"Hey, let's go. Let's try it." In a subdued voice, a man calls a group of 30 migrants to follow him down a small dirt trail. The group of Africans had been waiting for several hours at a campfire in a small forest near the Eurotunnel premises.

Now, shortly after midnight, the man they paid to smuggle them across the border uses wire cutters to snip out a hole in the chainlink fence and then bends the barbed wired to the side.

The first man, wearing a red jacket, slips through the hole and climbs over the next three-meter (10-foot) steel fence. Eight more men quickly follow him - lit up by the floodlights of three television crews who are reporting on the situation at the channel tunnel.

After a few minutes, four police cars with blue lights flashing approach on the other side of the fence. The fences are equipped with sensors and every hole is reported to a control center close to the tunnels' entrance. As soon as the police arrive, the refugees retreat quickly - and peacefully.

Distract and advance

Around 200 Eurotunnel security personnel and 300 French gendarmes are on duty. Hundreds of refugees try to pass through the area. About 100 to 150 of them managed to get over the fences and were apprehended by security officers, according to the Eurotunnel operators. It is unclear how many refugees successfully managed to jump onto a freight train or stow away on a truck and make their way to Great Britain.

Well-organized groups of refugees have been trying for weeks to evade authorities along the fence or divert the police officers' attention so other migrants can slip through. This week was a particularly busy week: The French police said there had been as many as 3,500 arrested refugees - but there have been no reports of violence.

For security reasons, the entrance to both tunnels in Calais have been intermittently closed. Sometimes, hundreds of refugees block one of the highway ramps or train tracks. Such actions led to hour-long delays in the tunnel's shuttle service and to traffic jams in Calais, as well as on the other side of the English Channel in Dover.

French media say nine people have died in and around the tunnels since the beginning of June. The refugees have either been hit by trucks in the dark or they didn't survive the jump onto the freight trains.
Frankreich Flüchtlinge am Eurotunnel Calais

'I want to go to my wife'

A refugee from Syria in his 40s who calls himself Hamid and does not want to be identified, said he wants to try crossing again at night. Together with his nephew, he has spent many months crossing Europe by land to reach Great Britain.

"My wife already lives there," Hamid said while pointing towards the English coast. "I want to go to her, that's why I want to go to England."

He said he does not know what to expect in Great Britain, or how the authorities will react if they arrest him.

Hamid has been living in the makeshift settlement of sheds and tent that the refugees and locals in Calais have deemed the "Jungle" for the past week. Between 3,000 and 5,000 refugees are estimated to be waiting for a chance to leave the settlement and sneak across to Dover.

Every night they walk down the eight-kilometer (five-mile) road from the camp to the tunnel premises. Hamid and his nephew head out alone. They want to save the smuggler's fee, which can run up to hundreds of euros.

The road takes the refugees past a giant shopping center, movie theaters and fast-food restaurants that have been built next to the tunnel for tourists. While the people living in abundance carry their full bags to their cars, others, owning no more than their clothes scurry by towards the tunnel. The shopping center also has a fitting name: Cité Europe (Europe City).
Vier afrikanische Flüchtlinge warten vor dem Discount-Supermarkt in Calais

Aid organizations that provide free meals every day to several hundred refugees said the pressure has been growing as more and more people, mostly from Syria, Eritrea and Sudan, want to try their luck at the tunnel's entrance. The trucks that refugees used to hide themselves in are more checked more frequently by security forces, making it harder to stowaway in them.

"I know it is difficult and dangerous to enter the tunnel," Hamid said, shrugging his shoulders. "But I have no other choice. Or do you know a better way? Maybe at the harbor, by ferry?"

Dozens of refugees, including woman and children camp out behind a discount supermarket near a road leading to the tunnels. The women still go to the supermarket during the day to buy some bread and drinks, but the security guards at the door no longer allow young African men to enter the building.
Ein Gruppe von Flüchtlingen versucht, die Ladetür eines LKW zu öffnen

The British government has often asked France to tighten security measures at the French tunnel entrance. London pays to reinforce fences and barriers. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve promised to temporarily relocate 120 more police officers to Calais, but has also demanded that tunnel operators do more.

The head of the Eurotunnel Group, Jacques Gounon, however, sees things differently. He said Great Britain and France have to "take more care of the European problem of refugees." He has also called for financial compensation in the amount of almost 10 million euros for the high security costs.

Busy trying to survive, Hamid doesn't pick up on these political squabbles. He uses his cell phone to keep in touch with his wife in England. Tired, he sits down on the grass by the roadside after hours of waiting. He lights a crumpled cigarette butt and takes a deep drag.

"In Syria, before the war, I had a shop," he said. "And now, I have this."