French Court Gives Green Light To Calais Refugees Camp Evacuation

French's court on Thursday allows Calais's jungle partial dismantlement. Calais Mayor says the process would take place over the next three weeks.

"The order is applicable, except for common social areas," the spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais prefect's office said. "So it won't be applicable to places such as schools, a theater and a legal office."

Activists had appealed to the court to stop the evacuation of the southern half of the sprawling camp in the port town, with many of the migrants wanting to stay near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, the gateway to their ultimate goal of Britain.

Calais town authorities have promised that no one will be evacuated from the Jungle by force. The mayor, Natacha Bouchart, said: "I am satisfied by this responsible decision which will allow the progressive dismantling of the southern part of the Jungle to proceed over the next three weeks."

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve welcomed the court's decision, saying it backed up the authorities' moves to clear part of the camp. "The operation to put the refugees under protection will continue, using all of the existing accommodation solutions," he said.

Local authorities say there are a total of 3,700 residents in the camp, and that between 800 and 1,000 will be affected by the eviction. But charities say a recent census they conducted found at least 3,450 people living in the southern part of the Jungle alone, including 300 unaccompanied children.

The evicted migrants have been offered heated accommodation in refitted containers set up next door to the camp, but many are reluctant to move there because they lack any communal spaces and movement is restricted.

They have also been offered places in some 100 reception centres dotted around France.

The migrants in Calais make up a tiny fraction of those fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. They try to climb on to lorries boarding ferries for Britain, which they are drawn to by family or community ties, because of a shared language, or because they think they have a greater chance of finding work there.