PARIS — Police and city officials are clearing out up to 3,000 migrants from Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries who have been gathered on Paris sidewalks in a camp that recently mushroomed into a new challenge for the French government.

Migrants boarded a few dozen buses en route to temporary shelters where they can apply for asylum. The operation began before dawn today and has been largely calm. Riot police in body armor and shields are ringing the neighborhood around the canals of northeastern Paris.

While authorities regularly evacuate migrants camped in Paris, the issue has taken on greater concern since the French government shut down a vast camp in Calais last week and moved its thousands of residents to temporary reception centers across the country.

Some of the Calais migrants fled to Paris, joining others living in the Paris tent camp who had arrived here from Italy after dangerous crossings from the Mideast and Africa.

“This is the biggest operation sheltering migrants we have had to face in the last 18 months,” said Christine Gauthier of the Paris region’s housing department. The migrants will first be taken to temporary shelters in the Paris region, then transferred to other centers elsewhere in France while their asylum requests are processed.