Clashes broke out between police and migrants living in temporary camps near the northern French port of Calais on Tuesday for a third night running.

Riot police used teargas and watercannon to end an hour-long standoff with the migrants, who started by throwing objects and insults at officers before lighting a wooden pallet on fire.

French police on Monday fired tear gas as they broke down several makeshift camps around the port city of Calais, leaving nearly 400 people, mostly Syrian refugees, without shelter.

A local government source told AFP that aside from the sprawling "New Jungle" where some 3,000 people have set up camp -- most seeking desperately to get to England -- "any illegal settlement cannot remain and will result in evacuation."

Britain and France announced a new "command and control center" Thursday to tackle smuggling gangs in Calais, as Europe grapples with its biggest migration crisis since World War II.

Under a deal signed by Home Minister Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve, British teams will help bust smuggling gangs and reduce nightly attempts by desperate migrants and refugees to break into the Channel Tunnel.

Migrants in Calais made around 1,700 attempts overnight to penetrate the Channel Tunnel premises in a bid to get to England, French police sources said Monday, and an officer sustained facial injuries from a stone.

Of the 1,700 attempts, some 1,000 were "pushed back" by authorities and 700 were intercepted within the 650-hectare Channel Tunnel site, police added.

Hundreds of migrants holed up in northern France made another desperate attempt to reach England in the early hours of Thursday, as Britain's prime minister came under fire for controversial comments on the crisis.

France has bolstered its police presence in the northern port city of Calais and migrants made fewer attempts to enter the Eurotunnel than in previous nights.

Thousands of migrants are trying to cross the Channel from France in search of a better life in Britain -- but what makes them risk their lives traveling from one wealthy European country to another?

The answer is partly down to the allure of living in a country where many of them speak the language, English, and where they might have family or cultural connections, experts say.

One man died Wednesday as migrants made some 1,500 attempts to enter the Eurotunnel terminal in a desperate bid to get to England, a situation the British prime minister warned was "very concerning."

Authorities in London were planning emergency talks over the migrant crisis, which has now claimed nine lives since June and sparked major travel disruption in a peak European holiday season.

A brawl broke out in the early hours of Monday morning between Sudanese and Eritrean migrants in the northern French port of Calais, resulting in 24 injuries, 14 of which required hospital treatment.

According to the emergency services, the fight began after a makeshift tent was torched and escalated quickly into running battles with iron bars.

French police on Tuesday said they would probe a shocking video showing violence against migrants in the northern port town of Calais, from where they hope to cross to Britain.

The amateur footage shows policemen repeatedly beating and kicking migrants who had been hiding in trucks en route to Britain, hoping to secure a better life across the English Channel.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday condemned police abuse of migrants living in makeshift camps in France's northern port city of Calais, from where they hope to cross to Britain.

The organization also slammed the slow response of the French government to the poor living conditions of the migrants, whose numbers have swelled to over 2,000 in recent months.