Calais migrants endure misery of ‘jungle’ camps

Speaking about proposed ID cards for immigrants, he told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I don’t think there is any doubt that most people in Calais are coming here for economic reasons. There are a few thousand of them in total, and only a fraction of those have made it to the UK.

“I had a two-metre wall put up to stop them”.

Europe’s real refugee crisis is in the Mediterranean.

Spoiler: It isn’t going to work.

The unhealthy Calais migrant camp, called “The Jungle” by locals, counts roughly 4,000 people from about 23 nationalities.

This comes after illegal migrants claimed it is simple to flee to the UK by stowing away on Channel Tunnel vehicle trains.

This current crisis has been slowly building over the course of the summer.

The debate over immigration intensified over the weekend when foreign secretary Philip Hammond used some of the most robust language yet to warn against the perils of immigration, saying Europe could not “protect itself” if it was forced to take millions of Africans. Many of them are fleeing from persecution and conflict in the Middle East and Africa, including from Syria’s devastating civil war and Eritrea’s brutal dictatorship.

Every night, residents of the camp try to make it to England through the tunnel.

UK Prime Minister David “Cameron is mocking us, he is holding our territory in contempt and imposing his laws on the people of Calais”, said the outspoken city’s mayor Natacha Bouchart.

In just three weeks, between June 21 and July 11, the British government said more than 8,000 attempts to illegally enter Britain were intercepted at French ports by British and French authorities working together. It’s about the idea that migration is taking Britain toward a frightening future, and that no one can stop it.

“If the British do not want to get around the table to discuss security, humanitarian issues and economic solidarity then we will have to open the borders”, she added.

Imagine the situation if control of our borders was moved to Kent?

While attention in the UK is now focused on the estimated 5000 migrants encamped at Calais, Italy and Greece continue to receive huge numbers of migrants by sea. And 63 percent of respondents said that the government had little or no control over immigration.

Ms Bouchart’s remarks came as a French mayor whose town is at the centre of the migrant crisis demanded that British police join forces with their French counterparts to arrest the UK-based smugglers terrorising his community. Integration into the EU has opened its borders to European citizens, London’s financial industry is a magnet for global talent as well as worldwide money, and its world-class universities attract students from around the globe.

A number of people have written to me recently with concerns about the situation at Calais.
We have all seen images of migrants attempting to evade police and make it through the Channel Tunnel into Britain, and heard about the disruption this has caused at the border.

Never let it be said that Britain’s leaders miss an opportunity to inflame fear and loathing towards migrants and refugees.