Defiant migrants in Calais have told MailOnline how they will never stop trying to reach Britain even after the sprawling ‘Jungle’ camp is demolished.

Speaking just hours before the major police operation to clear the sprawling shanty town by the ferry port, the men from Africa, Asia and the Middle East said they would defy the French authorities and continue to clamber on board lorries and trains crossing the Channel.

Afghan Yakbal, 25, told MailOnline: ‘I will not stop trying to get to England even when the Jungle is taken down.

'We will not stop': Afghan migrants Hodjamohel and Yakbal say they will not stop trying to cross into England, even after the sprawling migrant Jungle camp in Calais is demolished

Migrants stare out to the fencing around the Calais Jungle, ahead of its demolition tomorrow

‘I will not stay in France. I want to go to England, we all want to go to England.’

Yakbal, from Kapisa, in Afghanistan is one of a large proportion of residents of the squalid encampment who refuse to believe they must give up their dream of getting to England and claim asylum in France.

If they refuse to ask for sanctuary they risk arrest, detention and deportation, French authorities claim.

However many fear they will be returned to the ‘first safe country’ Italy or Greece where they were first registered and their finger-prints were taken.

‘I cannot ask for asylum in France,’ Yakbal explained. ‘They will not accept me. I have many problems with the French. I have been fighting with the police.

‘So I will stay in Calais even after the jungle is finished. I will find somewhere. I don’t mind.’

His friend Hodjamohel added: ‘England very good. France not good, France bad. I love England.’

Meanwhile officials in Calais began handing out leaflets to migrants in the Jungle urging them to claim asylum in France tomorrow, ahead of the police operation to clear the camp on Monday.

Another Afghan Niebullah, 19, from Kunduz said he had travelled too far to give up on his dream of reach the UK now.

A French police operation starting on Monday plans to clear the slum conditions of the Jungle

‘It was very difficult to get to Calais. I went through many countries and I am so close to England now, why would I give up.

‘I have problem because my finger prints were taken. I don’t want to go back to Italy. Italy has no jobs, no houses, no future. England is good, I want to go to England.’

Some say they have family living in England and refuse to give up their dream of be reunited with them.

Mary, 23, from Eritrea, told MailOnline: ‘My husband is in England. I want to be with him. I don’t want to live in France. I want to live in England with my husband, I love him.

‘I have been living in the jungle for eight months. It is very bad, but it is the only way to reach England. So I must stay in the jungle until I can get to England.’

Others are relying on their young age to be accepted into the UK under the ‘Dubs’ ruling, championed by the former Jewish child refugee Lord Dubs, which allows unaccompanied minors in Calais to claim asylum in Britain.

Migrants living in the Jungle have been handed leaflets about claiming asylum in France

Zaith, 16, from Sudan, broadly displays unaccompanied minor card – known as a ‘bambino’ card in the slang language of the Jungle - issued by the French authorities.

He told MailOnline: ‘I am a bambino [unaccompanied minor]. I am 16. I have right to go to England. I will go on the bus to England.’

However his friend Daoud, also from Sudan but aged over 18, has resigned himself to having to claim asylum in France.