France moved more than 1,600 child migrants from the site of a demolished camp to reception centers across the country on Wednesday, and said Britain would be giving refuge to several hundred of them.
French authorities transferred more than 5,000 other migrants last week before bulldozers moved in to raze the sprawl of ramshackle shacks and tents nicknamed the "Jungle" by its inhabitants, reports Reuters.
But hundreds of unaccompanied children were left behind. They have been sheltered in converted shipping containers on a site on the edge of the flattened camp as France and Britain squabbled over who should take them in.
Many of them teenagers from war-ravaged Afghanistan and Sudan's Darfur region, they bade farewell to companions and charity workers before boarding awaiting buses.
The children's plight triggered a diplomatic row between Paris and London, with tensions intensifying in recent days after President Francois Hollande pressed Britain to accept its share of responsibility for the minors.
British officials demanded France take better care of them.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve told parliament that Britain had agreed in negotiations to take in "several hundred" of the child migrants. An interior ministry source said these were on top of the more than 300 minors Britain had taken in between Oct. 10 and last week's operation to dismantle the camp.
"The challenge now is to implement the terms of the agreement we concluded with the British," Cazeneuve said.