France sends 120 extra police to secure Eurotunnel: minister

Speaking at London in lieu of the Calais Crisis, French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, placed the blame on Eurotunnel for the surge of problems at the freight terminal.

He added: “These considerable investments have already been followed in the second half of the year with new fencing around the platforms”. It has doubled the number of staff to patrol the area to 200, including using sniffer dogs, and spent more than 160 million euros, including €13 million in the first six months of 2015, grappling with the issue.

Britain also has warships patrolling the Mediterranean turning back and rescuing migrants trying to cross into Europe.

BEARDSLEY: Nine migrants have died since June attempting to cross the Channel Tunnel to Britain from Calais.

An official count early this month showed about 3,000 migrants – mainly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan – camped in Calais, waiting for the right moment to try for a dash for Britain.

“The pressure we are now under every night exceeds that which an operator can reasonably handle, and calls for an appropriate reaction from the states” of France and Britain, the firm stressed in a statement. “I know it’s unsafe but I’m trying”.

Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman said: “He should remember he is talking about people not insects and I don’t think it’s going to distract attention for him to just be trying to whip up hostility to those migrants in Calais when he should be sorting the situation out”. Trucks are parked and immobile along the tunnel routes, snarling traffic and affecting commerce, as it’s delaying truckers from delivering products.

Cazeneuve and his British counterpart, Theresa May, met on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, and May was due to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency “Cobra” committee in London on Wednesday.

The British government has agreed to an extra 7 million pounds ($11 million) of funding for measures to improve security at Calais.

The Conservative Party lawmaker for Folkestone in southern England, Damian Collins, said French authorities needed to better secure their side. It’s partly an issue of enforcement from French authorities. I don’t believe those stupid people.

“But that has happened constantly throughout the summer”.

To get to the tunnel, migrants must cross a busy highway, scale or cut through barricades and fences, and pry open cargo doors or crouch in the freight cars that cradle the tractor-trailers.

France is boosting security around its entry to the tunnel that runs beneath the English Channel, after thousands of migrants tried to make a desperate rush to Britain.

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“The UK has responsibility in this matter too, England allows these migrants to work without papers”.

Sailings from the Port of Dover continued, with P&O Ferries running full services to Calais and DFDS operating a full schedule to Dunkirk and Calais.

Migrants standing by the perimeter security fencing of the Eurotunnel site at Coquelles in Calais, France.

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Despite the efforts, many refugees have made it to Britain.

For the thousands of migrants fleeing war, upheaval and poverty and now camped in shanties around the port of Calais known as the “jungle”, the aim is a better life.