22 Sep 2009

Illegal migrants cleared out of French camp

10:05 pm on 22 September 2009

Hundreds of police in northern France have been clearing out a camp set up by illegal migrants trying to smuggle themselves into Britain.

The area of makeshift shelters on the edge of the Port of Calais - known as The Jungle - has been home to large numbers of mainly Afghan men.

About 600 officers sealed off the site and started to move in on Tuesday, the BBC reports.

A group of local protesters campaigned for the rights of the migrants. Some of them clashed with police as they began to clear the site and a few people were arrested.

But the migrants themselves mostly stood silently, some of them crying. They held banners saying: "The Jungle is our home. Please don't destroy it."

But the BBC reports it is a dirty, squalid camp of makeshift tents and shelters and it had become a migrant for migrants desperate to reach British shores.