France Opens First Refugee Shelter in Paris

The first official shelter for male refugees was opened on Thursday in northern Paris as part of efforts to cope with the growing number of migrants fleeing to the capital after the demolition of the Calais camp.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to The Local, the refugee center will provide around 400 beds, though migrants would not be able to stay there for more than 5-10 days before being transferred to the "welcome centers" around France.

In general, the shelter will be able to take in about 50-80 people a day.

On Thursday, around 20 migrants reportedly arrived in the shelter.

Since 2015, Calais has been home to a large migrant camp – the so-called Jungle – notorious for its horrible living conditions. Thousands of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa lived in the Jungle, located not far from the Channel Tunnel, in hopes of reaching the United Kingdom.

The main section of the camp was dismantled in March, while the remaining part of the camp was closed before the end of October. On October 31, France officially announced the end of a week-long operation to clean up Calais.

Since the beginning of Calais dismantling, hundreds of migrants started arriving in Paris, organizing makeshift camps. On October 4, thousands of migrants were removed from a makeshift camp near the Stalingrad metro station in Paris.