The “Jungle” of Calais: 5 police officers and a photographer wounded in the clashes – The Express

What are the clashes the most serious since February, in the “Jungle” of Calais. On Saturday,migrants and activists are very determined to be opposed to the forces of the order after the ban of a demonstration in support of refugees.

Five police officers were slightly injured, as well as a photographer of the AFP, according to the latest balance sheet published in the Saturday evening by the minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve, who has “condemned in the strongest terms the acts of violence committed by militants”.

Face-to-Face violent between migrants and the forces of order

“The Jungle”, promised to be dismantled before winter, has seen a flare-up of fever, with images of face-to-face violent between migrants and the forces of order that there had been more reviews since the beginning of the dismantling, the 29th of February, in the Southern part of the largest slum in France. These clashes had been five wounded.

Thursday, the prefecture had decided to ban Saturday’s demonstration organized by the “International Coalition of Sans-Papiers and Migrants (CISPM)”, considering that the risks of disturbances to public order were characterized. The reasons for its decision, the services of the State called for the invasion at the end of January the port of Calais following a manifestation of this collective, with the occupation that spectacular of a ferry of the company “P&O Ferries” by about 80 migrants. Friday, the administrative court of Lille, to which the matter referred, had confirmed the order of prohibition.

Saturday afternoon, at around 15: 40 to one of the two main entrances to the camp, about 200 people, migrants and activists of the ultra-left, including No Border, have tried to move the cord of the forces of order to form a procession.

fever 6 days after the visit of François Hollande

“As the gathering was prohibited, it was carried out the customary warnings and CRS have pushed the migrants on the band of 100 m (which had been fully decommissioned in early 2016, editor’s note), to the interior of the camp itself,” said Stephen Desplanques, director of the office of the préfète of the Pas-de-Calais.

followed by violent clashes between the two camps: migrants and activists, many of whom are British, very determined, and the face often masked, threw stones and bullets of various. The forces of the order were replicated almost without interruption in the pulling of many grenades of tear gas and by multiplying the use of a water cannon to push them back.

At the height of the clashes, 200 additional members of the forces of the order were sent on the spot, said the prefecture. “It was a volley of stones, it has not stopped,” testified a photographer of the AFP present on the site. To 19 hours, the situation had again become quiet.

These clashes took place six days after the visit to Calais of Francois Hollande, who promised the “complete dismantling” of here, “the end of the year” of the camp, crammed between 7 000 and 10 000 migrants.