Union Jack-waving migrants and hard-left activists leave 10 French cops injured as tensions escalate in Calais refugee camp
Riot police used smoke bombs and water cannon to control the angry mob
TEN riot policemen were injured after migrants and hard-left activists waving a Union Jack flag launched a violent protest against the closing of the Calais Jungle, officers revealed today.
The disturbances came as the French government prepares to kick up to 10,000 people out of the squalid shantytown and then raze it to the ground.
On Saturday, Philippe Poutoux, a militant trade unionist who is standing for the French presidency as candidate for the New Anti-Capitalist Party, was among those involved in the demonstration.
He called for all of the Jungle migrants to be guaranteed new lives in Europe, saying they were "victims of wars" ultimately caused by western oil speculators and other greedy tycoons.
Those involved in the fighting included British left-wingers, who covered their faces as they threw rocks at CRS riot squads.
As the police responded with water canon and tear gas, migrants advanced brandishing a Union Jack flag.
Practically all of the migrants in the Jungle want to get to Britain, where they will claim asylum or else disappear into the black economy.
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"We love England – it is our future, and all we are asking is that we are allowed to travel there as quickly as possible," said one demonstrator, who asked to be identified solely as Khalid, 22.
‘The French say they are going to destroy the Jungle soon, but we will resist. We must have somewhere to stay while waiting to get to England."
The demonstration was officially banned because of security fears, but hundreds arrived in coaches to support the migrants.
A police source in Calais said: "Our job was to try and stop trouble, but we came under sustained attack.
"Ten officers were injured, as was a journalist covering the trouble. The situation was very tense indeed, with the fighting lasing for most of Saturday afternoon."
French Socialist president Francois Hollande has pledged to tear down the Jungle within the next few weeks, while "dispersing" all of its inhabitant to other parts of France.
But critics say the scheme is utterly unworkable, and the migrants will simply come straight back again, as they always have in the past.
There are some 160 so called "welcome and orientation centres" around France which are meant to be welcoming the migrants.
Some 12000 places have been set aside in these units across France, often in places as far away as the Alps, and the southern and western coast.
Right-wing parties including the Republicans, who are led by former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, want to see all UK-bound migrants sent straight to England.