Paris refugee shelter opens

A refugee shelter with beds for 400 single men opened Thursday in northern Paris, part of an ongoing drive to take asylum-seekers off French streets after the demolition of the Calais "Jungle" .

The centre in a disused railway yard near Gare du Nord station will take in 50-80 people a day -- the estimated number of migrants that arrive in Paris daily, most of whom end up sleeping rough.

They will spend up to 10 days at the site where they will receive medical care and advice on seeking asylum before being transferred to a refugee hostel.

"The idea is to create a place where every newly arrived migrant can be welcomed and offered dignified, humane shelter," said Bruno Morel, head of the Emmaus Solidarite charity running the centre.

Unaccompanied minors will be sent to existing children's shelters around the city.

The opening of the men's centre comes a week after police cleared a camp in northeast Paris where 3,800 people -- mostly Afghans, Sudanese or Eritreans -- had been living in tents and mattresses under an overhead metro line.

Last month, authorities also demolished the notorious "Jungle" shantytown in the northern port city of Calais -- the main launchpad for attempts to smuggle across the Channel to Britain.

France's Socialist government is anxious to show it has a handle on migration in the run-up to presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

Over the past year, the authorities have repeatedly cleared makeshift migrant settlements in northern Paris only for them to sprout up again.

Europe is grappling with its biggest migrant crisis since the aftermath of World War II.

More than 1.5 million people have crossed the Mediterranean since 2014 to escape wars, persecution or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

France has welcomed only a fraction of the newcomers.

In 2015, it received 73,500 new asylum requests, up 24 percent, according to interior ministry figures.

Authorities have forecast 100,000 new requests this year.