Most of the migrants in the camp are from Eritrea, Sudan and

They are desperate, defiant – and determined to get to England.

Many had scaled mountains, crossed deserts and sailed across an ocean to get here.

Some of their companions had drowned, perished from starvation or been arrested before they made it.

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Huddled in the sun: Africans from the Jungle 2 camp in Calais, France wait for food handouts

Little wonder that on Friday, above a shoreline from which they could see the White Cliffs of Dover, these refugees, homeless chancers and would-be migrants, mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, were so confident that a new life in Britain would be the next stop.

This is the latest illegal encampment to spring up in Calais – and hundreds are currently waiting for the first chance to escape.

They have nicknamed it Jungle 2 – a squalid, tented squat on the outskirts of the French port. The previous one in the town was bulldozed two months ago.

That followed the clearance in 2009 of the original Jungle area on the outskirts, and the razing of the notorious Sangatte refugee centre in 2002.

All of that was meant to have put an end to the constant, ever-growing flow of hopefuls waiting to cross the Channel by any means possible.

All it did was to drive them to other parts of Calais.

Desperate: Two migrants try to break into a container lorry

And so, Jungle 2 is currently a miserable but convenient stepping-stone to the UK for more than 500 itinerants, a population rapidly swelling with families fleeing Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.

So it is not surprising that on Friday – despite threats of eviction, alleged beatings from police and an international outcry by homeless charities and migrant help groups – so many insisted they would stay for as long as it takes to get to England.

As one teenage Eritrean put it: ‘We will get there eventually.’

The new Jungle is situated on the seaward side of a road used by lorries heading to the port.

It is a swathe of wasteland and sand dunes, owned and used by a chemical factory to bury supposedly non-toxic waste.

Many of the migrants are men in their twenties, sometimes accompanied by women and children.

They spend nights under canvas with no drinking water or sanitary facilities – then attempt to leap on UK bound trucks about to board ferries.

Others attempt to cut their way into trailers at truckers’ cafés, where drivers rest before crossing to the UK.

Large numbers of Africans started to arrive after being evicted from squats in Calais and random camps on the outskirts of town, joining Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis evicted from previous camps.

They were among thousands of migrants who have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe and a better life.

Many have perished either from drowning or suffocation on overcrowded fishing boats they sailed in.

Luckier ones were rescued by the Italian navy after their boats got into difficulties near the island of Lampedusa, 100 miles from Sicily.

LUXURY ROUTE TO BRITAIN... THE ILLEGALS IN MASERATIS Six suspected illegal migrants were caught by police after smuggling themselves into Britain in a shipment of new Maseratis. Officers were involved in a dramatic chase at a motorway service station after the men climbed out of the sports cars and tried to run. The would-be migrants from Sudan had hidden themselves inside the Maseratis, which can cost as much as £110,000, on the back of a transporter. Six suspected illegal migrants were caught by police after smuggling themselves into Britain in a shipment of new Maseratis They escaped detection because the Italian-made cars were covered in protective fabric sleeves which can be unzipped. But when the lorry driver parked up at Cobham Services on the M25 in Surrey yesterday the men tried to make a run for it. It is not known when the men hid themselves in the sports cars. They were handed over to immigration officials, who will assess whether they have a right to remain here. Advertisement

Yesterday, a water pipe to a factory sports hall, tapped into by migrants for their water supply, was cut off.

They now have to rely on bottles of mineral water brought by aid workers to drink and wash themselves.

Sixteen-year-old Eritrean girls Almas and Halan told the Daily Mail they had taken months to reach Calais from their homeland.

‘We both want to learn, to study commercial sciences in England,’ said Almas.

Sixteen-year-old Eritrean girls Almas (left) and Halan (right) said they had taken months to reach Calais from their Eritrea

Eritreans and Ethiopean migrants camp in the grounds of a chemical factory in Calais. The encampment has been dubbed Jungle 2

‘We just want a life. We left Eritrea because there was no life for us there. We will eventually reach England but we have no money to pay people smugglers to get us on to lorries so we will just carry on trying to stow away.’

There are numbers of Sudanese at the camp, as well as some Afghans whose tents are pitched away from the Africans.

Arrested migrants are usually released after several hours.

BALLS: WE MUST GET TOUGHER ON MIGRATION Ed Balls has admitted Labour can’t win the next election unless it becomes tougher on immigration. The Shadow Chancellor said Europe’s freedom of movement rules needed to be reformed. His intervention comes amid growing concern among senior Labour figures that the party could lose votes to Ukip in May’s election. Mr Balls said Labour would seek to toughen up laws which allow EU citizens to enter Britain with few restrictions. He said the party could not afford to look ‘out of touch’ on immigration if it was to have a chance of victory. In an interview with the Telegraph, he also refused to rule out new taxes to fund social care or the NHS, saying people ‘rightly feel they pay too much tax already’. He added: ‘If we are going to win the next election, which I think we can, on jobs and the NHS and standing up for people on low and middle incomes against an out-of-touch government, then we cannot look out of touch on an issue that people really care about.’ Advertisement

In some cases they are deported, usually to Belgium as migrants claim that their point of entry into the EU was in that country.

The migrants then return the few miles from Belgium to resume attempts to stow away to Britain.

Calais authorities insisted migrants would be evicted from the camp ‘imminently’.

A police spokesman likened the job of controlling increasingly angry and frustrated migrants to ‘trying to empty an ocean with a teaspoon’.

Meanwhile, another night of opportunity beckoned for those trying to smuggle themselves to Britain.