An empty field near Calais is all that remains of what was home to over 500 migrants and asylum seekers. They were living in a makeshift camp known as The Jungle.

But in an operation which took barely two hours it was flattened by police who went in and arrested around 270 mainly Afghan men and boys. The French government said it was a den of crime and people smugglers. But to the migrants it was a stopping place before trying to find a way to cross the English Channel to a better life. The French hope by razing the camp they may have eased the problem, but Afghans already living in the UK are angry. Besheer Zaheer is among them. She said: “They’ve been living in a place which has been branded “The Jungle” and the French authorities have come in and treated them like animals of the jungle.” One lorry driver waiting at the Eurostar terminal in Calais gave his reaction: “I think they should have done a lot more. I had a few on my truck quite a few times…and just to pick them up and then let them go, I think they should do something more about it.” Hundreds of illegal immigrants try to enter the UK every year and their readiness to risk their lives doing so shows how desperate most of them are.More about: Calais, France, Immigration

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