Italian police Tuesday forcefully evacuated dozens of mainly African migrants from their shelter under a railway bridge on the Franco-Italian border, which has become a flashpoint in Europe's immigrant crisis.

Most left peacefully but some had to be physically removed from their makeshift home by police in riot gear, who then forced them into Red Cross vehicles.

Dozens of migrants refused entry into France went on hunger strike Saturday at the border crossing in Ventimiglia in Italy, where they organized a sit-in and threatened to block traffic.

French border police told AFP they had been ordered not to let through the migrants, many of whom came from Somalia, Eritrea, the Ivory Coast and Sudan, and hoped to travel onwards to Germany, Britain or Sweden to request asylum.