The reason they don’t want to remain in France is because it has one of the lowest asylum acceptance rates in Europe, and applicants can expect terrible conditions. Their experience of France has been pretty grim.
However, after years of generous immigration policies and the increased terrorist attacks that come with it, the British have battened down the hatches and are only allowing a trickle of Muslim migrants to arrive.
This hasn’t stopped the masses of migrants from trying their luck again and again. Since 2003, the area has seen continuous turbulence as French authorities tear down the migrant camps and disperse the refugees. The camps are just as quickly rebuilt.
In the past week again marauding gangs attempted to storm the motorway leading to the port as the crisis in the town spiraled out of control. Refugees lit fires, barricaded the road and tried to ambush traffic. Riot police in body armor fired tear gas to hold back the hundreds of protestors and battled to restore order.
The rioting caused a standstill in traffic for over an hour.
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart said: “About 2,500 migrants are living in one refugee camp, but the north zone, which should have been shut down a long time ago, is run by people smugglers. Another 4,500 or 5000 migrants live there. Right now, we have no idea who’s coming in and who’s coming out of the camp, and we don’t know the true identity of the majority of the people living there.”
She also said that the French Army has to come and protect the camp and its surroundings and added that police officers were being attacked by migrants “every night” and that the rise in violence and tensions was having a negative impact on the town’s economy, and on the local residents’ everyday lives. She blamed the French government for failing to solve the migrant crisis.