French Police raid second migrant campsite

The Jungle migrant camp in Calais has been making all the headlines this week and has become the very public face of emigration for UK and French authorities alike. Pictures were beamed around the world as French riot police joined hundreds of other officers in removing asylum seekers and bulldozing makeshift homes.

Just a few short miles along the coast at Loonplage, a second camp was also treated with the same tactics. Loonplage, near Dunkirk, is just one of several additional migrants camps around the area although none with the high profile of the Calais Jungle.

The Jungle has been the most infamous of the group since its inception in 2002 following the closure of the Sangette Red Cross shelter. Although its dismantling was hailed by French authorities as a success, many feel the gesture is largely symbolic and that migrants will now simply take up residence in surrounding sites.

The Loonplage site was raided on Tuesday morning by unmarked police vans which headed straight for the Afghani section of the camp, sending people running into the nearby forests, no doubt to resurface at Loonplage or another camp in the coming days. Around 50 arrests were made during the raid. According to one volunteer at the camp, Loonplage has been raided 10 times and razed to the ground by police in its lengthy history which dates back to around the same time of the Jungle. The Loonplage camp is situated directly opposite the Dunkirk ferry dock which taunts asylum seekers daily as they watch boats leave for the UK.