CALAIS, France—Under the eye of hundreds of riot police, workers began pulling down tents and makeshift shelters in the sprawling camp in Calais on Monday, dismantling the fragile structures that have served as temporary homes for migrants hoping to make their way to a better life in Britain.
A flashpoint on the edge of the Channel, the camp sprang up less than a year ago in the port city, which has both ferries and the Eurotunnel rail route to Britain. It has grown explosively in past months amid Europe’s migrant crisis, fueling far-right sentiment in both Britain and France. Some 4,000 people are estimated to live in the camp—down from 6,000 in December.
Calais has lived with migrants in its midst for years, but the current camp on the city’s edge sprang up around a day center opened last April by the state—and after small camps inside the city were bulldozed. The dismantling of the dense southern portion of the current camp would be the largest such operation the city has known.
