CLEARING THE JUNGLE: French plan to build 12,000 homes for Calais migrants in remote south
FRANCE will create 12,000 new homes in remote southern parts of the country to house migrants currently living at the lawless Jungle camp in Calais, it emerged today.
Ministers in Paris have hatched an ambitious plan to move asylum seekers camped on the north coast hundreds of miles away from the British border in an attempt to put an end to the violent migrant chaos.
Thousands of migrants will be moved into the new accommodation "by the end of the year" as the French government accelerates long-held plans to raze the Jungle to the ground.
Calais cannot carry the can alone. This problem requires lasting solutions and a national response
Ministers are hoping that, by dispersing its 8,000 plus residents to remote parts of the country, they will break up the criminal gangs running people smuggling rackets and encourage migrants to apply for asylum in France.
Several thousand of the homes will also be used to rehouse migrants who are living at makeshift camps which have sprung up across the capital Paris as staging posts on the road to Calais.
Calais migrants make fire 'roadblock'
The revelations come after shocking footage emerged today showing gangs of migrants setting fire to blockades on the main road to the town's port, forcing lorries to stop so they could smuggle themselves on board.
Official Ministry of Interior documents, revealed by the newspaper Le Figaro, show that ministers have ruled out rehousing migrants in the Ile-de-France area, which surrounds the capital, and Corsica.
Instead some 1,800 people will be sent to the remote Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the south east of the country, whilst a further 1,500 are to be allocated to New Aquitaine in the south west.
Officials in Paris insisted that the move was part of a "humane and fair" response to the migrant crisis designed to alleviate the enormous pressure on Calais and its surrounding areas.
Some of the 12,000 places required to house the migrants were created around a year ago, when France first mooted the idea of dispersal, although 8,200 will be new housing, representing a significant acceleration of that policy.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve promised during a visit to Calais earlier this month that the Jungle camp would be dismantled and its residents rehoused elsewhere "as soon as possible".
The organisation of the massive rehousing efforts should begin in mid-October, according to the document, which would coincide with the opening of a new transit centre for migrants in Paris.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said that the French government was "totally committed to a balanced response to the migrant crisis, combining firmness and humanity".
Officials added: "Calais cannot carry the can alone. This problem requires lasting solutions and a national response.
"As with any final dismantling operation, a rehousing solution must be put forward."
Any migrants who do not want to apply for asylum in France when the Jungle is razed will be offered the chance of voluntarily returning home or could face forcible removal, they said.
Up to 10,000 migrants live in and around Calais, with most making nightly bids to reach Britain by attempting to break into lorries and the Channel Tunnel.
Haulage industry chiefs have warned that asylum seekers have become increasingly desperate and violent in their tactics following the Brexit vote, raising fears that it is only a matter of time before a UK-bound trucker is killed.
Part of the Jungle camp was bulldozed earlier this year but the move did not deter migrants, who merely moved their tents to a different patch of land and continued the growth of the lawless shanty town.