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Illegal migrants aiming for the UK are arrested

refugeesMakeshift refugee camps in Calais are being cleared by French police.

Some 1,000 refugees are estimated to be living rough on the northern French coast, with around 650 near Calais.

The migrants are mostly from Africa and the Middle East and are trying to find ways to enter the UK.

In May 800 migrants in camps near the Calais port were removed.

The AFP news agency reported that police blocked road and sea access to the port after they obtained a court order for the camps to be disbanded.

The action was put down to poor sanitary conditions according to officials. There is no water or power in the camps, and shelter is under plastic bags.

A senior government official for the region told AFP that about 320 migrants were taken away by buses destined it seemed for a secure immigration detention centre outside Calais.

There the migrants will be given the choice of either trying to claim asylum in France or being deported to their own countries.

After closing the main Red Cross centre at Sangatte near Calais in 2002, illegal camps with no provisions have cropped up.

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