Advertisement

WATCH: Refugees clash with police in bloody protest against Calais camp demolition

Click to play video: 'Refugees clash with police in bloody protest against Calais camp eviction'
Refugees clash with police in bloody protest against Calais camp eviction
WATCH ABOVE: Refugees clash with police in bloody protest against Calais camp eviction – Mar 1, 2016

Protesters screamed at French police as they removed a couple from the top of a shelter in the sprawling migrant camp, known as ‘the Jungle’, in the northern French town of Calais.

Video shows police grappling with a man and woman, on the roof of their makeshift home, while dozens can be heard shouting.

“Help is not being provided. This is destruction. This is not help, you’re not providing a solution,” said one onlooker.

READ MORE: Fiery backlash as Calais migrant camp dismantled in France

The Associated Press reported that a woman cut her wrists on a rooftop as police moved in Tuesday and a man was beaten with batons before being removed from the roof. The woman was conscious, but her condition wasn’t immediately known, according to the AP.

Story continues below advertisement

The tense incident was filmed as officials continued a second day of demolition of the camp that is home to almost 4,000 people. Many people living there, from countries including Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria, hope to cross the Channel to reach Britain.

Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.

“This operation will continue in coming days, calmly and methodically, providing a place for everyone as the government has committed,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement Tuesday.

The French government has offered to move people into heated shipping containers in the camp or to reception centres around France, where they can claim asylum in the country. Aid agencies say more people are living there than authorities say and that there is not enough alternative accommodation for them.

READ MORE: Nearly 10,000 migrants stuck on Greek-Macedonian border

Elsewhere in Europe, nearly 10,000 migrants have become stranded on the Greece-Macedonia border for more than a week where conditions are beginning to deteriorate according Greek officials.

On Monday, video showed Macedonian police firing tear gas at a crowd of migrants who used a makeshift battering ram to damage a barbed-wire fence on the border.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) directly blamed the “discriminatory border closures” and a cap imposed by Austria for the situation in Greece.

Story continues below advertisement

“Trapping asylum seekers in Greece is an unconscionable and short-sighted non-solution that is causing suffering and violence,” HRW Greece specialist Eva Cosse told the AP. “It demonstrates once again the EU’s utter failure to respond collectively and compassionately to refugee flows.”

More than 130,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean already in 2016, more than in the first half of 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Sponsored content

AdChoices