PARIS: European authorities are giving France an extra 5 million euros ($5.6 million) to aid migrants who have clustered in a filthy camp in the port city of Calais in hopes of sneaking across the English Channel to Britain.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans announced the funding Monday during a visit to Calais with French and EU officials. He said it’s aimed at creating a new camp to offer aid to 1,500 migrants. A few thousand migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere are living in unsanitary makeshift conditions at the camp.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Europe’s migrant problem can’t be solved with “barbed wire” alone, and urged more help for migrants with legitimate asylum claims. However, he insisted that economic migrants must be sent home.
