French authorities have evacuated a migrant camp in a disused warehouse in the northern coastal city of Calais. Hundreds of migrants had been sheltering in the building for a year. In another development, riot police in the same region halted a group of migrants from departing for the UK — but only for a brief period.
The site in Calais had been housing up to 600 people for roughly a year — despite what the regional prefecture of Pas-de-Calais described as "degrading and dangerous conditions."
The AFP news agency said that during a visit to the warehouse, nicknamed "Cheers," in January, its reporters had encountered migrants "living in cramped, dark and damp conditions amid piles of waste."
The prefecture added in a statement that the site had long become "a hub for smuggling networks exploiting the vulnerability of migrants," adding that the operation to vacate the building took place "calmly and without any incident."
Last month, local authorities had repeatedly visited the site to prepare for the planned evacuation; as part of these visits, they had offered the camp residents shelter in various regional reception centers.
The prefecture said that 170 individuals took up the offer ahead of the evacuation of the camp.
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The migrants staying in the building were effectively living as squatters, making it impossible for the owners of the site to use it; following the evacuation, the owners said they had sealed off access to the property.
The prefecture added that the city of Calais would install boulders at the entrance to prevent the site from being reoccupied.
Police in and around Calais regularly carry out such camp clearances, evicting people from unsafe areas, as French authorities are increasingly being given more leeway to interfere with migrants hoping to pay smugglers for a passage to the UK.
However, migrant support groups in the region say that this policy creates continuous displacement for people whose lives already have been uprooted.
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The fight against small boat migration
At any given time in recent years, there have been hundreds — sometimes over 1,000 — migrants staying in the Pas-de-Calais region, gathering there in the hopes of crossing the English Channel to the UK using irregular small boat journeys.
According to figures released by the UK's Home Office, a total of 33,486 people have made the dangerous crossing to Britain so far in 2025.
About 80 percent of all irregular arrivals that took place in Britain in 2024 were linked to small boat crossings, however, this form of irregular immigration makes up only four percent of the overall immigrant rate to the UK.
Each year, tens of people die during such attempts to cross the Channel; earlier this week, four people were found dead following attempts to reach Britain.
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Over 50 irregular migrants halted by police
In a separate development in the region, police equipped with riot shields, tear gas and other heavy crowd control tools momentarily stopped over 50 migrants from getting to a beach in the hopes of taking off on a dinghy to the UK.
According to media reports, the group included at least ten young children.
The group of migrants was spotted in the early morning hours of September 30 near Gravelines, located about 20 kilometers east of Calais.
The migrants were reportedly spotted because they were wearing bright life jackets, which prompted the officials to spring into action.
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However, after lengthy interventions the police reportedly let the migrants go. The migrants reportedly waited for a while, expecting to still be picked up by smugglers.
The group of migrants might later have taken a different route to get to their dinghy, as three small boats are believed to have set off from northern France towards the coast of Kent in the UK on Tuesday morning.
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In a bid to address the recent public uproar over continuing boat arrivals in the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a new scheme last month, according to which Britain would be allowed to send back certain migrants to France — as long as it accepts the same number of asylum seekers with a legitimate link to the UK living in France in return.
This so-called "one in, one out" program is intended to disincentivize irregular boat arrivals; French authorities meanwhile hope that the scheme could help lower the number of irregular migrants congregating in its northern seaside towns like Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne-sur-Mer.
However, there are doubts that it can have any major impact on irregular migration in the long run, as it may not be possible to scale up enough to match the rate of small boat journeys currently occurring.
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with AFP, dpa
[SRC] https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/67273/tough-on-migrants-france-clears-squatter-camp-in-calais-and-stops-boat-migrants
