"Hundreds of children remain in the area - many alone"
By Anna Pujol-Mazzini
LONDON, April 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Refugees and migrants sleeping rough in the French port of Calais, some of them unaccompanied children, have been teargassed, beaten and abused by police since the "Jungle" camp was dismantled last year, a report published on Monday found.
Beatings with batons and attacks with stun-guns left young migrants with knee injuries, dislocated shoulders and eye injuries, a survey of more than 200 migrants conducted earlier this month by the Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP) showed.
"Hundreds of children remain in the area - many alone, scared and facing life-threatening dangers on a daily basis," Marta Welander, director of RRDP, said in a statement.
Local authorities in Calais could not be reached for comment. The local authority in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region told the Independent newspaper the allegations of police brutality were "unfounded".
Over a third of migrants interviewed had family in Britain and many may be eligible for resettlement in the country, RRDP said.
European Union rules say Britain must take in unaccompanied children who have family ties in the country under so-called Dublin rules.
Under the so-called Dubs amendment passed by parliament last year, Britain agreed to accept vulnerable refugee children who arrived in the European Union before March 20, 2016.
But in February, the government announced plans to drop the scheme it said encouraged human trafficking.
Over half those surveyed in Calais also experienced physical or verbal abuse by local residents.
"They always shout racist abuse while they drive past," a 21-year-old man from Eritrea was quoted as saying in the report.
"(One) time they threw rubbish on my face which is really horrible and left me wondering if I am in Europe or somewhere else," he said.
France moved more than 6,000 migrants, many fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa, from the site of a makeshift camp in Calais last October to reception centres around the country to calm growing local anger.
But hundreds, especially unaccompanied children, have gravitated back to the northern port, hoping to cross the short stretch of sea to Britain by leaping onto trucks and trains, or even walking through the tunnel under the Channel.
Most migrants interviewed hoped to cross to Britain because of family ties, or a perception that they would have a better chance of receiving asylum.
Earlier this month, a fire destroyed most of a migrant camp near the northern French town of Dunkirk after fighting between rival groups injured five people, with charities concerned this would leave the 1,700 residents without adequate shelter.
(Reporting by Anna Pujol-Mazzini @annapmzn, Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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