Tensions Mount as Record Numbers Crowd French Migrant Camp

For the increasingly desperate and weary travelers in the camp known as "the jungle," the path to Britain - where most hope to go - appears blocked.

Two migrants have died in fights within a month, and the future of the sprawling makeshift camp looks increasingly precarious, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

It was drastically downsized in March, when authorities razed its large southern sector of more than 1,000 shelters and shops, displacing at least 1,000 migrants. This summer, they began closing dozens of camp shops and restaurants, the only available amenities.

Despite that, the camp's population has soared to its highest-ever level since taking root on the edge of Calais in April 2015. The prefecture, or state authority for the region, said after a one-day count this month that it found 6,901 people living in the camp. Aid group Auberge des Migrants reached its own figure after four days of recent counting: 9,106 people, compared to 7,000 in early July.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd was meeting Tuesday with her French counterpart and they were expected to discuss French-British cooperation in Calais.

The squalid camp built within the sand dunes of northern France draws migrants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and elsewhere, chased from home by danger or destitution, most driven by dreams of life in Britain, where some have family or friends. After often harrowing treks via Libya to Italy or overland through eastern Europe, paying smugglers along the way, most reach a dead end in Calais, unable to find a way across the English Channel.

More than 300 have accepted money for a voluntary departure since the start of the year, the prefecture says, but most remain stuck in limbo. Many don't consider applying for asylum an option because they don't want to stay in France. Numbers indicating how many have been deported were not immediately available.

"They are broken inside because they were here with lots of hopes ... and in the jungle they're not seeing their bright future here," said Tariq Shinnari, a 26-year-old former civil servant from Afghanistan here since March. He has given up his dream of going to Britain and is applying for asylum in France. With that new goal, and his work as a volunteer for the British aid organization Care4Calais, he avoids the desperation of other migrants in the camp, though the situation is not lost on him.

"They are saying we don't have war here, but we are like in a kind of prison."

Riot police line the highways leading to the ferry port or Eurotunnel trains crossing the English Channel, aiming to deter migrants who might try to sneak across. Some have resorted to increasingly dangerous tactics to jump onto trucks, throwing branches and other objects onto the roadway to stop traffic. Of the 11 migrants who have died in Calais this year, seven were hit by a car or truck, according to the prefecture.

In the camp, supplies are growing scarce, according to two aid organizations, and migrants say they can spend up to three hours in line to get a shower of six minutes. They spend hours more in lines for food.

The Kitchen in Calais, one of several volunteer dispensaries, served 800 dinners a day in April and is now dishing up 1,500 meals. It is seeking permission to expand to serve 2,000 meals daily, said Jamal Ismail, a Briton who runs it.

The rising number of needy reflects the durability of the global migrant crisis, as the flow into Europe continues despite efforts to contain it.

In the camp, a sense of despair lingers in the dusty alleys. Now authorities are trying to demolish the 72 restaurants and shops that migrants say make it livable, with places to socialize, charge cell phones and, in some cases, sleep.

"Nobody is functioning at full blast," said Maya Konforti of the Auberge des Migrants.

Police guarding the camp refuse to allow building materials inside, so instead of plywood shelters, tents are going up in every available space. Up to 2,500 people now live in tents, according to Konforti, some of them in summer tents "not at all appropriate for winter."