Migrants jump on trucks as under-Channel traffic resumes

Some of the thousands of illegal immigrants camped in Calais and desperately trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain took advantage of the chaos to climb onto immobilised vehicles, said an AFP reporter on the scene.

But hundreds of migrants still sought to jump aboard slow-moving lorries in Calais, and truckers have said they fear for their safety, claiming some migrants are armed.

Then, today, the two main ways to make the crossing from Calais to Dover were shut down by a French ferry workers strike, adding to the confusion and leaving business and tourism travelers stuck overnight (or longer).

This led to the cancellation of 25 Eurostar services which stranded an estimated 15,000 passengers, and there have been reports that many of them spent the night at London’s St Pancras station.

Eurostar services are scheduled to run as normal and the high-speed train company said all services from London today are now full and rebookings are being made for Thursday.

Meanwhile, Eurostar passengers who were waiting at St Pancras said the situation there was a “shambles”.

“‘The effective and efficient working of the UK’s border and immigration functions continues to be of great interest to those responsible for delivering these functions, to parliament, and to the public, not least because we are all touched by them”, he said.

“It’s an incredibly unsafe situation”, she said.

“That gives the trades unions a sort of feeling that, “well, we might be able to get what we want through industrial action””.

“We are putting additional resourcing into the port of Dover to enhance screenings and detections there so that we’re looking at this on both sides of the Channel”.

He also stressed that law and order around Calais was “the responsibility of the French authorities”.

The deputy mayor of Calais, Philippe Mignonet, yesterday reiterated calls from French politicians for the border to be moved from northern France to Britain.

“Traffic in the tunnel is suspended because of burning tires, which are the result of port workers”, a Eurotunnel spokeswoman said. Both Eurotunnel and Eurostar later suspended their services because of the disruption.

Authorities in the French port say the migrant problem is the worst it has ever been and the migrants, mainly from Africa and the Middle East are arriving at a rate of dozens a day.

The United Kingdom Home Office reportedly estimates that around 19,000 people have attempted to illegally cross the channel from France to Britain in 2015, about double the number for the same period a year ago. French riot police beat back the crowds, according to the Telegraph.