Calais 'Jungle': Tension Rises - Day 3

When we arrived on the morning of our third day we could immediately see an increased security presence. For the first time the police were wearing body armour during the day and not just at night. I shot some wide establishing shots at around dusk and was asked for my press ID by two “storm-troopers”.

The atmosphere was more tense at night. I filmed two teenagers aged 15 and 16 who were sitting on the edge of the camp. They told me they’d spent 40 days in the desert fleeing Ethiopia, then a year in Libya. They stowed away in a truck for four days and nights before arriving in Italy. They were scared and other migrants fell unconscious. They looked tired and sad.

While I was filming a migrant ran up to Pete and tipped him off that a gang were planning to attack us. Then he ran off. We didn’t hang around and made our way back to the car the long way around the camp rather than through it.

Article Author: Dave Mason

Dave is Mentor Media Training's Managing Director. He is a CIPR Accredited Practitioner and regularly trains for the PR industry institute. His extensive career in broadcasting spans 30 years across radio and television. He has coached executives from major public and private sector organisations, as well as the UK Armed Forces/NATO, around the world for the past decade. Dave is respected for his inspiring training, which is supportive and concentrates on fast learning development. A founding presenter and shareholder of Somerset’s Orchard FM, he went on to work extensively in commercial radio around the UK, as well as BBC News, where he was a Correspondent at BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio 1 Newsbeat. Dave has been a TV presenter, reporter and producer at ITN, GMTV, (ITV Breakfast), ITV News Westcountry and HTV West. He was one of GMTV’s senior producers for a decade, covering major international, domestic, political and entertainment stories. His roles have included senior news producing and planning, undercover investigations, war reporting and features production. Dave still broadcasts as a crisis communications pundit on Talk TV / Radio, BBC Radio and is a visiting lecturer at several universities. He is a non-executive Trustee of community station Radio Bath and the author of 'Handling the Media In Good Times & Bad'.