French police have begun expelling about 650 migrants from camps in the northern port of Calais despite opposition from rights groups.
Several migrants left voluntarily when they saw the busloads of riot police arrive and ring their camps, from which they had hoped to cross to Britain.
Confusion was widespread, notably at one of the largest camps housing mainly Syrian and Afghan exiles, because the migrants had nowhere else to go.
"The people are on edge and are looking for the place where they will feel the safest," Cecile Bossy, from the France-based Doctors of the World NGO, told AFP at the scene on Wednesday.
The authorities say the expulsion is aimed at stopping an outbreak of scabies in the camps, where there is no running water or proper sanitation.
The people in the camps live in makeshift shelters and tents built with bits of wood and plastic sheeting.
Rights activists said about 200 migrants sheltered overnight at a food distribution centre and police were trying to evict them on Wednesday.
Some of the migrants put up improvised barricades with dumpsters.
"There will be no arrests except in the case of rebellion," the prefect, or the top administrator of the Pas-de-Calais region Denis Robin said.
Bossy said the evacuation was being carried out in a manner that was "anything but professional".
The migrants are being asked to board buses and be driven to meet French immigration officials to examine their individual cases after having taken showers and undergone treatment for scabies, a contagious skin infection.
Illegal camps of migrants seeking to cross the Channel have sprung up in the Calais area since the French authorities closed down the infamous nearby Sangatte immigrant detention centre in 2002. Their numbers have nearly doubled in recent weeks.
Immigration and borders featured prominently in the campaign for last week's European parliament elections, in which far-right anti-immigration candidates scored historic victories, including in France and Britain.
Share
