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France clears migrant camp near Channel

Police cleared a camp on Tuesday home to about 700 mainly Sudanese migrants in the French port city of Calais, as the number of people at the site increased and authorities reported disturbances.

France clears migrant camp near Channel
A camp on the outskirts of the city of Calais, northern France in September 2023. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)

Calais has long been a jumping off point for migrants seeking to reach Britain, and has been a flashpoint for police operations.

Around 300 police were mobilised for operations carried out early Tuesday at the Turquerie camp, said prefect Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais region’s top official.

The expulsion, which occurred following a court order, was “considered necessary due to the large number of migrants” involved in “significant disturbances… including knife crime,” Billant said.

He added that the operation was carried out without major clashes.

The operation ended with over 500 people agreeing to be placed in temporary housing, the Calais prefect said in a statement, adding that about 20 others were arrested.

The same camp was also cleared in May and June, when about 350 people were staying there.

Madeleine Debressy, from the group Human Rights Observers (HRO), said the intent was to wear people out by repeatedly displacing them.

The people who have been relocated to temporary housing will return to Calais, because they want to go to England, Debressy added.

While the expulsion took place, migrant crossings towards England continued, taking advantage of calm weather.

Some 24,000 migrants have made the crossing to southern England from northern France in flimsy and unsuitable craft so far this year.

The governments in both London and Paris have promised to crack down on people-smuggling gangs behind the crossings.

Four migrant boats set sail towards England on Tuesday, according to local authorities in France.

Gendarmerie police boats assisted with one vessel that was sinking and took its stranded passengers back to French soil.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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