Seven hundred young migrants from Calais Jungle will be brought to the UK
The children were accompanied by Home Office staff and taken by bus from the now-demolished migrant camp
SEVEN hundred young migrants from the Calais Jungle are to be brought to the UK.
Almost 1500 child migrants from the notorious camp were yesterday transported to reception centres across France after the closure- before half head to the UK.
The children were accompanied by Home Office staff and taken by bus from the now-demolished migrant camp to special youth centres across the country.
Around 700 of them are expected to come to the UK, according to Whitehall sources.
French officials said around 95 per cent of the children are applying for asylum in Britain.
No details have been given about the locations of the French youth centres where the children were being taken, where they will stay while their eligibility is assessed.
There were two Home Office representatives accompanying each bus full of children.
A Home Office spokesman said no decisions have been made about the number of children coming to the UK from Calais.
Robert Goodwill, the immigration minister, said the childrens’ eligibility to living permanently in the UK “will be considered at these facilities and transfers [to Britain] will resume in the coming days and weeks”.
More than 300 children have arrived in the UK from Calais and Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, told parliament last week hundreds are set to follow.
But Theresa May has rejected François Hollande’s demand for Britain to accept all of them.
Some of the child migrants may be allowed to live in Britain because they have relatives already here.
And around 40 per cent of the minors have already said they have family here, according to Pierre
Henry, head of the charity France Terre d’Asile which has been helping the Home Office process them.
Other children may be granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Fabienne Buccio, the Calais regional prefect, said: “We have made a big gesture by accepting thousands of migrants in France.
“We asked Britain to take more children and I think the British are now playing their part.
“The children are not always disciplined and we didn’t want to begin moving them out of Calais until we were sure British officials would be present.”
Most the migrants boarding the busses looked between 14 to 17, although there was a small number of much younger children, including an eight-year-old girl, French media said.
The children have been living in converted freight containers on the site of the “Jungle” camp since it was demolished last week.
About 30 buses were to leave on Wednesday and French officials said more may go on today and Friday if all children were not evacuated.
Ahmed, 17, from Sudan said many children were anxious because they had not been told their exact destinations.
He told local media: “You can’t say I’m really happy because I don’t know where I’m going. Britain, Canada?”
“But I’m still pleased to be leaving the ‘Jungle’.”
Of the 72 child migrants taken to two centres in western and eastern France during the mass clearance of the camp last week, 40 have already disappeared.
Dadou Kehl, head of a group that runs a French centre for Sudanese, Eritrean and Ethiopian children said 11 had slipped away hours after arriving.
He added that some of the others “spend all their time talking on the phone to people who are in England.”
Mathieu Klein, chairman of the Meurthe-et-Moselle local council said: “They still hope to reach England via Calais and say they have family in the UK.”