CALAIS: SEND IN THE ARMY
As Cameron preaches abroad about slave labour, migrants besiege Tunnel to join OUR black economy and MPs demand...
DEMANDS were growing last night for Britain to send in the Army as the Calais illegal immigrant crisis escalated dramatically. For the second night running, migrants laid siege to the Channel Tunnel, with 1,500 trying to storm through. In the chaos, one migrant was killed by a lorry.
On Monday night, more than 2,000 ille- gal immigrants tried to break through. Senior MPs, backed by hauliers, said the Army should be sent in to restore order because the French authorities had lost control. There were also calls at Westminster for the Tunnel to be shut.
Yesterday, Home Secretary Theresa May admitted for the first time that illegal migrants were getting into Britain. Labour MP Keith Vaz said that during one visit to Kent he had seen 148 migrants ‘delighted’ to have made it to the UK. On a day of drama:
Eurotunnel said it had intercepted a staggering 37,000 migrants and was being subjected to ‘systematic invasions’
The M20 in Kent was once again turned into a lorry park, delaying holidaymakers heading for France
Hauliers warned of huge losses to exports and increases in food prices
As David Cameron used his Far East trip to preach against slave labour, the French said the migrant crisis was caused by foreigners coming to work in appalling conditions in Britain’s black economy. A
French policeman patrolling the motorway near the Eurotunnel terminal said yesterday: ‘ We are completely overwhelmed. It just gets worse and worse. At the Channel Tunnel terminal all we can do is pick them up and then drop them off a few hundred metres away. We can’t lock them up.’
Tory MP Andrew Percy said last night: ‘The situation is now clearly out of control and it is clear that the current arrangements are not working and that the French are unable to guard against these infringements of our border.
‘It is time we considered more radical options, including the use of the Army. The British people expect our border to be secure and the Government must do whatever it takes to achieve this.’
Ukip leader Nigel Farage told LBC Radio: ‘To make sure we’ve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in to stop people illegally coming to Britain... if in those circumstances we can use the Army or other forces, then why not?’
As the Port of Dover said the disruption at Calais was costing the UK £250million a day in lost trade, the Road Haulage Association said the French army should be deployed, with support from the British.
Chief executive Richard Burnett said: ‘It has become clear that the French authorities in Calais simply cannot cope. This has become an untenable situation.’
One former police chief called for Gurkha soldiers based in Folkstone to be deployed to Calais. Kevin Hurley, a former head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism branch and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘While the UK and French governments decide their next prevention strategy we, the British police, have to deal with the immediate problem.
‘The Gurkhas are a highly respected and competent force, and are just around the corner. They could help to ensure that our border is not breached.’
Sir Gerald Howarth, a former defence minister, said: ‘If we have another episode like we had last night, the authorities will have to consider closing the Tunnel. If we need to close it, we should close it.’ There was also growing fury in Westminster at the inadequate response of the French. Damian Collins, the Tory MP for Folkestone and Hythe, said: ‘They have allowed people to willingly break into the Channel Tunnel site. I can’t believe they would be that lax in protecting an airport or another sensitive facility but that has happened constantly throughout the summer.’
Former minister Tim Loughton said the French were ‘culpable’ for allowing migrants to storm the Tunnel in order to ‘make a European problem a British problem’.
He told the BBC: ‘There is no advantage and no justification for the French to allow 5,000 people with little grounds for being in the UK to gather at Calais. And when they are detained for trying to get in the Tunnel, they are let go two miles out of the town so they can try again and again and again. The situation is not going to improve while that nonsense carries on.’
But despite the rising anger among Tory backbenchers, Mr Cameron and Home Secretary Mrs May refused to criticise the French Government. They are afraid that the Hollande Government might rip up treaties which allow the UK to carry out border checks on French soil.
In Vietnam, Mr Cameron – who ordered a meeting of the emergency COBRA committee yesterday after being shocked by the coverage of the chaos unfolding in Calais – advised against ‘trying to point fingers of blame’.
Senior Whitehall sources last night played down the prospect of the Army being deployed in either France or the UK. Instead, contingency plans are focusing on trying to ease the pressure on the M20, which had 3,600 lorries queuing on it yesterday.
The Home Office is working with the French authorities to send more of the West African migrants massed at Calais back home. Mrs May refused to say how many migrants had entered the UK, but conceded: ‘A number of people have come through. We will be dealing with anybody’s asylum claim in the normal way.’
When asked if the military should be used, she said: ‘This is about ensuring we get that security fencing up.’