French police bulldoze migrants’ ‘jungle’ camp

MSNBC reports: French police cleared out then bulldozed a squalid, sprawling forest camp near the northern city of Calais today, detaining hundreds of illegal migrants who had hoped to slip across the English Channel into Britain.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, who visited the site known as "the jungle," called it a "base camp for human traffickers" and said he would return the rule of law to the northern French coast.

"The law of the jungle cannot last eternally," Besson said. "A state of law must be re-established in Calais."

The people who camped here — mainly migrants from Afghanistan — have strained relations between Britain and France and become a symbol of Europe's struggle with illegal migration.

A total of 278 people — nearly half of them minors — were detained in the first part of the operation, said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the top official for the Pas-de-Calais region.

"This operation is not targeting the migrants themselves, it is targeting the logistics of the human traffickers ... who exploit them," he said.

Refugees in jeans and sweatshirts, many apparently in their teens, carried knapsacks and blankets as they were led away in single lines by police. Activists yelled at police with bullhorns. Some formed a human chain around the refugees and briefly scuffled with police as they took the men and boys one by one.

Some refugees sobbed as they were loaded onto buses, saying they wanted to stay in the camp and voicing fears about being returned to Afghanistan. Police struggled with others.