French police arrest migrants at "Jungle" camp

French riot police on Tuesday rounded up scores of mainly Afghan migrants and refugees during a dawn raid on a makeshift camp known as the "Jungle" used as a base to make risky attempts to reach Britain.

French government official Pierre de Bousquet de Florian said 278 people were detained in the operation. He said nearly half of them had identified themselves as minors and would be taken to a migrant shelter while the adults were taken into custody.

Dozens of charity workers had formed a human wall before some 100 migrants who carried banners saying "the jungle is ours"; but police encircled the crowd, arrested the migrants and loaded them onto buses.

The migrants followed without resistance, some in tears, as they were led out one by one by the police.

Asked if he was afraid, 18-year-old Bilal Hazarbauz smiled: "Maybe they will deport me to Afghanistan.

"But where else can we go? This our home, there is no other place."

This is not a humanitarian camp. It's a base for people traffickers

Immigration Minister Eric Besson

The government prefect said police would tear down the shacks and tents set up on sandy scrubland in Calais.

The operation, announced last week, had been heavily criticized by humanitarian groups who say it will do nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration, but Immigration Minister Eric Besson defended the move.

"This is not a humanitarian camp. It's a base for people traffickers," he told RTL radio shortly after the operation began.

Police started leading out the migrants one by one who followed without resistance amid the angry shouts of the protesters and with dozens of journalists looking on.

Thousands of mainly male migrants, from Afghanistan, Iraq and other troubled nations, have headed to Calais in the past decade to try to jump on a ferry or a train crossing the Channel tunnel to Britain.

But government officials say the Calais "Jungle" has become a haven for people-smuggling gangs and a no-go zone for locals, with appalling sanitary conditions blamed for an outbreak of scabies in the past few months.

From a peak of 700 mostly Afghan Pashtuns based in the "jungle" in June, aid groups say two thirds have fled since the government indicated it would close the camp in April.

But William Spindler, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Calais, warned earlier this week that France had a duty towards migrants from conflict-ridden areas of the world.

"We understand the French authorities' position. The living conditions for migrants in these camps are unacceptable," Spindler said. "But if we close 'The Jungle' it is important that the migrants are given a chance to apply for asylum, in particular those who come from Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan."

The makeshift tent city grew up after France closed a large Red Cross centre at nearby Sangatte in 2002 under pressure from Britain, which saw it as a magnet for clandestine immigrants.

But if we close 'The Jungle', it is important that the migrants are given a chance to apply for asylum, in particular those who come from Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan

William Spindler, UNHCR