Migrant children returning to Calais

TMP – 15/03/2017

Up to 400 migrants, many of them unaccompanied children, have made their way back to Calais in northern France over the past few weeks in the hope of reaching the UK.

“We believe some migrants are coming back and that 300 to 400 of them are currently in the region. Most of them are teenagers or young adults,” said Lucie Favry, from local aid association Utopia 56. A precise figure is difficult to get because many are believed to be in hiding from the police.

Another NGO worker said she and her colleagues were handing out more than a hundred meals daily to migrants turning up. “We haven’t been counting them all, but we see new faces all the time, so we are definitely talking of hundreds of people, “Yolaine Bernard said.The ‘jungle’ was the nickname  given to the make-shift migrant camp in Calais that was dismantled in October last year in an attempt to stop illegal migrants congregating in a bid to reach the UK When the camp was closed, France moved more than 6,000 migrants to reception centres around the country.  

Police forces are still deployed permanently in the area.