Doctors Without Borders to open refugee camp in France

The charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will on Monday open a refugee camp near Dunkirk in northern France without the blessing of the French government.

The camp in Grande Synthe, where hundreds of wooden shelters are being installed, is meant to take in refugees currently occupying a shantytown about a kilometre away that is slated to be demolished, according to the Daily Mail.

MSF said it is the first camp conforming to international norms to open in France since the start of the migrant crisis early last year.

The charity will run the camp jointly with the Grande Synthe town hall, but without the blessing of Paris.

The charity has so far built more than 200 cabins of 275 planned "in the short term" to house at least 1,500 people, said the coordinator, Angelique Muller. Enough showers and toilets are being provided to eventually handle 2,500 people, she said.

Officially, about 1,000 refugees live in the shantytown, including 60 women and 74 children, with the transfer to the new camp expected to take three days.

MSF's decision to build a proper camp was prompted early last month when heavy winds damaged two-thirds of about 200 tents at Grande Synthe.

Jean-Francois Cordet, a local government administrator, said in mid-February: "The government's policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande Synthe, but to make it go away".

A French judge recently gave the green light for the government to tear down part of a shantytown near Calais known as “Jungle,” but riots broke out amid the resulting chaos.

The government has been urging residents of both the Jungle and Grande Synthe to seek housing at one of some 200 centres across France and to submit asylum applications.

Thousands of migrants who have fled poverty or conflict in north Africa and the Middle East instead have their hearts set on reaching England.