Fate of unaccompanied children in Calais remains uncertain

Amid the Calais camp disclosure, Calais migrant children remain one of the major areas of conflict between the U.K. and France, as their fates remain uncertain. British officials have been racing to process child refugees seeking refuge across the water. By Saturday, the number of minors given a one-way ticket to Britain under a fast-track process for children that began 10 days ago stood at 194, according to a French charity helping in the process.

Most have relatives across the Channel but Britain has also begun taking children without family links in the country. Hundreds more have been interviewed and many are still waiting for a reply. They will be provisionally housed with other unaccompanied minors in containers in a part of the Jungle where families had been living.

Days after a French minister said the U.K. had a "moral duty" to take them in, the first busload of children arrived in Britain last Monday from the "Jungle" camp near the French port of Calais as the British government started to act on its commitment to take in unaccompanied migrant children before the camp is destroyed.

There has been a growing tension between France and Britain over Calais camp. While Britain wants to retain the border deal, France wants border controls to take place in the U.K., instead of carrying out immigration checks in Calais.

According to the historic border agreement, dubbed Le Touquet Treaty signed in 2003, British security controls have been stationed at the French border and immigration checks are carried out in French ferry terminals in the northern French port city of Calais. The agreement also allows French border officials to check the documents of migrants in Dover, across the English Channel. The center-right front-runner in next year's French presidential election, Alain Juppe, has called for Britain's border with France, which was extended to Calais under a 2003 accord, to be moved back to British soil.