Calls for Europe-wide assistance to end Calais migrant crisis

French riot police sprayed migrants with chemical irritants after they tore down security fences at the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais on Saturday night.

Around 200 migrants broke through several layers of security before approaching the tunnel entrance.

The first stage of the extra fencing at Coquelles was completed yesterday, with the remainder – provided by Eurotunnel – by the end of this week.

The body is calling on the Government to join in efforts to bring the situation under control.

“It is beyond a joke”, said one driver in the convoy.

Home secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve said it was part of a “global migration crisis”.

“This comes from the total of over 266 million euros earmarked for France and over 370 million euros earmarked for the UK for the period covering 2014-20”, Avramopoulos said in a statement.

After chairing a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee in Whitehall, Mr Cameron branded scenes of migrants breaking through fences and hanging onto lorries as they try to enter the Channel Tunnel “unacceptable” and declared: “We are absolutely on it. We know it needs more work”.

“There is no evidence to suggest that all of those who leave camps in Calais reach the UK”, the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman said.

“This situation can not be seen as an issue just for our two countries”.

“This is another stark example of the need for a greater level of solidarity and responsibility in the way we deal with migratory pressures in Europe”, Mina Andreeva, spokeswoman for the European Commission, told reporters.

But they added that the entire European Union must “address this problem at root”.

Last week, we agreed a further £7-million of funding towards increasing security at the Channel Tunnel railhead at Coquelles.

The measures will be included in the Government’s upcoming Immigration Bill, with the aim of making it more hard for migrants to live in the UK after their visas have expired or applications for asylum have been rejected.

On Monday, it was also announced that landlords in England would be expected to evict tenants who lost the right to remain in the UK, under new measures to clamp down on illegal immigration.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a phone call to French President Francois Hollande to discuss solutions to the migrant issue in Calais.

At least 10 migrants have died since June attempting to find a way onto a train a lorry headed for Britain with an incursion attempt on Saturday night forcing the closure of the Eurotunnel for five hours, a Eurotunnel spokesman said.

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “On this side of the Channel, Operation Stack has seen in excess of 5,000 vehicles parked up, simply waiting to cross to France“.

They are estimated to be losing over €9,000 a day as a result of the delays.

“Instead you have chosen to inflame the situation with incendiary and divisive language, which will serve only to escalate the problem”.

What is different this time is that the migrants number thousands not hundreds, and disruption to freight and passenger traffic has been prolonged in the summer holiday season.