Fire destroys Grand-Synthe migrant camp in Dunkirk

A camp that housed more than 1,500 migrants in northern France has been destroyed in a huge fire.

BBC News reports the blaze at Grande-Synthe camp, near Dunkirk, began on Monday night during a fight between Afghans and Kurds. At least ten people were injured, six with knife wounds.

"There is nothing left but a heap of ashes," said Michel Lalande, prefect of France's Nord region.

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"The fire represents just the latest trouble for Grande-Synthe," reports the Telegraph. Last November, a man was stabbed at the camp, which authorities in February warned was ripe for unrest.

Bruno Le Roux, France's interior minister, had already acknowledged safety fears, pledging a "progressive dismantling" of Grande-Synthe during a Senate hearing.

"We can't let things continue like this," he said.

The £2m camp, built in collaboration with the charity Doctors Without Borders, has seen its population grow since its opening in March 2016.

At the time, it was billed as the first camp with humanitarian standards. "It was meant to be a world away from the squalid mess of the former Jungle camp situated 23 miles away in Calais," says the Daily Mail.

Significantly, the fire has come at an important moment in the French political calendar.

"The seemingly-insurmountable issue of migrant camps in the north of France has come into sharp focus with the first round of the French presidential elections this month and far-right champion Marine Le Pen poised to sail through to the second round," says the Telegraph.