Migrants catch bus to Dunkirk in latest bid to reach Britain

HUNDREDS of migrants are catching the bus to the French coast in the latest bid to reach Britain.

They travel by public transport through inland France to the sea and tunnel crossings near Calais.

The gangs then gather at unguarded lorry parks, trying to sneak aboard UK-bound trucks.

They prefer buses to trains because they can disembark before the terminus, where police would wait to arrest them.

BBC Inside Out South East found many following the new route were among the 10,000 dispersed when police broke up the Jungle camp.

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said: “We must remain vigilant and keep the pressure on the French to stop the Jungle returning.”

Many of the migrants are staying at the 1,500-resident Grande Synthe camp in Dunkirk, 20 miles from Calais. Although it is patrolled by police the residents can catch a bus to Calais for just one euro.

Mr Elphicke added: “It’s really important that these buses are stopped so that people can’t just go to Calais, try their luck and then go back in the evening to Dunkirk.”

Bus drivers can only accept 30 migrants per journey, but as many as 60 attempt to board. Kurdish migrant Arean Mohammed, 23, said “everyone” at the Dunkirk camp is trying to get to Britain illegally.

AFTER the Jungle migrant camp in Calais was razed this newspaper predicted that it would be far from enough to solve the problems on the French coastline. Sadly this prediction has come to pass. Now hundreds of migrants are using public transport to return to the port town from nearby Dunkirk in a desperate bid to get across the Channel.

The French government needs to make a serious effort to register migrants, assess their asylum claims and deport those who do not meet the criteria.

Until they do so the problems will only continue.