French police early Wednesday began expelling around 650 migrants from camps in the northern port of Calais despite opposition from rights groups supporting asylum seekers.
Several of the migrants left voluntarily when they saw the busloads of riot police arrive and ring their camps, from which they had hoped to cross to Britain.
Confusion was widespread, notably at one of the largest camps housing mainly Syrian and Afghan exiles, as the migrants have nowhere else to go.
“The people are on edge and are looking for the place where they will feel the safest,” Cecile Bossy, from the France-based Doctors of the World NGO, told AFP at the scene.
The authorities say the expulsion is aimed at stopping an outbreak of scabies in the camps.
Illegal camps of would-be channel-hoppers have sprung up in the Calais area since the French authorities closed down the infamous nearby Sangatte immigrant detention centre in 2002.
France’s Manuel Valls, who was recently appointed prime minister, took a tougher line on immigration than most of his Socialist party during his high-profile stint as interior minister.
Immigration and borders featured prominently in the campaign for last week’s European Parliament elections, which saw far-right anti-immigration candidates score historic victories, including in France and Britain.
As the expulsion unfolded in Calais, about 400 migrants stormed across a towering, triple-layer border fence from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory of Melilla, one of the biggest crossings in nearly a decade.
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