Law returns to the 'Jungle': Latest migrant shanty town in Paris is smashed by police after locals complained of gang violence and a park that had been turned into an 'open-air toilet'

Migrant camp in Eole Gardens in Paris has been smashed up by riot police

Came after complaints of violence and that park was an 'open-air' toilet

Migrants spoke of their shock after police moved in early this morning

They were ordered on to coaches and dispersed into temporary housing

By PETER ALLEN IN PARIS FOR MAINLINE PUBLISHED: 07:45 GMT, 6 June 2016 | UPDATED: 10:40 GMT, 6 June 2016

A Paris shanty town full of UK-bound migrants was razed this morning after complaints of gang violence and that a park had been turned into an 'open-air toilet'.

Riot police moved in to the Eole gardens, close to the Eurostar hub, soon after 6am to the 'shock and surprise' of those living there.

'We were not expecting this,' said Tegani Ugomai, a 26-year-old from Darfur, in the western Sudan, who was travelling with five other young men.



Riot police wearing face masks forcibly remove the migrants that had set up a camp in northern Paris


The riot police moved in early this morning to break up the camp and round up the migrants living rough


Many of the migrants were taken by surprise early this morning when police moved in to dismantle the camp


Migrants fold up their tents and gather up their other belongings as riot police moved in to break up a
camp at the Eole Gardens close to the Eurostar hub in Paris


Riot police moved into the camp shortly after 6am this morning to break it up, much to the surprise of
the migrants there


The riot police wore masks over their faces after complaints about the unsanitary conditions around the camp

'Tents and food were being handed out over the weekend, but now we are all being split up. The French do not want us here,' Mr Ugomai added.

More than 2,000 migrants were ordered on to a fleet of hired coaches, and then 'dispersed to 60 temporary accommodation centres, including gyms, in other parts of France,' according to a local official.

It follows the city's Socialist Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, announcing that the city's first-ever international refugee camp will be built in the French capital later this summer.

In the meantime, migrants from all over Europe, including many who were previously camped out in Calais, had made a bee-line for the Eole park.


The camp was razed after complaints of gang violence and that the park had been turned into an
'open-air toilet'


The camp in Paris had been there for several weeks before police moved in today to raze it to the ground


One migrant is woken up and peaks out of his tent just before police move in to break up the camp in Paris


Once the migrants were rounded up, they were forced on to buses to be taken to temporary accommodation


The migrants at the Eole were washing and drinking at stand pipes, and there were fears that conditions
such as scabies would break out, along with more serious contagious diseases


Migrants line up and wait to board buses to take them to temporary accommodation elsewhere in France

It had already turned into a lawless, rubbish-strewn mess, full of mainly young men planning their journeys to England.

Charity groups including the Salvation Army had provided tents and food for residents of the unofficial camp, in the northern 19th arrondissement, a short stroll from Gare du Nord, from where high speed trains travel backwards and forwards from London.

The grass lawns around it had turned into an open air toilet, while people smugglers offered passages to London, via train or plane, for the equivalent of around £2,000, with a 'temporary passport' included.

Violence had broken out between rival gangs from different nationalities - mainly Afghans, Sudanese and Eritreans - while police struggled to maintain order.


More than 2,000 migrants had set up the camp in the park, after the city's Socialist Mayor, Anne Hidalgo,
announced Paris' first-ever international refugee camp will be built later this summer


Charity groups including the Salvation Army had provided tents and food for residents of the unofficial
camp in the northern 19th arrondissement

French housing minister Emmanuelle Cosse was present at today's 'evacuation', after saying: 'Camps are not the solution.

'The solution is to receive people in different locations in existing structures so they can be integrated in our country.'

France remains in a state of emergency following last year's terrorist attacks, during which Islamic State killers slept rough in Paris, and travelled across Europe as refugees, before murdering almost 150 people in the city.

The migrants at the Eole were washing and drinking at stand pipes, and there were fears that conditions such as scabies would break out, along with more serious contagious diseases.

Law returns to the 'Jungle': Latest migrant shanty town in Paris is smashed by police after locals complained of gang violence and a park that had been turned into an 'open-air toilet'