CALAIS (France) • Four migrants were in critical condition after being shot and more than a dozen others were injured, some seriously, during clashes between Afghans and Africans in the northern French port of Calais, the local authorities said.
Some 22 people were admitted to hospital on Thursday, according to an official total, including four Eritreans aged between 16 and 18 who needed surgery, local prosecutors said.
Another wounded migrant was taken to the nearby city of Lille because of his "very serious state of health", the local prefect's office said.
"We have reached an escalation of violence that has become unbearable for both those from Calais and migrants," said Interior Minister Gerard Collomb during a visit to one of the sites of the clashes. "This is a level of violence never seen before."
Two police officers were also injured during the clashes.
A nearly two-hour fight broke out on the southern outskirts of Calais among about 100 Eritreans and some 30 Afghans who had been queuing for food handouts. It started when an Afghan fired shots.
A second fight then broke out at an industrial site around 5km away, with more than 100 Eritreans armed with iron rods and sticks fighting about 20 Afghans, prosecutors said.
"Police intervened to protect the Afghan migrants faced with 150 to 200 Eritrean migrants," the local prefecture said, adding that security reinforcements were being deployed in the area.
Further violence broke out late in the afternoon in an industrial area of Calais, not far from the site of the old Jungle camp. It was the worst violence in Calais since clashes on July 1 left 16 people wounded.
The notorious "Jungle" camp in Calais, once home to some 10,000 people hoping to make it to Britain, was demolished in 2016, but hundreds of migrants remain in the port city seeking to stow away on England-bound trucks.
Charities working with migrants in the area say around 800 are living in Calais, while the local authorities put the number at 550 to 600.
Last month President Emmanuel Macron vowed zero tolerance for camps like the "Jungle" and secured a new border security deal which will see Britain pay more to stop migrants trying to reach its shores.
Mr Macron has said he wants to step up expulsions of economic migrants while speeding up waiting times for asylum applications - an approach he touts as mixing "humanity" and "efficiency".
But his tougher line has earned criticism, with his former senior aide, Mr Jean Pisani-Ferry, among those signing a hard-hitting open letter claiming Mr Macron risked betraying his image as a humanist.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
