France Sends Police Reinforcements to Calais after Migrant Clashes

France's interior minister said Thursday he had dispatched 100 extra police to the northern port of Calais where an influx of illegal migrants trying to get to Britain is causing more and more havoc.

The northern city has for months been struggling to cope with a growing tide of migrants fleeing wars or repression, and authorities say up to 2,300 asylum-seekers are now living rough in Calais and surrounding areas -- up from 1,500 at the end of the summer.

This week, violent fights between migrants in an industrial district where many have taken refuge saw police fire tear gas and seal off the area to try and restore calm, a situation that mayor Natacha Bouchart described as "extreme."

The migrants -- many of whom are from Eritrea and Sudan but also from Syria and other conflict zones -- aim to get to Britain, seen as an eldorado with more favorable asylum policies where many already have family.

As such, they have taken to mobbing an area in the port where trucks wait to be checked before they board ferries, scrambling onto vehicles in the hope that no one will notice.

In an interview with local daily La Voix du Nord, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had decided to send reinforcements to Calais by dispatching "100 additional police officers, of whom 70 will secure the port permanently 24 hours a day, and 30 others will secure the town center."

This brings the total number of police mobilized to keep order in the city to 450, he added in the interview published Thursday.

"The aim is for trucks to be able to move more freely, to avoid them being mobbed, and to strengthen controls while also ensuring the security of migrants who are themselves in danger," Cazeneuve said.

On Monday night, a 16-year-old Ethiopian girl was killed after being hit by a car while crossing a motorway in the area, police said, highlighting the dangers involved.

The problem in Calais is not new -- illegal camps of migrants have sprung up in the area since French authorities closed down the infamous Sangatte immigrant detention center in 2002.

But the crisis has spiraled, and Bouchart on Thursday said "managing the situation is not possible anymore."

"This crisis situation means that Calais residents are more than anxious, they are scared," she told RTL radio after migrants from different countries fought not only in the industrial zone where they are sleeping rough but also in the city center.

"We need to be firm by evacuating squatter camps in urban zones, and we need to be humane by opening a day center and housing the women and children."

French authorities have upped security in the city, and Denis Robin, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais district where Calais is located, said Thursday that barriers would be set up over four kilometers (2.5 miles) to keep migrants out of the port area.

Riot police are also patrolling the city center on foot and in vehicles to maintain order, he added, pointing to residents' "increasing concern" amid a rise in petty theft.

Both Cazeneuve and Robin also said a day center would soon be opened to allow migrants access to health care, toilets and bathrooms.

And according to the interior minister, Britain has agreed to contribute up to 15 million euros (£12 million, $19 million) to help deal with the problem.

Europe as a whole is faced with a rise in the number of migrants desperately fleeing trouble spots in the Middle East and Africa, such as Syria's bloody civil war or Eritrea's repressive regime and forced, decades-long conscription.

The deteriorating security situation in Libya, a transit country for many migrants, is also pushing up the numbers of people trying to make it to Europe by any means possible.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, a record figure of more than 3,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, Spain, Malta or Greece this year.

Anti-immigration parties around Europe have seized on the problem, and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced that she would be visiting Calais on Friday to address the issue.