Calais migrant camp has rapidly increased to 4,000 refugees in just 3 months

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Its population has grown by 1,000 since June, tripled since September 2014
Mostly made up of refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq
Camp has its own mosque, shops, restaurants and bicycle repair workshop
Many use the camp as springboard to sneak across the Channel to the UK

Published: 14:55 EST, 1 October 2015 | Updated: 05:50 EST, 13 October 2015

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Disturbing images show how the overcrowded Calais migrant camp known as 'the Jungle' is now home to more than 4,000 people.

It has grown by around 1,000 since June and almost tripled since September 2014, when only 1,300 refugees and migrants set up tents on the former landfill site, just three miles from the town centre.

Most of its inhabitants are refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq, as well as the African nations of Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.

Many use the camp as a springboard to reach the UK by sneaking onto lorries and Eurotunnel trains or simply walking across the underground passageway.

The once-desert area, which was home to just 800 in 2009, has been transformed into a small town with its own mosques, shops that sell food and cigarettes, restaurants and even a bicycle repair workshop.

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Crammed: Aerial images show how the Calais 'Jungle' has become an even more overcrowded settlement which is home to more than 4,000

How times change: The same area in Calais, just three miles from the city centre, was must more sparsely populated in June 2015

Rapid expansion: The number of migrants living in the jungle today has grown hugely since September 2009 (pictured), when it was home to just 800

Desperation: Around 4,000 migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East are camped in Calais, trying to board vehicles heading for Britain

Small town: Since the settlement first appeared in 2009, the once-deserted area has been transformed into a semi-functional town since the settlement with its own mosques and shops

Necessary aid: Dozens of migrants surround a truck carrying emergency food at 'the Jungle'

Squalid: Thousands of migrants have set up tents or constructed makeshift houses in 'the Jungle' with the ultimate aim of reaching the UK

The migrants and refugees who call the camp home say the conditions are far worse than other refugee camps they have stayed in as they traveled the thousands of miles to Europe from their impoverished countries of origin.

Thousands set up tents or slept rough in the Jungle - whose entrance is now guarded by barbed wire, armed police and dogs - with an ultimate goal of starting a new life in the UK.

They began sneaking onto trucks and lorries crossing the English Channel in July but when security was stepped up, hundreds stormed the underwater tunnel every night to walk the 31 miles to their so-called promised land.

At least 13 migrants have died trying to cross the tunnel by foot in the last months alone.

Eurotunnel drivers have said they are struggling to do their jobs because they live in constant fear of killing another migrant.

In an open letter, the drivers of Frances largest labour union, the CGT, said: 'Today we are afraid. Afraid to start, afraid to finish, afraid to drive, afraid to hit, to crush, to electrocute, to reduce to a pulp a wretched, disinherited, ill-fated, damned of the Earth.

'We do not want to, and above all cannot, continue to do our job in such conditions of stress, anxiety and stomach-clenching fear.'

See more of the latest news and pictures on the migrant and refugee crisis at Calais

Home: Around 4,000 migrants and refugees have set up tents or slept rough in Calais (pictured today) with the ultimate goal of starting a new life in the UK

Overcrowded: Hundreds of migrants from the Calais Jungle try to sneak through the Eurotunnel on foot every night

Sparse: An aerial picture taken on June 4, 2015 shows how 'the Jungle' is expanding rapidly, with thousands of migrants flooding into Europe from Africa and the Middle East every day

Trouble: Riot police detained 278 migrants on September 2009 (pictured), in a dawn raid on the makeshift camp

'How many more will be injured? How many more will die? Are we going to have to get used to these morbid figures?

They also felt they were working in a war zone, with the tunnel site now surrounded by barbed wire, armed police and dogs.

'As numbers grow, they have become more aggressive,' a trucker who often crosses the Channel told the Financial Times earlier this year.

A local shop worker named Christelle said she moved out of Calais two years ago because of the migrants.

She said: 'There were always lots of fights around town and many of the migrants were very aggressive.

The events in Calais are a small part of the migrant crisis sweeping Europe, as hundreds of thousands risk their lives to reach the European Union.

The United Nations predicts 700,000 people would reach Europe via the Mediterranean this year and 'possibly even higher numbers' would come in 2016.

Impoverished: Migrants living in the Jungle in Calais (pictured) have said the camp is worse than many other refugee camps they have lived in

Rubbish dump: At least 13 migrants, who may have lived in the jungle, have died trying to cross the tunnel by foot in the last months alone

More than half of those who have made it to Europe have been Syrians fleeing their country's never-ending civil war.

Many have headed to Germany, which took in 280,000 migrants last month.

Tensions have repeatedly flared in the over-crowded apartment blocks, army barracks, tent cities, former supermarkets and other shelters where Germany has been accommodating them.

Some 200 Syrians and Afghans clashed in a mass brawl overnight in a Hamburg refugee centre, a former hardware store now sheltering 800 people - leaving four people injured.

Fifty police were called in to contain the violence, which reportedly broke out after an argument in a shower block and saw two groups attack each other with iron bars, furniture and rocks.

In earlier such disturbances, 14 people were injured Sunday when 70 Pakistanis clashed with 300 Albanians in a shelter in the central city of Kassel, before dozens of Syrians and Pakistanis came to blows Tuesday in a camp in the eastern city of Dresden.

Such trouble - though still relatively rare, given the massive numbers - has raised fears of worse to come as the influx continues unabated and some migrants grow increasingly frustrated with long waits in tough conditions.