7 IN 10 CALAIS MIGRANTS GET INTO UK
AS MANY as 70 per cent of the thousands of migrants massing at Calais are making it to Britain, MPs have been warned.
The revelation by a police chief that up to 900 illegal immigrants make it to the UK every month came amid frantic efforts by ministers to show they are finally getting a grip on the crisis.
Today, they will announce that rogue landlords who fail to check if they are renting to illegal immigrants face five years in jail. Over the weekend, a slew of announcements were made on sending CCTV, security guards and lighting to Calais, and axing some asylum-seeker handouts.
It follows stinging criticism of Downing Street’s initial ‘sticking plaster’ response. On another day of drama yesterday: An organised mob of 200 migrants tried to storm into the Channel Tunnel;
Calais’s deputy mayor threatened to throw open the border and ‘let them all
through’; Theresa May insisted Britain’s streets were not ‘paved with gold’ for migrants, despite the Home Office housing 100 stowaways in hotels at taxpayers’ expense; ÷ Ministers said they would consult on removing benefits from failed asylum seekers with families; ÷ It was reported that foreign lorry drivers are taking £1, 00 bungs to give migrants a lift through the Tunnel.
The warning that 70 per cent of Calais migrants could be getting through emerged in written evidence to Westminster’s home affairs committee from Kent Chief Constable Alan Pughsley.
He said police accurately knew only the number of migrants who are caught in the UK – which was more than 400 in his county alone over a recent five-week period – but added that the true figure was likely to be ‘a lot higher’.
Mr Pughsley said: ‘Having consulted with our French colleagues, they have confirmed that through their own research, 70 per cent of migrants they process in the area of Calais leave the vicinity within a four-month period.
‘They cannot ascertain whether these migrants leave to go elsewhere in France, or whether they enter the UK.’
Based on the assumption that the migrants make it to the UK, rather than give up after trekking thousands of miles to reach Calais, it would mean as many as 3,500 of the 5,000 currently in the town will get through. Over the course of a year, it is the equivalent of 10,500 – or 900 a month – making it across the Channel.
Lord Green, the chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘There are two reasons why Calais is full of migrants. One is that Britain is regarded as a soft touch and the other is that they are getting through.’
The evidence was submitted to MPs before the bedlam of last week, when efforts to enter the UK intensified, so could even be an underestimate. Between Monday and Thursday last week, there were 5,000 attempts to storm the Channel Tunnel.
Figures published yesterday backed up the assessment that a significant number of illegals are getting into the country.
There were ,157 arrests of suspected illegal immigrants by 15 police forces between January and June this year – compared with 1,836 in the same period last year.
Over the weekend, gangs of migrants continued to lay siege to the Tunnel. In the early hours of yesterday, an organised group of 00 tore down fences and charged past police with tear gas, chanting ‘open the borders!’
On Friday, Downing Street was stung by criticism of its announcement that more dogs and fences would be sent to Calais. MPs and hauliers said it was no more than a ‘sticking plaster’ response. Over the weekend, the Government responded with further steps intended to show the UK is not ‘the land of milk and honey’.
The announcement on landlords – first promised in the Queen’s Speech two months ago – will require them to conduct ‘right to rent’ checks on their tenants’ immigration status before offering them a tenancy agreement.
Despite the continued mayhem over the weekend, Home Secretary Mrs May and David Cameron stuck to their position of refusing to ‘point the finger of blame’ at the French.
In a joint article with her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve, Mrs May urged other EU nations to help address the root causes of the ‘global migration crisis’. But in France, politicians attacked the British and threatened to open the border and ‘let them all through’.
Emmanuel Agius, deputy mayor of Calais, said he would tear up the treaty which means people crossing the Channel are checked in France, rather than on arrival in Britain. He said of Mr Cameron: ‘They will be on his territory, in the port of Dover. He poses as the saviour of the situation, on a subject he is greatly mistaken about.’