Migrants massed around the entrance to the Channel Tunnel said on Thursday they would keep trying to sneak across to Britain, undaunted by the arrival of 120 extra riot police on the French side, reports Reuters.
A police officer said the number of migrants trying to enter Britain eased slightly overnight compared to earlier in the week, with about 800 migrants around the site and some 300 intercepted by police.
That compared to an estimated 1,500 attempts by migrants to enter the tunnel on Tuesday night and 2,000 on Monday. Some were probably repeat attempts by the same people.
Some 3,000 migrants live around the tunnel entrance in a makeshift camp known as "The Jungle", making the northern French port one of the frontlines in Europe's wider migrant crisis alongside Italian and Greek islands used an entry point for those crossing the Mediterranean from Africa or the Middle East.
Freight and passenger traffic through the rail tunnel have been severely disrupted in past weeks as migrants desperate to enter Britain have stepped up attempts to board trucks and trains travelling from France.
"All Europe, you know that the England is good. All, everybody knows that," a 25-year-old Sudanese migrant who gave his name only as Mohammed told Reuters.
He said he wanted to join his brother in Britain.
"I want to meet family there, he's waiting (for) me, you know," said the young man, who travelled across the Mediterranean on a boat from Libya. "I don't have money now, I don't have a future. I don't have anything. No eat, no sleep, no shower, no house."