The ‘Jungle’

Here are five key questions to explain what is at stake:

What is the ‘Jungle’?

It is a collection of tents and shelters on a muddy, windswept patch of land near Calais, northern France, that has become a magnet for migrants seeking to cross the Channel to reach Britain.

Various squalid settlements have existed for decades around the gritty town that is home to one of the country’s biggest ports and the Channel Tunnel rail link connecting France and Britain.

Why Calais?

The camp is near to where thousands of lorries drive on to ferries or trains heading for Britain, just 35 km across the Channel.

Why has it caused tension between Britain and France?

In 2003, the two countries signed the so-called Le Touquet accord, which effectively moved Britain’s border with France to the French side of the Channel. Under the agreement, Britain pays millions of euros (dollars) each year for security in Calais - the latest investment being a wall along the road leading to the port — but it is French police and border agents who are on the frontline. Many French politicians believe London has simply outsourced a problem to France and the agreement should be torn up.

So is this the end?

In February, authorities razed the southern part of the camp and demanded that migrants living there move to temporary state-funded accommodation. Many refused. On September 26, Hollande promised the camp would be closed by the end of the year and the government said it would relocate the Jungle migrants to accommodation around the country.

The bigger question is whether history will repeat itself once the bulldozers have done their work. As one camp is demolished, will another spring up nearby?