Marcus, not his real name, is nervous and twitchy as he sits by the harbour wall in Calais.

The 16-year-old was one of more than 100 people who on Tuesday tried to scramble aboard a small inflatable dinghy attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.

The BBC witnessed a chaotic and violent scene, as some migrants attacked others with sticks while the French police fired tear gas.

Despite the clashes, the boat still set sail.

Five people died, including a seven-year-old girl, after the overloaded vessel ran into trouble soon after.

Marcus had already travelled through Sudan and Libya, followed by a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Italy, to reach northern France for the attempted Channel crossing.

He says he fled a life as a child soldier in South Sudan and would have been killed if he’d stayed, pointing to a scar on his leg where he says he was shot.

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