France dismantles 25 migrant smuggling networks over a year

A migrant walks in the migrant camp in Calais, northern France, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. About 4,000 people from Syria, Sudan and other countries are estimated to be camped out in Calais as they try to reach Britain, some recently moving into new facilities but most still sleeping in what's been called Europe's biggest slum. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) A migrant walks in the migrant camp in Calais, northern France, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. About 4,000 people from Syria, Sudan and other countries are estimated to be camped out in Calais as they try to reach Britain, some recently moving into new facilities but most still sleeping in what's been called Europe's biggest slum. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

By Associated Press February 4, 2016 1 min read

PARIS (AP) – France’s top security official said investigators have dismantled 25 migrant smuggling networks in the country’s north in the past year.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said about 700 people were involved in the networks in the Calais region, temporary home to about 4,000 migrants camped in squalid conditions on the edge of the Channel in hopes of slipping across to a better life in England.

Speaking Thursday to Europe 1 radio, Cazeneuve also defended his ban on protests in Calais, which he said was imposed in response to a demonstration in support of migrants that ended with a group of people breaking into the port and boarding a ship. He said the unrest showed the risks were too great of confrontations involving both pro-migrant activists, and extremists on the right.