CALAIS, France -- French authorities declared the Calais camp known as "the jungle" empty on Wednesday, after fires set by departing migrants accelerated plans to evacuate the burgeoning slum.
Officials announced the destruction of the camp, where thousands fleeing war and poverty have lived in squalor as they waited for a chance to sneak across the English Channel into the United Kingdom. People are being moved to reception centers around France where they can seek asylum.
"The camp is completely empty. There are no more migrants in the camp," said Prefect Fabienne Buccio, the state's highest authority in the region. "Our mission has been fully fulfilled."
She said fires that engulfed wide areas of the sprawling camp after midnight and continuing Wednesday "show the camp is empty."
Authorities said four Afghans had been detained earlier Wednesday as suspects in the setting of the fires, which slightly injured one person who was taken to a hospital.
"When Afghans leave, they set fires. It's not our custom," Buccio said.
Cleaning crews were moving in Wednesday night to clear debris and remove remaining tents and shelters, she said.
People were seen milling around despite the announcement, but authorities said they would stop processing people by Wednesday evening.
Migrants have flocked to the Calais region for decades, but the camp has grown as Europe's migrant crisis expanded. As it evolved into a slum supported by aid groups, France finally decided to shut it down.
Officials said Wednesday that 1,500 migrants would be sent to reception centers around France. Some 5,000 have been given shelter since the first day of the operation on Monday.
That includes unaccompanied minors being housed in heated containers in the camp, apparently untouched by the blazes.
As the reality of the mass evacuation took hold, fearful migrants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and Pakistan braced for a new reality. Some pledged to just keep moving.
Numerous migrants heading down the road with backpacks said they would not get on a bus and were determined instead to slip into the U.K.
"This jungle is no good. We go to new jungle," said a 20-year-old from Pakistan, identifying himself as Muhammad Afridi. He said he was joining up to 30 friends in a place he refused to identify.
The main alley through the camp near the city of Calais burned overnight, leaving skeletal hulks on either side of the road. Firefighters delved into the camp's deepest recesses, trying to prevent a larger conflagration.
Gas canisters popped as they exploded in the heat. One aid group's truck burst into flames.
Migrants stood and watched. Some laughed.
Steve Barbet, a spokesman for the regional authorities, said one person was hospitalized. About 100 were evacuated.
The camp once housed 6,300 people, according to authorities, but aid groups said the number had been much higher.
Separately, the United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday that at least 3,800 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year in an attempt to reach Europe, making 2016 the deadliest year so far in the migrant crisis.
The Geneva-based agency had warned Tuesday that this year's death toll was likely to exceed the 3,771 deaths reported for the whole of 2015.
"We're receiving more reports of deaths in the Med," spokesman William Spindler tweeted Wednesday. "We can now confirm that at least 3,800 people have died, making 2016 the deadliest ever."
Scores have been drowning each week as the fragile and often overcrowded boats they travel on capsize or sink, the U.N. agency said. It blamed bad weather, flimsy boats and the fact that people fleeing war and poverty are increasingly taking the hazardous central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy in an attempt to reach Europe.
A deal between the European Union and Turkey largely closed off the eastern route earlier this year.
About half of the 327,800 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean this year did so using the central route, where about 1 in every 47 people dies. By comparison, the overall death rate for the whole Mediterranean last year -- when more than 1 million people arrived in Europe -- was 1 in 269 crossings.
The U.N. agency also said smugglers have been changing their tactics, arranging embarkations of thousands of people at once.
Information for this article was contributed by Sylvie Corbet and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/27/2016