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The Latest: France: 25 migrant networks dismantled over year

Refugees and migrants arrives by ferry from the Greek eastern islands at the Athens' port of Piraeus, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The European Union's executive arm has agreed to double its contribution to a fund to help Syrian refugees in Turkey after EU member states baulked at paying billions from national coffers. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
Refugees and migrants arrives by ferry from the Greek eastern islands at the Athens' port of Piraeus, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The European Union's executive arm has agreed to double its contribution to a fund to help Syrian refugees in Turkey after EU member states baulked at paying billions from national coffers. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis) Refugees and migrants arrives by ferry from the Greek eastern islands at the Athens' port of Piraeus, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The European Union's executive arm has agreed to double its contribution to a fund to help Syrian refugees in Turkey after EU member states baulked at paying billions from national coffers. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

By Associated Press 2 min read

PARIS (AP) – The Latest on migrants seeking sanctuary in Europe (all times local):

10:50 a.m.

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.