Dailymail uk France has given protesting Calais refugees two days before bulldozing a third of the notorious Jungle camp, after 1,500 refuse to move into new government-built housing.
Jungle residents reject the new £20million camp, designed to accommodate 1,500 refugees in powered and heated converted shipping containers, complaining that it looks like 'a prison'.
However, French police today served the protesting refugees with eviction orders, telling them they have until Wednesday night to vacate their tents before bulldozers level the camp on Thursday.
A migrant walks among the tents and huts of the makeshift camp called 'The Jungle' next to the fenced area made of containers recycled in rooms to host some 1,500 migrants in Calais
Despite the much improved living conditions in the new camp, Jungle residents have refused to move, claiming to want to stay put in their makeshift tents.
'Community leaders', in the Jungle released a statement earlier today, 'respectfully declining' the local government's orders to vacate a third of the camp.
'We, the united people of the Jungle, Calais, respectfully decline the demands of the French government with regards to reducing the size of the jungle.
'We have decided to remain where we are and will peacefully resist the government’s plans to destroy our homes.
'We plead with the French authorities and the international communities that you understand our situation and respect our fundamental human rights.'
Refugees and migrants living in a third of the camp have until Wednesday night to vacate their tents before bulldozers destroy the camp on Thursday
According to volunteers working in the Jungle, residents are reluctant to move into the new camp because 'it looks like a detention centre'.
The new camp consists of metal transport containers which have been converted into heated homes, complete with power sockets, heated towel rails, toilets and washing facilities,
Yesterday, charity workers complained at the constrained time scale they had been given by French authorities to move more than 1,500 people into the new £20million camp.
'Our Calais teams have just found out we have only three days (including Monday) to move and relocate approximately 2,000 refugees, including over 300 women and 60 kids,', charity HelpRefugees UK wrote in a statement on Monday.
'The French government will bulldoze a significant section, nearly one third, of the entire Calais camp, a much larger area than we had been previously told about.'
The group added that they feared they would only be able to move some 200 of the people living in the area which will be destroyed come Thursday.
In the wake of the refugees' refusal to move, HelpRefugees has now said that they will respect the wishes of the Jungle community, while assisting those who are still willing to move.
The new facilities are located in the heart of the Jungle camp, which has ballooned in recent months and has evolved into a slum with shops, mosques and a church between the tarps and tents.
Up to 6,000 people were reportedly staying there in the months leading up to Christmas, though the number has decreased recently.
Authorities are cautious not to allow housing to attract more migrants, and the goal is to reduce the Calais migrant population to 2,000.
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