Hundreds of migrants at large after fire ravages French camp
GRANDE-SYNTHE, France — Authorities and aid workers are searching for several hundred migrants who disappeared after a fire ravaged their camp in northern France, a shocking blaze that exposed anew the challenges and tensions around Europe’s migrants just 12 days before France’s presidential election.
Police cordoned off the largely destroyed camp in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe on Tuesday and investigators inspected the site to try to determine the cause of the Monday night fire, which broke out following a fight between rival groups of migrants.
Three mobile police units were deployed in the area to head off tensions prompted by the camp’s demise, the government said in a statement. The interior and housing ministers headed to the scene in a sign of the government’s concern about the issue.
Most of the camp near the English Channel is now reduced to the charred remains of wooden shelters and sparse belongings of the migrants, who converged on northern France in hopes of reaching Britain as part of waves of recent migration to Europe.