It’s 2 a.m. and French police have just stopped, searched and questioned the three Syrian refugees I’m following. But Hussam Ahmad, one of the three stopped, is singing as he walks through an empty parking lot, his head thrown back, his arms outstretched.

We are inside a shopping mall complex that backs up against the western side of the Eurotunnel zone. We were walking back from by the fences, where you can see the entrance to the tunnel itself and where we'd already been chased away by French police, when a van pulled up and demanded to see our papers.

The group is visibly shaken, Hussam in particular, because he is carrying a pair of wire cutters hidden in his sleeve. The rumor among refugees is that if police catch you with them it's automatic jail time. But he gets lucky and we are all let go.

We've been walking for about 5 hours, as Hussam and his friends try to make it to England.

Tonight is not the night.