According to a report by BBC News a camp housing 1,500 migrants close to the port of Dunkirk has been destroyed by fire. The blaze began during a fight between Afghans and Kurds; at least 10 people are reported to have been injured.

"There is nothing left but a heap of ashes," said Michel Lalande, Prefect of France's Nord region. It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before."

The population of the Grande-Synthe camp has grown since the closure of the ‘Jungle’ 25 miles along the coast in Calais last October. Since the camp was opened in March 2016 by the charity MSF (Doctors Without Borders), several violent incidents involving Afgans and Kurds have been reported.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) is concerned about the knock-on effects for UK-bound trucks and their drivers.

RHA Chief Executive Richard Burnett said, “This is really bad news. Already we are seeing migrants return to the Calais area – all with the same goal; to reach the UK by whatever means possible and that usually means on the back of a truck. They have no thought for either their own safety, or of anyone else’s. A sudden influx of well over 1,000 displaced migrants will only make what is already a bad situation much, much worse. I am greatly concerned that the only people who may come out of this well will be the people smugglers – those that make a living through human trafficking."