PARIS (AP) — French police have moved into a makeshift migrant camp outside the northern port city of Dunkirk to clear out an estimated 1,800 people seeking to cross the English Channel to Britain.

The local prefecture said on Tuesday that migrants will be sent to reception centers in northern France where authorities will check if they want to seek asylum.

The camp in Grande-Synthe is a way-station for migrants, most of them Iraqi Kurds, where human traffickers are known to operate.

It was the latest periodic clean-out of the camp. Last September and June, hundreds of migrants were evacuated from the camp and a local gymnasium.

France's new interior minister Christophe Castaner will visit Grande-Synthe later in the day to meet with police forces.