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Migrants Bound for Calais Port Battle French Police


French riot police stand guard at the entrance to "the Jungle" as dozens of migrants try to storm trucks that are heading toward the ferry terminal in Calais, France, Sept. 21, 2016.
French riot police stand guard at the entrance to "the Jungle" as dozens of migrants try to storm trucks that are heading toward the ferry terminal in Calais, France, Sept. 21, 2016.

Hundreds of migrants trying to make their way to Britain from Calais in northern France clashed with French riot police on Wednesday, Reuters witnesses and police said.

Police used tear-gas grenades and led charges to disperse migrants trying to make their way to the approach road for Calais port.

The clashes took place not far from where a British-financed wall is being built to seal off the road, where migrants frequently try to jump on trucks bound for Britain.

Earlier on Wednesday, former President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Calais campaigning to return to the presidency in an election in April, promising to be particularly tough on immigration.

Sarkozy, who signed an agreement in 2003 that effectively put the British border on mainland France, said during the visit it was not up to France "to be England's border guards," and he called for the deal to be renegotiated.

Under the current arrangement, thousands of migrants fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia have built a shanty town near Calais known as "the Jungle," which French authorities are currently dismantling.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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