French official: Burned migrant camp a 'heap of ashes'

By Hajer M’tiri

PARIS

A huge overnight fire at a migrant camp in northern France has left nothing but a “heap of ashes”, a local official said on Tuesday.

Michel Lalande, the prefect of France’s Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, told a news conference: “It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before.”

A first blaze erupted at around 11.00 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Monday following clashes between Kurdish and Afghan refugees over alleged accommodation discrimination in the Grande-Synthe camp.

Lalande said Afghans who came after the dismantling of the Calais “Jungle” camp at the end of October 2016 were apparently unhappy about being housed in collective kitchens while Kurds slept in wider cabins.

Riot police were called to end the stand-off and firefighters succeeded in extinguishing the fire in the early hours of the morning.

At least a dozen people were injured, Lalande said, adding that refugees had been evacuated and rehoused in converted gymnasiums in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe.

The camp had been built by Doctors Without Borders. It was home to nearly 2,000 people living in 213 closely packed small wooden cabins.

An inquiry into the incident has been launched.