Refugee children ‘sleeping rough’ after Calais demolition

Images have emerged showing refugees and migrants sleeping rough following the clearing of the Calais camps, amid claims from charities that dozens of unaccompanied children were among those without shelter.

Save the Children said it was “extremely concerned” about the welfare of children who had not yet been registered as fires broke out across the camp, with some residents torching their temporary homes.

Hundreds of people, including lone children, have not been registered by the French authorities, the charities said. The government had aimed to clear the camps by the end of Wednesday, registering all residents and transporting them by bus to accommodation in other parts of France.

But shipping containers set up near the camp to house unaccompanied children were full to capacity on Wednesday night and organisations working with migrants and refugees reported that some children were forced to sleep outside.

The Guardian spoke to at least half a dozen 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds who said they had slept rough on the verge near the processing centre on Wednesday night.

Unaccompanied children were among refugees and migrants queuing on Thursday morning outside the warehouses where authorities had carried out registrations earlier in the week, but they remained closed. There was no sign of any systematic support for the remaining migrants. Help Refugees estimated that about 100 children were among those waiting.

People were being turned away by the French authorities and ordered to return to the camp on Thursday morning, according to Refugee Info Bus.

There was anger among volunteers who spent the night in the camp as authorities insisted the clearance operation had been completed and the migrants had been relocated.

“This is disgusting – they have nowhere to go,” said a British man who works for Care4Calais. “To be given shelter and to be processed and given a future – this is what the children have wanted all along, but they turned up to the processing centre and queued for hours and then were told to go back to the camp, which is not safe.”

The registration for unaccompanied children closed hours before it was scheduled to, with children sent back to the camps despite the fires, he said.

Video and photos published by Refugee Info Bus showed diggers and bulldozers moving into the camps on Thursday morning.

In total, the French authorities said they had relocated 4,404 migrants and registered 1,200 children, who were either transferred to the UK or sent to the container site. They added that 233 children had been received by the UK since 17 October.

Guardian service