GETTY UK-bound migrants are returning to Calais at a rate of more than 100 a week, say officials

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Increasing numbers are making their way back to the besieged port town to try and sneak across the Channel on ferries. A police source said an estimated 400 migrants were already living rough in the area with at least 15 more arriving each day. The threat of a new crisis comes just four months after 10,000 migrants were moved out of Calais when the sprawling “Jungle” camp was torn down.

Francois Guennoc, vice-president of the Auberge des Migrants aid group, said: “The migrants are coming back and government is in denial about the current situation in Calais.” Confirmation of their return to northern France comes weeks after it emerged that at least six rural refugee settlements had sprung up in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. There is also evidence that people-trafficking gangs were exploiting service stations on motorways leading to the port to get migrants across the Channel.

GETTY Increasing numbers are making their way back to the besieged port town

A source close to the crisis said: “There are rumours of smaller camps mushrooming all the time but this is to be expected because migrants are still arriving and heading for Calais.

The Jungle must never be allowed to return Charlie Elphicke

"However, the authorities see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.” Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, said: “The Calais Jungle has been cleared yet the migrant crisis has not gone away. "We must keep the pressure up to make sure France stops any new camps from forming before the first tent is pitched. We must all remain vigilant. The Jungle must never be allowed to return.”

GETTY Security in Calais is high as migrants try sneak across the Channel on ferries

Gaël Manzi, of refugee aid group Utopia 56, added: “It is hard to know how many migrants are currently in Calais, as they tend to hide. “But each night we give out food and sleeping bags, there’s a real need for it.” Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said: “We welcomed the announcement the Jungle was to be dismantled, however, we warned that if the levels of security were not maintained it would be inevitable there would be a resurgence in migrant activity.” This newspaper revealed the number caught trying to enter the UK illegally from the Continent in 2015 was 84,088, the equivalent to one every six minutes.

Calais Jungle Camp: Before and After Fri, November 11, 2016 Extraordinary photographs show life in the last days of the Calais 'Jungle' refugee camp at the end of October, alongside the current scene as it stands today. Play slideshow 1 of 24

GETTY The Calais 'Jungle' camp before its demolition