By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS 

French police on Monday evicted nearly 300 migrants and refugees from a makeshift camp at Grande-Synthe in the north of the country.

The camp residents, among them 50 families, were sent to reception centers elsewhere in the department, according to local authorities.

At least 2,000 people used to live in a camp of 213 closely packed small wooden cabins built by Doctors Without Borders in Grande-Synthe until it was burned and reduced to ashes on April, 2017.

On May 24, a similar operation was conducted against the migrants and refugees, affecting 400 people.

The Interior Ministry has already carried out 37 such evacuation operations since 2015, clearing out some 31,400 migrants.

Many of the migrants are reportedly requesting asylum in the EU country where they were first registered under the Dublin convention.

France received a record 100,000 asylum applications last year and offered refugee status to only 30,000 people. Nearly 14,900 were forcibly expelled.