Children will "just disappear" into the hands of smugglers and people-traffickers as French authorities clear the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, a leading MP has warned.

 

Yvette Cooper said that despite efforts to bring unaccompanied children to the UK from the immigrant camp, there are still hundreds there as bulldozers are poised to move in.

 

Children will "just disappear" into the hands of smugglers and people-traffickers as French authorities clear the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, a leading MP has warned.

 

Yvette Cooper said that despite efforts to bring unaccompanied children to the UK from the immigrant camp, there are still hundreds there as bulldozers are poised to move in.

 

"And the consequences; they slip into the arms of the smuggler gangs, the traffickers. Just at the point at which they might have been able to be reunited with their family, then they are lost."

 

The evacuation of the camp has now begun following clashes between some residents and police.

 

Authorities will begin dismantling makeshift homes there on Tuesday after buses arrived to transport 3,000 people to reception centres, where they will have to claim asylum in France within a set period of time or face deportation.

 

But Ms Cooper said adequate arrangements for children had not been made: "There are still hundreds of children and teenagers stuck in the camp and the French authorities have not put in place proper alternatives of places for the children to go that are safe and that’s why I think it’s right that Britain should be doing its bit as well."

 

The British government has called for as many unaccompanied children with links to the UK as possible to be transferred from the camp before it is closed.

 

Since Monday last week Citizens UK estimate over 200 children have been brought to safety across the Channel.

 

Around 70 will be housed in emergency accommodation in Devon before being reunited with family members or moved to other parts of the country.

 

The latest groups of refugee children to arrive in the UK have been kept hidden behind a screen, with campaigners insisting this was to protect them rather than to hide their age, a subject which has been the focus of debate in recent days.

 

Immigration minister Robert Goodwill said: "We are absolutely committed to safeguarding and protecting children in Calais and have already transferred a considerable number of unaccompanied minors to the UK so far this year."