touwensa

Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children currently living in France's Calais "Jungle" camp will arrive to Britain in the coming days, the BBC reported on Saturday, as French authorities have vowed to raze the makeshift camp by the end of the year.

British and French officials have begun registering the children who are hoping to join relatives in the UK, according to the report.

The Children's Commissioner for England has previously said that as many as 300 children, including many from Syria and Afghanistan, will arrive in the UK, according to the BBC.

It is estimated that as many as 10,000 people are living in the "Jungle" camp in France's port city of Calais, from where many hope to journey across the English Channel and on to Britain by smuggling themselves aboard lorries or ferries.

Earlier this year French authorities cleared shelters in parts of the site in a bid to persuade migrants to move into other accommodation or neighbouring camps on the northern coast.
French President François Hollande said in September that he would demolish the squalorous camp and relocate migrants to "reception and orientation centers," where the government is to "provide a humane, dignified welcome to people who will file for the right of asylum."

In response to concerns that the closure could lead to the disappearance of unaccompanied children before they are registered, British Home Office officials have been working in Calais to process the claims of children who have the right to join relatives, the BBC says.

A seperate registration process will take place for those children with no family in the UK, the report says, with the aim of bringing as many children as possible to the UK before the camp's closure.

According to European law, asylum claims must be made in the first safe country arrived in, but children may have their claim transfered to another country if they have relatives living there.