French authorities began dismantling the massive migrant camp in Calais on Feb. 29, 2016. Pro-migrant activists clashed with police, with at least three people being arrested. Thousands of migrants will be affected, although authorities have offered to relocate them. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

French authorities began dismantling the massive migrant camp in Calais on Feb. 29, 2016. Pro-migrant activists clashed with police, with at least three people being arrested. Thousands of migrants will be affected, although authorities have offered to relocate them. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Police scuffled Tuesday with migrants protesting the demolition of a shantytown known as “the Jungle” as authorities moved ahead with plans to dismantle the camp in northern France that is often used as a staging ground to cross the English Channel to Britain.

The French decision to raze the makeshift settlement in Calais ­reflects wider measures across ­Europe to tighten border controls and curb movements amid a historic wave of migrants fleeing war and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East. Greek police estimate that as many as 10,000 migrants and refugees are at the border with Macedonia, which has closed entry to its side for the past 24 hours. On Monday, Macedonia’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, warned that the entire Balkan corridor would shut down if Austria reached the migrant quota of 37,500 that it recently announced.

But the crisis has extended beyond refu­gee camps and quotas, challenging the very idea of Europe itself. In response to the French government’s proposed demolition of the Jungle encampment, for instance, Belgium suspended Schengen rules permitting passport-free travel across many internal European borders, a hallmark of the European Union since 1995. At a campaign rally on Tuesday night, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for continental solidarity across an increasingly insular European Union, demanding that the crisis be solved “among the 28 members, so that some states don’t have to take on a heavy burden while others brush the problem away.”

Although not Europe’s largest camp, the Jungle — home to an estimated 4,000 people — has become an emblem of the entire European migrant crisis: a mix of squalor, desperation and hope.

The proximity of the camp to ferry docks and the Eurotunnel rail link with Britain has led to dangerous attempts to sneak across the English Channel by trying to stow away aboard trucks, trains and boats. Many migrants — from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and other places — seek to reach Britain in hopes of finding work or joining relatives.

A migrant sits on the roof of his makeshift shelter as police secure the migrant camp known as “the Jungle” as it is demolished in Calais, France, on March 1, 2016. (Yoan Valat/European Pressphoto Agency)

[French court clears way for camp demolition]

The British government has refused to take most of them. And France has now decided that they cannot remain in the camp and has promised to relocate them to nearby container units or to other refugee centers across the country. Even if receiving asylum in Britain remains an unlikely prospect, most migrants and refugees in the Jungle do not wish to apply for asylum in France.

In an interview, Philippe Mignonet, the deputy mayor of Calais, explained that most migrants “already know someone [in Britain] and can find a job on the black market.” In France, he said, “it’s 99 percent impossible to find a job on the black market.”

“Most of them speak English, or a bit of English,” he added. “They could try to learn a bit of French, but they refused to do so.”

On Monday, authorities began destroying the Jungle’s southern section, its most densely populated area. Clashes flared through the night, with police firing tear gas and forcibly removing migrants trying to stand their ground. Fires were reported in several areas of the camp slated for demolition.

Early Tuesday, a woman stood atop one of the shanties and cut her wrists as police moved in, the Associated Press reported. Her condition was not immediately known. A man accompanying her was beaten by baton-wielding ­police.

According to a census conducted two weeks ago by the organization Help Refugees, an estimated 3,400 people live in the southern area of the camp, 305 of whom are unaccompanied children.

Migrants look on as French police officers clear part of the Calais encampment known as “the Jungle” on Feb. 29, 2016. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

[Diplomatic war over migrants escalates in Europe]

The destruction of the camp — authorized by a French judge last week — has sparked outrage from aid groups and a legal challenge from about 200 migrants and eight nongovernmental organizations.

Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s interior minister, promised Thursday that the camp would be taken down methodically. “It has never been our intention to send in bulldozers to destroy the camp,” he said.

But bulldozers arrived early Monday along with a crew of about 20 workers who began tearing down homes and buildings.

Clare Moseley, the founder of Care4Calais, one of the nongovernmental aid organizations working on behalf of the refugees, accused French officials of reneging on pledges for a slow-paced intervention in the camp.

“They said they were going to be doing this slowly and gently — and with our cooperation,” she said in an interview. “Let’s just say that has not happened.”

Authorities began demolishing tents and homes in the camp, in some cases giving migrants one hour’s notice, according to Moseley. Mignonet justified the use of force in clearing out the camp. “There’s no alternative,” he said. “You can’t negotiate, you can’t talk, and you can’t explain.”

Fabienne Buccio, a local prefect, insisted recently that a police presence was necessary because “extremists” might persuade migrants to reject the government’s proposed alternatives. Activists, Mignonet added, “manipulate the migrants” and “use them for political purposes.”

“In fact, they don’t care about the migrants,” he said. “If they did, they would help them accept what the state is offering.”

Arnaud, who would give only his first name, is an activist affiliated with the No Borders group. “A lot of the houses aren’t empty — they just force them out and tear them down,” he said of the demolition of migrants’ homes. “It’s not true when the government says, ‘It’s not eviction, it’s not violent.’ ”

Moseley said she and other volunteers were able to enter the camp but faced tear gas and pepper spray.

“I do not call that nonconfrontational or nonviolent,” she said.

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Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world