Left-wing youths in black face masks and carrying long wooden sticks stormed a town hall protest by right-wing demonstrators as tensions in the French town rise
The pro-White group Sauvons Calais – meaning ‘Save Calais’ – were protesting against the growing number of people, mostly from the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Afghanistan, who have set up camp as they try to enter the UK.
Around 300 riot police were called in to try to maintain peace as the protesters found themselves under attack from left-wing supporters of the foreigners.
Last night police struggled to set up barricades to keep the two groups separate as violence and vandalism raged on the streets.
The unrest follows the revelation yesterday that the UK government has offered to send 9ft-high steel fences to the town to improve security.
The 12 miles of fencing was used at the Nato summit in Wales last week, and the Home Office says it is much stronger than the barriers currently in place at the French port.
Around 250 people attended yesterday’s anti-immigration rally, including White patriotic with pro-White flags.
One wore a T-shirt saying ‘Charlemagne 1944’, in reference to a Second World War Nazi division made up entirely of French volunteers.
Earlier this week migrants, most of whom have travelled to France from the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Afghanistan, attempted to storm a ferry bound for Britain
Around ten demonstrators also appeared to make ‘Heil Hitler’ salutes during the stand-off with their left-wing opponents – although organisers claimed they were just being used to mock the ‘left-wing fascists’.
Kevin Reche, a former member of the French National Front said that the ‘Left-wing scum’ were trying to prevent them ‘speaking up for the people of Calais.’
He added: ‘There are all kinds of people demonstrating for a safe Calais – from the pro-White, to those without any political views. We are all calling for justice.’
Sauvons Calais is demanding that the migrants be expelled from the Calais area, and that anyone sheltering or feeding them is arrested.
Amid the anger more moderate Calais residents spoke of their alarm at the effect the volume of migrants has had on the town. Noelle Richard, 46, was at the rally with her school-age daughter.
She said: ‘We just want a better future for own children. Having lots of young men sleeping rough in the town makes for a very unpleasant atmosphere.’
There have already been attacks on squatters in Calais and some temporary camps have been illegally burned down. Fears are growing for what might happen if demonstrators are able to get too near the desperate migrants.
On Friday some 200 migrants marched through the streets chanting ‘UK, UK, we want to go to the UK’, and ‘We demand our human rights’.
Last Wednesday scores of them attempted to storm a ferry bound for the UK, and Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart has threatened to close the docks.
Mrs Bouchart said she wanted ‘far more help from the British government’ to deal with people attempting to cross the Channel illegally.
But former Home Secretary Michael Howard, now Lord Howard, rebuffed this call saying France needed to ‘get its act together’ to deal with the growing crisis by itself.
According to the Calais prefecture, 7,414 undocumented migrants were arrested in Calais in the first six months of this year, compared with the 3,129 detained in the same period of 2013.
Many arrive in the town with the sole intention of sneaking onto trucks or ferries bound for Britain because they see it as a promised land with generous benefits for refugees.
The situation has led to a nightly game of cat-and-mouse with police as migrants attempt to break into lorries.
Some 400 would-be stowaways were caught by French police last weekend alone. However those caught are then released, leaving them free to try again.
Thousands of migrants have set up camp in the French town in the hope of entering the UK
