CALAIS, France – The last residents of a sprawling migrant camp on the French side of the English Channel were evacuated on Thursday — 291 women and children transferred to family centers around France so the government can close the camp for good.
The departure of the women and their children, who had been housed in a center at the edge of the camp near the port city of Calais, completed a mass, state-run relocation of nearly 7,000 people in 11 days.
The now-empty women’s center, set up by the state, was the anchor of the slum that mushroomed over 18 months as many thousands of migrants trying to get to Britain, on the other side of the Channel, took refuge there.
The camp, known as “the jungle” because of its dire living conditions, was demolished last week.
The women and children were bused on Thursday to processing centers where they will be able to seek asylum in France or Britain, regional administration spokesman Steve Barbet said.
The camp’s other residents, most of them men, were sent to similar centers last week, while 1,616 unaccompanied children who had been housed in heated containers were moved to special reception centers on Wednesday.
Migrants fleeing fighting and poverty in the Middle East and Africa converged on Calais while trying to arrive into Britain by hiding out in freight trucks.
