Calais is teetering on the brink of anarchy – again

SHOCKING scenes outside Calais yesterday when a man attempted to conceal himself in a transporter carrying three cars. Made aware of the stowaway the driver dragged him out screaming.

This ugly scene is sadly typical of what is going on day in day out. During yet another summer the roads leading to Calais are teetering on the brink of anarchy with clear signs that the authorities have still failed to get to grips with the seemingly unstoppable influx of migrants, all intent on making their way to Britain.

It is apparent that they will stop at nothing, prepared to lay traps and set fires in order to hijack vehicles. And along Europe’s coastline boatloads of young men (mostly young African men) continue to land and begin to make their way north.

Why is so little being done to turn these ships back to where they came from, so little being done to protect lorry drivers and ordinary citizens? The damage to businesses, including tourism, must be massive.

As Independent MEP Steven Woolfe says: “The problem in Calais has never gone away because it has simply been pushed into the long grass.”

This newspaper has said this before but it is essential that the French government takes control of the situation before the simmering violence escalates into something far worse.