French police arrest hundreds of illegal migrants
Ferry Online Travel News 23/04/2009
Police in Calais carried out a series of raids early on Tuesday, arresting around 200 migrants.
The raids and subsequent arrests occurred just two days before the immigration minister, Eric Besson, will visit Calais – a city that the UK sees as a major port from which illegal migrants cross the Channel to Britain.
In the largest of the actions, 225 riot police targeted shelters in an area of thorny bushes called “the jungle,” where they found and arrested 150 migrants. According to prefecture spokeswoman Catherine Mandet, most of the detainees were Afghans.
At a highway toll barrier, 44 others were arrested, close to a port truck stop where smugglers often fill up the back of freight trucks with illegal migrants for the crossing to the UK.
Iraqis, Iranians and Pakistanis were also detained in the court-ordered raids, which involved more than 500 officials and police officers overall. Mandet added that the migrants who had been arrested were moved to Boulogne, Calais and Lille, where the laws allow them to be held and questioned for up to 48 hours – and that there had been no incidence of violence.
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