In a fresh blow to the EU’s Schengen free travel area, Belgium announced the measure last Tuesday to stop migrants currently at Calais crossing into its territory to try to reach Britain from the port of Zeebrugge.
France has called the decision “strange”.
“Since last Tuesday 619 people have been turned back — 334 who were already in Belgian territory and 285 at the border,” Belgian police spokesman Peter de Waele told AFP.
Belgium has deployed around 300 police including officers on horseback to enforce the border controls with France.