Controversy in UK, France as Jungle evacuation to start Monday
French authorities are to start clearing the Jungle migrants' camp in Calais on Monday, with the operation expected to be over by the end of the week. Some 200 minors are to leave for Britain over the weekend but the fate of about 800 other unaccompanied children has yet to be decided.
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Evacuation will start at 8.00am Monday with a target of 2,400 people being moved out on 145 buses on the first day.
By the end of the week 6,400 people should have been taken to nearly 300 centres across France.
There have been protests in some of the towns where centres are being opened, with the far-right mayor of the southern town of Béziers, Robert Ménard, causing a storm with a poster declaring that the government is forcing the council to accept "migrants in our town centre".
Most of the camp's residents are from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea.
Britain quizzes minors
The British government's acceptance of minors with family already in the UK, after negotiations with France, has caused controversy there, with tabloid newspapers insinuating that some are not under 18 and right-wing MP David Davies demanding dental tests to establish their age.
About 60 people in Croydon staged a welcoming demonstration for 20 refugees who arrived in the southern English town on Friday, while former footballer Gary Lineker tweeted that the row was "hideously racist and utterly heartless".
British officials have interviewed more than 500 of the estimated minors in the camp to establish their ages and see if they have relatives in the UK.
The British government has so far resisted French pressure to take in people with a spouse there.
'No forced departures'
The authorities have promised that nobody will be forced to leave and that migrants' status will not be checked during the clearance operation but NGOs have pointed out that three nearby detention centres, with about 100 places, have reopened
About 2,000 people have already left the camp, presumably because they do not wish to apply for asylum in France.
An extra 1,250 police will be added to the 2,100 already in Calais for the operation.
Some NGOs have warned that a rushed evacuation would be a "catastrophe", while others have backed the clearance because of conditions in the camp.
Juppé demands border moves to UK
A migrants' camp has existed in the Channel port since the early 1990s, although the Jungle in its present form dates from April 2015 and housed more than 10,000 people at one point.
It exists because so many migrants want to go to Britain and it has strained relations between the UK and France.
Alain Juppé, the frontrunner in the race to become the mainstream right's candidate in next year's presidential election, on Friday called for the scrapping of the agreement that extends Britain's border to Calais.
Complaining that the Jungle gives a "disastrous" image of France, Juppé called for the Le Touquet accord, which establishes the extended border, to be torn up.
"We cannot accept making the determination on French territory of which people Britain does or doesn't want. It's up to Britain to do that job," he said in an interview with several European newspapers.
Listen to RFI's broadcasts on Monday and Tuesday to hear Claire Rush's reports from Calais
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