EXCLUSIVE: Zak Garner-Purkis visited the Jungle 2 migrant camp outside Dunkirk with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.
Zak Garner-Purkis was forced to flee from migrants throwing bottles at a camp near Dunkirk (Image: Phil Harris)
We’d been warned about Jungle 2 before entering the sprawling migrant camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk.
Its name harks back to another notorious make-shift settlement on the Northern French coast, the Calais Jungle, which had a reputation for crime.
The comparison is accurate new camp is equally dangerous; there are regular shootings and stabbings.
But as an investigative journalist, I know that visits to such locations are part of the job and can, for the most part, be navigated safely if you keep your wits about you.
Yesterday, however, I was not alone.
I travelled to Jungle 2 with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who wanted to see the site firsthand.
The Conservative MP spoke to residents of the camp to understand why those living there were willing to risk it all in their efforts to come to Britain. In each exchange, he emphasised that he was a British member of Parliament.
I wasn’t expecting we’d be greeted with open arms. Homeless encampments anywhere are unpredictable places, people often don’t want to speak for valid or nefarious reasons.
But what happened next was quite surprising, given he’d made it clear he was a public official.
After some techy negotiations, Chris had managed to have a conversation with a man who said he was from Afghanistan and wanted to come to Britain for a better life.
I had stood back and, as is good practice in an unpredictable environment, watched the backs of colleagues who were filming the action.
Two men, wearing T-shirts and tracksuits, rounded the corner to where we stood. One wore a cap and a face browned by the sun, the other had unkempt hair and a potbelly.
As they saw us, a twisted smile crossed their faces and the man with unkempt hair pulled an item from his left side.
Twirling it around with his wrist, I saw it was a foot-and-a-half-long machete. He grinned as he moved past our team’s backs. He wanted people to see the knife. The intention was to send a message.
I’m not sure who he wanted to scare more, us or the other migrants; either way, the weapon was being brandished to intimidate.
Chris Philp was unsettled by events in the migrant camp (Image: Phil Harris)
Under such circumstances, it can be tempting to panic, run off, or cause a scene. But sudden movements can be misinterpreted. Someone willing to swing a deadly weapon behind the backs of a filmed interview is likely to be a loose cannon.
So I waited under the men had rounded the corner and then swiftly informed Chris we needed to leave.
On our way back to the car from the camp, we decided to film a short discussion about what had happened.
While speaking to Chris, I heard a rustling in the bushes that separated Jungle 2 from the road, then a tapping sound.
A brown Leffe beer bottle came hurtling out from the migrant camp and smashed on the ground. Followed immediately by another, which flew just inches from Chris’s face and bounced up before shattering.
We began to run towards the car as rocks were hurled in addition to the bottles. Thankfully, nobody was injured, as more glass was hurled at the cars.
Having raced back to a hypermarket car park, we got a chance to talk, and I found the Shadow Home Secretary unsettled by it all.
Running from projectiles and avoiding knife-wielding migrants is a far cry from the Palace of Westminster (although fair play to him for getting out there).
But what he was most concerned about was the fact that those people who’d attacked us were planning to come to Britain by small boat.
Chris was frightened at the thought that similar behaviour could be repeated once they arrived here.
