Violence, intimidation and fear: 10 years on from the ‘Jungle’, life in Calais migrant camps is harsher than ever

Large rocks are placed around open areas of land to deter migrant camps. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

In the decade since the demolition of the “Jungle”, an area of Calais where thousands of asylum seekers set up makeshift shelters before embarking on Channel crossings to the UK, everything and nothing has changed.

This week, in a woodland clearing not far from one of Calais’s busy main roads, several brightly coloured tents are pitched. A jacket hanging from a tree branch blows in the brisk autumnal breeze alongside a belt decorated with union flags. It is only October but the wind makes the temperature feel several degrees chillier.