said: "The English wanted to take back their freedom: they must take back their border.
"The British people decided, I ask the French government to renegotiate the Touquet agreement."
The Touquet treaty was signed in 2003, but French President Francois Hollande has said Brexit could easily lead to it being scrapped, with camps such as the Jungle being moved to Britain.
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