French bus 1,616 kids out of migrant camp

British checking files on whom to take

Police officers guard the entrance of the camp where some underage migrants remained in Calais, northern France, Wednesday Nov. 2, 2016.
Police officers guard the entrance of the camp where some underage migrants remained in Calais, northern France, Wednesday Nov. 2, 2016.

CALAIS, France -- French authorities bused all unaccompanied children -- 1,616 of them -- out of Calais' sprawling migrant camp on Wednesday, taking them to special processing centers in one of the final steps to empty the notorious camp in the English Channel city.

The underage migrants climbed into 38 buses in a daylong operation that began just under a week after adults were cleared out of the camp known as "the jungle" and sent to centers around France.

In the government's final move, women with their children -- slightly more than 300 people -- in the Calais camp were to be transported to family centers today.

"Then there will be no one at the end of the day," said Steve Barbet, spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais region.

Last week's operation to evacuate and demolish the makeshift camp -- whose population soared to more than 10,000 two months ago, aid groups said -- was a mammoth logistical task rushed to completion after fires engulfed large parts of the slum. Cleanup crews finished pulling down shelters Tuesday.

Two agents from the British Home Office traveled on each bus, said Barbet. They will study files of the underage migrants, who often have family members in the U.K., to see who might qualify for transfer to the United Kingdom -- the goal of most people who used the camp as a steppingstone for bids to sneak across the Channel by hiding out in freight trucks.

Since Oct. 17, the U.K. has taken in slightly more than 300 people from the Calais camp. France is pressing the U.K. to do more.

Most of the youths lined up calmly to board the buses, though one grabbed onto a fence, begging British officials to take him to the U.K.

Migrants from the Mideast and Africa had converged on the Calais camp over the past 18 months. The filthy, lawless site had become a symbol of Europe's migrant crisis and a source of shame for France.

The children were taken to 60 centers scattered around France until British officials decide their cases. Those refused access to Britain will be put under the care of French child-welfare services.

The operation rekindled tensions among some youths, who feared it means the end of their dream of reaching Britain.

"They are saying, 'You are young, we can help you'; but they are not helping me," Carlos Osma, 16, from Sudan, said before boarding a bus.

Four people were injured in clashes Tuesday night between Afghans and Eritreans in the camp, and police used tear gas to separate them.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd told Parliament last week that several hundred more children from the camp would be taken in soon. But details remain unclear. The issue is complicated by U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union, which highlighted the public's unease with immigration.

Information for this article was contributed by Angela Charlton and Danica Kirka of The Associated Press.

A Section on 11/03/2016

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