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Last minors from Calais 'Jungle' bussed across France

AFP
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Last minors from Calais 'Jungle' bussed across France
People wave to unaccompanied migrant minors from the demolished "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. Photo: AFP

Over 1,600 unaccompanied minors left in Calais after the demolition of the infamous "Jungle" migrant camp were bussed to shelters across France on Wednesday, even as many still hoped to be admitted to Britain.

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Two days after the last makeshift shelters in the camp were destroyed, buses took 1,616 children, mainly teenagers, away from the container park where they had been sheltering for the past week.
   
The first bus carrying 43 minors headed for the town of Carcassonne, around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from Calais in southern France. Another was bound for Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, near the Spanish border.
  
The closure of the container park is one of the last acts in a major French operation to clear Calais of migrants that have long used the area as a staging post for attempts to sneak into Britain, stowed away on trucks or trains crossing the Channel.
   
Many of those driven to far-flung parts of France were still dreaming of Britain.
   
"I can't say I'm really happy because I don't know where I'll end up," said Ahmed, a 17-year-old from Sudan, before boarding a bus. "But I'm glad to be leaving the Jungle anyway."
   
French authorities have said that Britain, which has taken around 300 child refugees from Calais since mid-October and promised to take more, will continue to review applications from minors seeking to be transferred there.
   
Two British officials accompanied each bus.
 
   
Regional security chief Fabienne Buccio said their presence demonstrated Britain's "commitment towards the minors."
   
Last week, more than 4,000 mainly Afghan, Eritrean and Sudanese migrants agreed -- in some cases reluctantly -- to be moved to centres dotted around France where they can seek asylum.
   
A few hundred minors were among those moved to shelters last week but "around half" of them later slipped away, according to the head of the France Terre d'Asile charity, Pierre Henry.
   
"They want to return to Calais," Henry said.
   
The remaining teens had stayed behind in Calais while the state sought places for them.
   
Their departure leaves only around 400 women with young children still living at the site, in a centre run by charities.
 
Setting 'appalling' example 
 
The plight of the "Jungle children" had been a sticking point in ties between France and Britain.
  
France expects Britain to take in the lion's share of the youngsters who travelled alone to Calais, hoping to make it to England where many of them have friends or family.
   
Britain has blamed France for the initial delays in the transfers.
   
 
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday accused both countries of passing the buck.
   
"Disagreements between the French and UK governments over who should take responsibility for the majority of these children have led to major violations of these children's rights," the committee said.
  
Amnesty International said the spat between the two European neighbours sent "an appalling signal to other countries."
   
"Shirking responsibility for protecting refugees can only encourage others to shirk too," the rights group said.
   
Some aid agencies have warned that scattering child migrants around France could diminish their chances of making it to Britain.
   
Buccio, the regional security chief, said she expected the minors to know their fate "within three weeks maximum".
 
Paris 'Jungle' 
 
France's Socialist government had been under pressure to completely clear the Jungle and avoid the re-emergence of a new shanty town.
   
The camp was already demolished in 2009 only to sprout up again in 2015 when migrants from the Middle East and Africa began pouring into Europe in unprecedented numbers.
   
President Francois Hollande has vowed an end to all such camps.
 
   
But less than 300 kilometres from Calais, around 2,000 migrants are living in conditions similar to those seen in the Jungle, on the streets of Paris.
   
The authorities are expected to soon clear the camp in the Stalingrad district, where people have been living on the pavement under an overhead railway line.
   
The City of Paris is to open a temporary migrant shelter with 400 beds in the coming days.
 
By the AFP's Zoe Leroy and Clare Byrne 

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