Camp Puythouk, in the woods near Dunkirk , is where you queue for everything, waiting and wishing for just one thing: a chance to hide inside a truck bound for the UK.
Meanwhile, in this enormous open-air waiting room, about five hundred migrants from Afghanistan and Kurdish areas of Iraq and Iran pitch their tents under the sky.
Everyone here has heard about the death of 39 people in a refrigerated truck that just crossed The Channel.
“This is very difficult. Everyone is afraid to get into any truck”, – Serbaz told the BBC journalist.
Serbaz arrived here from Iraq a week ago with his eight months pregnant wife.
With such tight security in ports, smugglers are their only hope of reaching Great Britain, he says, but you never know what you are signing up for.
“If they say “go to this truck”, you have to go, you have no choice. They are capable of anything”, – added Serbaz.
“When you deal with them, you just have to obey them, and do literally everything they tell you”, – Serbaz said.
One woman in the camp’s family area said she and others had breathing problems when they were hidden in a sealed container.
When they shouted and kicked the walls, she said, the driver simply cursed at them.
They had to call the police, which tracked the GPS signal on their mobile phones, to find and pull them out.
A Kurdish man, Taish, also told a reporter that he was trying to cross the English Channel in chilled trucks, but every time he was caught by border guards.
“Sometimes we are glad that they find us, because they saved our lives”, – he said. – “However, sometimes we feel sad that they did not let us into the UK”.
Despite the fact that 39 people were killed at the crossroads, Taish said he was not being put off.
“We are between two deaths”, – he explained. – “If we return to our countries, this is death; if we try to get to the UK, perhaps this is also might be death”.
“Thirty-nine people died in a truck, but thousands dies in my country. I think this is a good death, better than death in our country”, – Taish said.
Security in the French ports of Dunkirk and Calais is tough, but they are attractive to both migrants and smugglers, because they are so close to the UK.
And, as one person said, ” if you’re going to cross the border in the back of a truck, three hours is better than seven.”
Smugglers charge up to 10,000 euros (£8,640; $ 11,100) per person to get to the UK.
They also reportedly block access to truck fleets for anyone who hasn’t paid, making it harder for people to try their luck on their own.
But at least today there is another price to weigh.
“There are deaths in the sea and deaths in trucks. We honestly don’t know where to go”, -said Serbaz.