Italian police cleared a migrant camp on Italy's border with France on Wednesday, forcing the occupants to leave the area after a last-ditch protest on the shores of the Mediterranean, reports Yahoo! News.
The camp of around 50 people at Ventimiglia -- the town which became a flashpoint at the start of Europe's migrant crisis earlier this year -- was cleared because its occupants were using electricity and water without paying for it, a police spokesman said.
Some 30 migrants and 20 Italian activists, who had been given advance notice of the evacuation, moved to rocks on the shoreline before the police arrived, deputy police chief Giuseppe Maggese told AFP.
The protesters refused to budge from their perch for most of the day, only agreeing to be taken by bus to a reception centre after the intervention of the bishop of Ventimiglia.
The activists were to be interviewed later by police.
The sit-in began after police moved to close down the makeshift camp, which held up to 250 people at one point according to local officials.
A cordon of about 30 policemen fanned out along the shoreline in front of the migrants, some of whom threatened to jump into the sea, while others held up a banner in English reading: "We want freedom to cross the border."