Bernard Cazeneuve, interior minister, said that the state would “proceed with the greatest determination” to dismantle the half of the makeshift camp on the edge of the city that was left intact after the southern half was bulldozed in February.
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French authorities have made repeated efforts to shut down the infamous “Jungle” camp, which authorities say is now home to almost 7,000 migrants – a sharp increase in recent months.
The population of the camp includes large numbers of Afghans, Somalis, Sudanese and Kurds, among other asylum seekers.
Cazeneuve was speaking to the Nord Littoral daily the day before visiting the camp. The French Communist Party expressed this Thursday its concern about the deteriorating situation in Calais, where undocumented migrants often gather in groups, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Channel Tunnel and reach the UK.
Places for another 8,000 asylum seekers will be created this year and thousands more in 2017, intensifying the efforts to get those in Calais to leave voluntarily, said Cazeneuve. The police in the northern city warned a few days ago that the number of undocumented migrants living in the camp almost reaches 10.000 people, including almost 900 unaccompanied children. Her trip comes ahead of another blockade at the port of Calais on Monday, this time by local residents demonstrating about the migrant camp.
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Casaneuve, who will spend three hours at the site on Friday, said French President Francois Hollande would visit Calais in late September.
