A British journalism student from London, reporting on illegal immigration to Britain has been gang-raped by the invaders she had ‘befriended’ and was interviewing in Calais.

Police in this north French town are busy rounding up in excess of 500 potential suspects, most of who were sleeping rough prior to their attempt to invade soft-touch Britain on ferries, trains or trucks. Most of the invaders are from Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Middle East.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was described as “a London student who had travelled to France to highlight problems surrounding clandestine immigration. We fear that the men she was reporting on attacked her in the wood where they were staying.”

The woman is believed to have wanted to spend time with the immigrants in a notorious makeshift camp called ‘The Jungle’ before the attack happened on Tuesday night. 

‘The Jungle’ is part of a disused industrial zone called The Dunes, a short walk from the ferry port. There, would-be invaders make tents out of plastic sheets and build fires. They are supported by local charities.

In 2005 a gang of would-be invaders was implicated in the rape of a resident of Oye-Plage, near Calais. While fights between invaders competing for routes into Britain are commonplace, this is believed to be the first time that a journalist trying to sympathetically interview them has been attacked.

Calais became a magnet for invaders in the late 90s following the opening of the Sangatte Cross Centre, which housed 67,000 invaders over three years.