France and UK rush to process Calais minors as camp demolition nears – Charities fear children could get caught up in ‘herding’ of adult migrants on to buses when dismantling of refugee camp begins

French and British authorities are racing to process hundreds of children in theCalais refugee camp amid fears that vulnerable minors could be lost in the “total chaos” of the site’s planned demolition.

French officials are expected to press ahead with plans to start dismantling the camp on Monday, despite concerns about the safety of thousands of children and vulnerable adults living there.

Campaigners warn that children who are undocumented and have not made it to the UK by Monday morning will be swept up in the “herding” of adult migrants, which will see dozens of buses transport inhabitants of the camp to other parts ofFrance, where French authorities say they will be given the opportunity to claim asylum.

Violent clashes between migrants and police broke out over the weekend ahead of the evictions. Officers retaliated with teargas and smoke grenades after bottles were thrown at them. Charity workers expressed concern that children could be caught up in violence or left vulnerable to people traffickers.

In the past week, about 200 children have been brought to safety in the UK, approximately 15% of the total number in the Calais camp, according to a Citizens UK estimate. Another 24 refugee children from Calais arrived in Britain on Sunday afternoon. They follow 54 unaccompanied minors, mostly girls from Eritrea, who were the first to be brought to the UK on Saturday night under the Dubs amendment, the government pledge to help unaccompanied children announced to parliament in the summer.

The minors who arrived this week, including those reunited with relatives already in the UK under EU laws, are the first of an estimated 1,300 unaccompanied children from the camp, which houses 7,000 people, according to the authorities, although charities put the number closer to 10,000.

Inside the camp, thousands of leaflets have been distributed in several languages, telling inhabitants to report to a reception point in a nearby warehouse for processing. From there, 60 buses are due to remove 3,000 people from Calais to accommodation centres across France on Monday, with the exercise to be repeated on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is understood that 40 people will arrive on Tuesday to begin dismantling the camp.

Liz Clegg, who has run an unofficial women and children’s centre at the camp for the past year, said: “We are particularly worried that this evacuation has been left so late that we will see total chaos. The youngest child we have dealt with is eight years old, and tomorrow he will be herded in with thousands of adults.

“We are told once they are in the hangar there will be a separate queue for children, but in between the camp and the warehouse there will be utter chaos, with thousands of stressed inhabitants of the camp and large numbers of French riot police. It is gobsmackingly inappropriate that the most vulnerable of children will be put in this situation.”

Clegg said she had provided a list of children to the Home Office, but a few had since gone missing and she was desperately trying to track them down. “I am sure we could have found a better and more suitable way to do this,” she said.

Lily Caprani, the deputy executive director of Unicef UK, said there would be “no second chances” for the children once demolition began. “If it results in a single child going missing, or forces them into the hands of smugglers and traffickers, then we will have failed them,” she said.

During the previous demolition at the camp, which took three days, people were scattered by teargas and rubber bullets, she said. “More than 100 children went missing because it began before their safety was guaranteed. The authorities must prove they have learned the lessons from last time and keep every child safe throughout this process.”

There was also fears that anarchists would stoke the atmosphere if French police were deemed to be in any way heavy-handed. However, police were expected to start with a soft approach on Monday given the huge presence of national and foreign media.

François Guennoc, of French aid group L’Auberge des Migrants, which works in the Calais camp, said the closure was rushed and ill-considered. “The camp is being cleared in haste, without preparation. That’s why our group was one of several aid organisations that went to court to delay this move in order for the proper time for preparation to happen and a process to study people’s cases,” he said.

“But the courts gave the government the go-ahead to begin clearing it. The government argued that if they waited, more people would arrive.”

Read more: The Guardian

Photo credit: France24