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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...is-Migrant-situation-reaches-fever-pitch.html
Telegraph.co.uk
NEWS *
Calais crisis: Migrant situation reaches fever pitch
Migrants face police officers as they attempt to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais
Picture: AP
By Rory Mulholland and Greg Walton, in Calais
7:09PM BST 30 Jul 2015
It is only set to get worst as camps swell and those caught attempting to get through the fence are released to try again, report Rory Mulholland and Greg Walton
“Beware - Do Not Add To Recent Deaths - Danger of Death” says the sign in English, French, Arabic and several other languages posted on the barbed wire fence around the Channel Tunnel terminal.
But the stark warning is not enough to deter the hundreds of desperate migrants who try night after night to find a breach in the fence believing that they will find a better life at the other end of the tunnel.
The situation in the French port has reached fever pitch in recent days, and the situation is only set to get worst as camps swell and those caught attempting to get through the fence are released to try again.
The nightly ritual at the terminal now sees around 2,000 attempts and Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has voiced concerns migrants may be rushing to make their bid before more secure fencing - paid for by Britain - goes up in the next few days.
ADVERTISEMENT
Those waiting for the cover of darkness to try and break through looked panicked by the idea of tighter security.
Other blamed the surge on improved conditions on the Mediterranean, meaning more people have been able to reach the continent via Libya and Egypt.
Uhrad, 30, an Eritrean accountant who reached the Calais camp on Thursday night, said that having made it this far they would not be deterred by tightened security.
Summing up the determination at the port he said: "You know people will make a way - they will dig under the fence. The ferries became too difficult so now they are trying the trains. People will swim if that's too difficult."
By around 2 am the port was buzzing with activity, with French riot police watching from a distance, ready to move in when they spotted migrants climbing over or cutting their way through the daunting double fence that is lined with barbed wire at the top, bottom and the space in between.
• David Cameron blames Calais crisis on 'swarm' of migrants
“I don’t care if they put a fire there. I’ll still get over it,” said 28-year-old Darood, who claims he had fled his native Ethiopia after most of his family members were killed.
He watched keenly as a train carrying lorries lumbered by under the floodlights just a few dozen yards away, about to be swallowed up by the tunnel that leads under the Channel to England.
Darood didn’t make it through, but said he would keep trying until he finally did get to the country which he and most of the other migrants here see as some sort of El Dorado where their lives will rapidly improve.
Many have made it, and many more are likely to do so as police admit they are simply overwhelmed by the growing numbers of migrants who have recently turned their attention away from Calais ferry port - after security was tightened there - to make their desperate bids at the tunnel terminal.
"It's like trying to swat moles,” said Claude Verri of the UNSA police union. “All we can do is take them out of the terminal area and then leave them there. And then five minutes later they can be back inside again."
• Why so many migrants flee Eritrea: the world's 10 most repressive regimes
Exactly how many eventually get to England no-one knows, but UK officials say that they prevented 18,000 stowaways from entering the country between January 1 and May 21 this year.
Some die in their attempt. At least ten have lost their lives since June alone, through electrocution or after falling off trains or lorries they were trying to clamber onto.
In the latest death officials said that a migrant had leapt onto a Eurotunnel shuttle train but smashed his head on the platform. He died on Tuesday from his injuries.
There is a cat and mouse game between the police migrants. Every time a hole in the fence is made workers fix it. Lines of officers try and push them back toward the “Jungle” - the vast shanty town among sand dunes several miles away.
There was a moment of tension but the confrontation was mostly good-humoured, with one officer’s appeal to the migrants to “Come back tomorrow” was met with laughter. “We want to go today,” someone shouted back.
“If we had no problems in our countries we wouldn’t be here,” said Abdurahmen, a young Sudanese man who said he had taken a perilous journey through Libya and then across the Mediterranean on a rickety boat to reach Europe.
“None of us want to live like this. I just want to live in Britain, make a family, take my kids to school,” he said. Police said on Thursday that overnight they had “arrested” around 300 people trying to break into the tunnel terminal.
But in fact all they do is take migrants who have breached the fence - or tried to - and put them on a bus that at dawn deposits them at a roundabout on the edge of Calais.
From there they head back to the Jungle and rest for the day before planning their next assault on the terminal.
The massive migrant presence, combined with wildcat strike action by ferry workers, have this summer crippled Calais and caused travel chaos for holidaymakers and truckers alike as ferry and train services were repeatedly brought to a halt.
Many people of Calais express sympathy for the plight of the migrants - many of them women and children - but say their town has suffered enough and the crisis must be resolved.
• David Cameron: UK will not be 'safe haven' for 'swarm' of immigrants
"Calais is suffocating. The tourists have stopped coming here because all they see on the telly is stories about migrants and they are afraid to come," said Gilles Duvauchelle, the owner of Le Bounty café in the town centre.
Several customers at the bar nodded in agreement, with one woman saying that Britons used to come in large numbers to stock up on wine and French food in the hypermarkets on the edge of town. But now they have dwindled to a trickle, she said.
"The government is incompetent," said Mr Duvauchelle.
"When migrant camps build up in Paris they move them on. But when they're here in Calais they don't give a damn.”
• Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner: 'We must send in the army'
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Telegraph.co.uk
NEWS *
Calais crisis: Migrant situation reaches fever pitch
Migrants face police officers as they attempt to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais
Picture: AP
By Rory Mulholland and Greg Walton, in Calais
7:09PM BST 30 Jul 2015
It is only set to get worst as camps swell and those caught attempting to get through the fence are released to try again, report Rory Mulholland and Greg Walton
“Beware - Do Not Add To Recent Deaths - Danger of Death” says the sign in English, French, Arabic and several other languages posted on the barbed wire fence around the Channel Tunnel terminal.
But the stark warning is not enough to deter the hundreds of desperate migrants who try night after night to find a breach in the fence believing that they will find a better life at the other end of the tunnel.
The situation in the French port has reached fever pitch in recent days, and the situation is only set to get worst as camps swell and those caught attempting to get through the fence are released to try again.
The nightly ritual at the terminal now sees around 2,000 attempts and Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has voiced concerns migrants may be rushing to make their bid before more secure fencing - paid for by Britain - goes up in the next few days.
ADVERTISEMENT
Those waiting for the cover of darkness to try and break through looked panicked by the idea of tighter security.
Other blamed the surge on improved conditions on the Mediterranean, meaning more people have been able to reach the continent via Libya and Egypt.
Uhrad, 30, an Eritrean accountant who reached the Calais camp on Thursday night, said that having made it this far they would not be deterred by tightened security.
Summing up the determination at the port he said: "You know people will make a way - they will dig under the fence. The ferries became too difficult so now they are trying the trains. People will swim if that's too difficult."
By around 2 am the port was buzzing with activity, with French riot police watching from a distance, ready to move in when they spotted migrants climbing over or cutting their way through the daunting double fence that is lined with barbed wire at the top, bottom and the space in between.
• David Cameron blames Calais crisis on 'swarm' of migrants
“I don’t care if they put a fire there. I’ll still get over it,” said 28-year-old Darood, who claims he had fled his native Ethiopia after most of his family members were killed.
He watched keenly as a train carrying lorries lumbered by under the floodlights just a few dozen yards away, about to be swallowed up by the tunnel that leads under the Channel to England.
Darood didn’t make it through, but said he would keep trying until he finally did get to the country which he and most of the other migrants here see as some sort of El Dorado where their lives will rapidly improve.
Many have made it, and many more are likely to do so as police admit they are simply overwhelmed by the growing numbers of migrants who have recently turned their attention away from Calais ferry port - after security was tightened there - to make their desperate bids at the tunnel terminal.
"It's like trying to swat moles,” said Claude Verri of the UNSA police union. “All we can do is take them out of the terminal area and then leave them there. And then five minutes later they can be back inside again."
• Why so many migrants flee Eritrea: the world's 10 most repressive regimes
Exactly how many eventually get to England no-one knows, but UK officials say that they prevented 18,000 stowaways from entering the country between January 1 and May 21 this year.
Some die in their attempt. At least ten have lost their lives since June alone, through electrocution or after falling off trains or lorries they were trying to clamber onto.
In the latest death officials said that a migrant had leapt onto a Eurotunnel shuttle train but smashed his head on the platform. He died on Tuesday from his injuries.
There is a cat and mouse game between the police migrants. Every time a hole in the fence is made workers fix it. Lines of officers try and push them back toward the “Jungle” - the vast shanty town among sand dunes several miles away.
There was a moment of tension but the confrontation was mostly good-humoured, with one officer’s appeal to the migrants to “Come back tomorrow” was met with laughter. “We want to go today,” someone shouted back.
“If we had no problems in our countries we wouldn’t be here,” said Abdurahmen, a young Sudanese man who said he had taken a perilous journey through Libya and then across the Mediterranean on a rickety boat to reach Europe.
“None of us want to live like this. I just want to live in Britain, make a family, take my kids to school,” he said. Police said on Thursday that overnight they had “arrested” around 300 people trying to break into the tunnel terminal.
But in fact all they do is take migrants who have breached the fence - or tried to - and put them on a bus that at dawn deposits them at a roundabout on the edge of Calais.
From there they head back to the Jungle and rest for the day before planning their next assault on the terminal.
The massive migrant presence, combined with wildcat strike action by ferry workers, have this summer crippled Calais and caused travel chaos for holidaymakers and truckers alike as ferry and train services were repeatedly brought to a halt.
Many people of Calais express sympathy for the plight of the migrants - many of them women and children - but say their town has suffered enough and the crisis must be resolved.
• David Cameron: UK will not be 'safe haven' for 'swarm' of immigrants
"Calais is suffocating. The tourists have stopped coming here because all they see on the telly is stories about migrants and they are afraid to come," said Gilles Duvauchelle, the owner of Le Bounty café in the town centre.
Several customers at the bar nodded in agreement, with one woman saying that Britons used to come in large numbers to stock up on wine and French food in the hypermarkets on the edge of town. But now they have dwindled to a trickle, she said.
"The government is incompetent," said Mr Duvauchelle.
"When migrant camps build up in Paris they move them on. But when they're here in Calais they don't give a damn.”
• Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner: 'We must send in the army'
RELATED ARTICLES
Army ready to act over Calais crisis
PROMOTED STORIES
Strengthened Brand Identity leads to Doubling of Sales (Spring Singapore)
Opening New Business Opportunities with Financial Analysis (Spring Singapore)
Don't let anyone hold you back for being who you are. - Eunice Olsen (Physiogel)
How Audiences Consume COntent in Asia Pacific? (Outbrain)
Ride and Relax at The Shoppes (Marina Bay Sands)
Mers will hit 'aviation, hospitality stocks most' (STJobs)
The 2 Best Credit Cards for Groceries In Singapore Are... (GET.com)
John Silva: Truce with Muslim rebels has some wary of Shariah traditions (Nikkei Asian Review)
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*
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Pictures of the day
*
Arnold Schwarzenegger's career in pictures
*
Celebrity Sightings
*
The world's newest island
*
The biggest companies in the world in 2015
*
MOST POPULAR
1 Cecil the lion's killer revealed as American dentist2 MH370 search: Malaysian experts on way to island to study plane debris - live3 England vs Australia - day two: as it happened4 MH370: wreckage found on Reunion 'matches Malaysia Airlines flight'5 Calais migrant crisis: Jeremy Corbyn accuses Cameron of using 'incendiary language' - as it happened6 Flier suing for a back injury 'caused by sitting next to obese man'7 Police hunt middle-aged sex on a train couple8 Man Utd 0 PSG 2 - five things we learned9 'Impossible' rocket drive works and could get to Moon in four hours 10 Windows 10 launch - as it happened
BACK TO TOP
HomeFootballVideoFantasy FootballUK NewsSportWorld NewsCricketCommentRugby UnionPoliticsWimbledonFinanceLifestyleCultureWomenTravelMenTechnologyFashionPersonal FinanceLuxuryObituariesCars
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VIEW DESKTOP VERSION
Contact us
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