Farce of the Calais fences
Calais security farce as wave after wave just trample through the wire mesh
THESE flimsy mesh fences – flapping in the evening breeze with gaping holes cut in them – are all that stands between migrants in Calais and passage to the UK.
Behind the supposed security barriers, which are similar to the surrounds of a municipal tennis court, are the Eurotunnel trains the migrants try to stow away on.
Last night, as dusk fell on the railway line, astonishing scenes unfolded. First, young men and then women and children simply pulled themselves through the railside defences and on to the ballast of the tracks.
From there, they face a perilous walk to the Channel Tunnel and their chance of a new life in Britain. The dangers to lives are obvious as freight trains and car shuttles lumber by.
Police union spokesman Gilles Debove said: ‘They have nothing to lose – they have travelled thousands of kilometres and they are ready to die on the last stretch if necessary.’
This week the migrants’ efforts have reached new levels: two mass assaults in two nights have seen more than 3,500 try to storm the tunnel. At least one migrant, a Sudanese man in his 20s, died – crushed under the wheels of a truck.
The hole in the fence close to the small village of Frethun is clearly well used. There is evidence that it has been repaired a number of times with wire and clips and a beaten path shows the way. But no sooner do security guards close it up, it is ripped open by the wandering gangs.
Each night migrants walk, hitchhike and even cycle from their camps in Calais to the port, or to the Tunnel entrance, where they try to board lorries on trains.
Extra riot police were drafted in to Calais yesterday, but officers said they were fighting a losing battle.
British lorry driver Les Muffett, 56, from Witham, Essex, told how he saw a group of migrants waiting to storm the Channel Tunnel when he arrived in France.
‘They were walking around like passengers. It was crazy. It’s the first time I’ve seen that. It’s scary because we don’t know what will happen. A friend of mine was sitting in the queue and they cut his lorry open and got in. You can’t confront them. They carry knives. All you can do is stay in the lorry, lock the cab up and let them get on with it.’
The death of the Sudanese man takes the grim total to 11 in less than two months. Most have been killed after climbing on the top of trains, walking along busy motorways, or falling into water.
More than 5,000 migrants are thought to be living in desperate conditions in camps in Calais. They live in tents and shacks on a 40-acre stretch of industrial wasteland three miles from Calais port.
State authorities pushed them away from the city to the wasteland, seen as a ‘tolerated zone’, and it has grown considerably in recent weeks. Some of the better houses have heavy-duty locks and chains on the doors. Others are simply sticks covered in tarpaulin.
Despite the grim conditions, many have tried to brighten their temporary homes with flower displays, pictures, mirrors and paintings.
There are several mosques, and a church is being built. There are also shops selling sweets, drinks, snacks and cleaning products. Those who are not trying their luck getting to Britain sit around playing cards or football.
One Afghan migrant has even opened a café. The man, who would not be named, was living in the UK but decided to travel to the French camp, he told the BBC.
He speaks seven languages and has lived in Norway, Italy and the UK. ‘Now I want to stay here, because of the restaurant’, he said.
The man said the camp’s residents were ‘people, humans – not animals’ and proudly displayed anti-racism messages outside his café.
Last night, residents of the camp pledged to continue their efforts to reach the UK. ‘We are determined to get to England, nothing will stop us,’ said Gez Ariam, a 19-year-old Eritrean. ‘We’ve travelled thousands of miles – this last stretch of sea won’t stand in our way.
‘The journey to Britain can be a dangerous one, but it is our only hope. We want new lives in a good country that cares about people like us. Our route across the sea is either on ferries, or via the Tunnel trains. These are our options, and we have to take them.’
Mo Farouk, another resident said: ‘The security can be hard to deal with, but we are brave and not scared of the risks.’ He said he paid £2,000 in cash for a passage from his home in Eritrea, through Libya and Italy, and then on to France.
‘England is where I want to be, and that’s where I’ll claim asylum,’ said Farouk, adding: ‘If I am sent back to my own country, I will be killed.’ Christian Salome, president of L’Auberge des Migrants, a group that provides food and other supplies in the camp, said getting to the UK was ‘just a matter of time’.
‘All of them get there in the end,’ he said. ‘No fence is too difficult – in the end, borders are there to be crossed.’