French president calls for shutdown of Calais migrant ‘Jungle’

French President Francois Hollande said on a visit to the port of Calais Monday that the sprawling “Jungle” migrant camp there must be “completely dismantled.”

Hollande, on his first visit to Calais as president, also called on Britain to “play its part” in resolving the migrant crisis. Most of the migrants in the camp, mainly from Sudan and Afghanistan, want to go to Britain and try to stow away on trucks heading across the Channel.

“I am determined to see British authorities play their part in the humanitarian effort that France is undertaking here,” Hollande said, flanked by security forces.

The president will meet police, port officials and local politicians but is not expected to visit the camp itself.

The squalid camp of tents and makeshift shelters, known as “the Jungle,” is home to some 7,000 migrants but aid groups say the number might be as high as 10,000 after an influx this summer.

Thousands of people, most of them from the Middle East and Africa, have made long and dangerous journeys to Calais, crossing the Mediterranean to southern Europe in overcrowded boats and then traveling hundreds of miles by foot, car or rail to northwest France.

For many, the goal is to reach Britain — attractive because of its English language and relatively open labor market — by stowing away on trucks and trains through the Channel Tunnel.

Migrants make regular attempts to walk through the tunnel — used by passenger trains and vehicle shuttles — or to block roads trying to slow down trucks so they can climb aboard, some have died doing so.

Truckers, farmers, dock workers and merchants have protested the disruption, as well as the fines they face if caught carrying stowaways.

On Tuesday, the British government began building a four-meter high (13 foot-high) wall to stop migrants reaching the UK from Calais, the Guardian newspaper reported.

This will complement a security fence already put up around the port and entrance to the Channel Tunnel.