Christopher Furlong/Getty Images(CALAIS, France) — Authorities began Monday evicting immigrants from the sprawling, cramped makeshift refugee camp dubbed “The Jungle” in the northern port city of Calais, France.

Officials were scheduled to bus away about 3,000 people Monday, plus the remaining 3,500 or so by the end of the week. An estimated 1,600 migrants have been removed so far Monday, according to the BBC.

The camp opened in January of 2015, and has since raised humanitarian concerns over its squalid living conditions.

The U.K.-based aid group Help Refugees, which has workers on the ground in Calais, said in a statement that 60 buses were provided by authorities to take 3,000 people to accommodation centers across France Monday. Another 45 buses were scheduled to take 2,400 people out of the camp Tuesday, and 40 buses were slated to take 2,000 people out of Calais Wednesday.

Aid groups and the U.N. Refugee Agency are especially concerned about the hundreds of unaccompanied child migrants who they say are at risk of exploitation, trafficking and violence.

Help Refugees said in a statement Monday that 49 unaccompanied children who are younger than 13 remain at the camp, “amidst all the confusion and chaos.”

Human Rights Watch said in a statement this weekend that the governments of France and the U.K. are “failing unaccompanied children in Calais.”

“The French and UK governments have a responsibility to find these children safe shelter before the camp is torn down,” Helen Griffiths, a children’s rights associate with Human Rights Watch, wrote on their website, adding that “children remain at risk of sexual exploitation, violence, and trafficking.”

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commended France’s decision to dismantle the camp in Calais, citing “appalling” living conditions, although stressing the importance of taking into account the welfare of the camp’s hundreds of unaccompanied children.

“It is also crucial to pay special attention to the estimated more than 1,200 unaccompanied or separated children in the Jungle, whose best interests have to be taken into account,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in a statement.

“The Jungle site has been problematic for a number of years, and UNHCR has long recommended its closure,” Edwards added. “Living conditions are appalling, with the most basic shelter, inadequate hygiene facilities, poor security and a lack of basic services.”

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