FROM the beginning it was clear the makeshift refugee camp in Calais known as the Jungle would be gone before the year was out.

Saturday, January 23 saw the largest ever migrant demonstration – 4,000 refugees marched towards the town centre, chanting: “Open the border.” As night fell, 500 broke through port fences. Fifty managed to board the Spirit of Britain ferry. Riot police used tear gas to disperse them.

A week later in Dover there was a 300-strong anti-immigration protest, comprised of the National Front (NF), Combat 18, the English Defence League (EDL), South East Alliance and neo-Nazi group National Action. Several hundred anti-fascist (Antifa) protesters broke through police lines and blocked the protest route.

After initial clashes with police a large group of far-right protesters flanked Antifa and attacked, in some of the bloodiest scenes seen in the UK for many years. Bricks and bottles rained down. Far-right protesters gave Nazi salutes and masked men used metal and wooden bars on anyone that got within range.

One photographer was beaten repeatedly across his arm with a flag pole until it snapped in two. He suffered a shattered elbow. His attacker is now serving a seven-year sentence.

February 29 saw French authorities start the demolition of the southern side of the Jungle, home to 3,000 refugees. Hundreds of heavily armed riot police fanned out. Soon tear gas filled the camp streets, water cannons being used on people in near-freezing temperatures. The sky above the camp that night was filled with grey smoke trails of endless tear gas rounds.

The first weekend in April saw the far-right coalition back in Dover, two days after “Refugees Welcome” was projected on the White Cliffs. This time there were only 70 of them, but the Nazi salutes persisted.

Four hundred anti-racists blocked the route of the march. Riot police snatched black-clad Antifa protestors and arrested them. The human blockade was pushed back and the far right were allowed to march.The protest rally point was a backdrop of EDL inscribed England flags, White Power Celtic Crosses and a banner that read: “Rapefugees Not Welcome”.

South East Alliance leader Paul Pitt, himself the son of a Cypriot immigrant, announced: “We are not European, we are British.” He set fire to a European Union flag and lead the chant: “Vote out”.

Two days after Jo Cox MP was brutally murdered by far-right terrorist Thomas Mair, the Convoy to Calais departed central London. Hundreds of cars and vans planned to take aid over to the Jungle camp. The convoy was halted at Dover. French border officials closed the frontier control, using state of emergency laws instigated after the recent terrorist attacks. People from the convoy marched on the border, chanting: “We’ve got aid, let us through. Refugees are human too.”

Hate crime increased 41 per cent in the first month following the EU referendum. Figures in October showed hate crime was up 19 per cent on the same period in 2015.

Polish man Arkadiusz Józwik was killed by a single punch in a racially-motivated attack. On Saturday, September 3 hundreds of members of the Polish community in Harlow came together to lay flowers where he died and march silently through the Essex town.

In the month leading up to the final eviction of the Jungle, refugees made more desperate attempts to reach the UK. The front of the camp became a battlefield between riot police and migrants. The police used every weapon available – tear gas, rubber bullets, shock grenades and water cannons.

The inferno that engulfed the entire camp on eviction day took everyone by surprise. Vast raging fires swallowed up whole neighbourhoods in a matter of minutes.

Refugees packed up their belongings and left, some headed towards official registration centres, some simply disappeared.

Of 1,900 registered children in the camp, 750 entered the UK, then the government closed the door. Thirty-six children that were refused entry have issued a legal challenge against the Home Office.

On the evening of Donald Trump’s election win 200 protesters gathered outside the US Embassy. A small group of far-right protestors appeared, chanting: “We love you, Donald Trump.”

One EDL supporter revealed a White Lives Matter T-shirt. A can of drink hit him in the head, scuffles broke out and police quickly removed the group from the area.

On the day Thomas Mair was sentenced to life imprisonment and Nigel Farage was mooted as US Ambassador by Trump, a Brexit protest appeared outside parliament. In the 300-strong crowd were many known EDL and NF supporters, some NF had donned Ukip steward tabards.

I asked one woman why President Obama was condemned for interfering with British politics but it was okay for Trump to do it. She answered bluntly: “He’s on our side.”

In December National Action were proscribed under the Terrorism Act. On social media they had praised Jo Cox’s murder and labelled Thomas Mair a martyr. Mair had shouted “Britain First” during the attack, he also quoted the National Action slogan in his trial: “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.

Ukip leadership candidate John Rees-Evans addressed the Brexit protest crowd: “It is the will of the British people that is sovereign. And if you [Parliament] don’t prove to us very soon that you are capable of understanding that, then just watch and see what’s going to happen.”