A refugee walks near a stretch of the motorway that is now surrounded by three fences. Business Insider/Barbara Tasch The infamous refugee camp in Calais known as the "Jungle" is now home to an estimated 5,000 people whose goal it is to make it to the UK and apply for asylum there.

The camp, built on an old landfill site in Calais, has received a lot of attention lately following clashes between its inhabitants, the police, and locals who want the camp dismantled.

The squalid conditions in which thousands of people live have also been decried time and again by volunteers and aid organisations who work with the refugees.



Although French authorities have begun bulldozing parts of the camp, it keeps on growing as people continue arriving every day despite the winter weather. While the French and British governments argue over who should be responsible for the people living there, a new town is slowly developing on the outskirts of Calais.



Here are pictures that show what life is like for the thousands of people who live as outcasts in a country they desperately wish to leave.