CALAIS, France -- Mysterious armed groups are targeting migrants in night attacks in Calais and elsewhere in northern France, deepening concerns the city is becoming a tinderbox of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim rage.
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The stalkers, sometimes masked, slip through the night armed with clubs, brass knuckles, pepper spray or knives, according to accounts by migrants and groups working to provide medical and legal help.
After months of what appear to be organized attacks, police made their first arrests Thursday, taking seven men armed with iron bars and extendable batons into custody for a suspected attack on five Iraqi Kurds at Loon-Plage, a port town between Calais and nearby Dunkirk. The seven faced charges of violence in a group and forming a group to commit violence, said Dunkirk prosecutor Eric Fouard. Some of the men, aged 24-47, said they sympathized with extreme-right movements in Calais identified as xenophobic, he said.
"The ideas they peddle are that there are too many migrants in France," Fouard said by telephone, noting that one of the seven was from Brittany and another from the Paris region.
The head of a legal center set up for the refugees in the makeshift Calais camp alleged on Friday that those living there are regularly subject to police violence, as well. Marianne Humbersot told reporters she was filing 13 complaints -- five for violence by militia and eight at the hands of police.
"I have a 13-year-old who had his foot broken. And 10 days before being attacked by police, he had his nose broken," Humbersot said.
Migrants -- who have converged in northern France hoping to sneak into the United Kingdom -- have also long complained about police brutality, accounts backed up by medical units that treat them. But attacks in recent months, accounts suggest, are organized and carried out by a militia-style group or groups, opening a new dimension of violence.
On Friday, officials in France's northern Pas-de-Calais region said that half of the sprawling makeshift migrant camp will be evacuated. Prefect Fabienne Buccio said 800 to 1,000 migrants will have to leave their dwellings in the camp on the edge of Calais, which now has shops, mosques, churches and schools built by migrants and volunteers.
Among the city's population, frustration and anger is brewing, with pro- and anti-migrant groups facing off in demonstrations. On social networks, anti-migrant groups, often calling themselves "patriots," are using increasingly virulent language.
"We are playing with fire because people are becoming defensive. They are organizing themselves," said the Doctors of the World coordinator for northern France, Amin Trouve-Baghdouche.
There are currently about 4,200 migrants in Calais from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea and elsewhere, and up to 2,000 more in another makeshift camp near Dunkirk, with hundreds of others scattered along the coast hoping to finish their journeys in Britain.
The bid to keep the travelers from accessing the Calais ferry port, the Eurotunnel and trucks making the journey to the U.K. has frustrated migrants, leaving them to take greater risks to make the crossing. Up to 20 have died since the end of June. The local Nord Littoral newspaper said four Afghans in a small boat were saved last week. A body was found this week in the waters of the port.
Now, a fear of being physically attacked has surfaced.
"Today, we have organized groups ... dressed in the same way with hoods who say they are police," Baghdouche said. The men are armed with clubs, iron bars, pepper spray and knives, he said, citing numerous accounts by migrants seeking medical aid. The attacks occur in town or near the jungle camp -- and now closer to Dunkirk.
"They stop them, usually late, at 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., say they are police, so obviously the migrants stop. They ask them to undress ... they start to hit them until they fall down, KO [knockout]," Baghdouche said.
The victims, who are in France illegally, fear filing formal complaints, in part to avoid being trapped there or sent home. Since they are illegally in the country they have no right to eventual reparations.
Some Calais residents worry migrants are hurting the economy of Calais, a tourist destination for British visitors. Some worry about their children's safety, noting streets empty in the evening. Others worry about property values.
"The migrants are more and more violent. They are blocked here. It's a dead-end," said Sandrine Desert, a founder of "Calasiens en Colere" -- or "Angry Calasians" -- a group that cruises town to film migrants in the streets and post them on Facebook. "We are the forgotten ones. ... They always talk of migrants, but we are also in distress."
A Section on 02/13/2016