Channel ‘turning into the new Med’

THE English Channel risks seeing the same scenes of tragedy as the Mediterranean, a senior member of the French coastguard has said.

Bernard Barron, president of the Calais coastguard, said migrants are taking increasingly desperate risks to get on to British shores.

A network of professional people smugglers are operating across the entire northern coast of France and Belgium, he added.

‘It has become virtually impossible for migrants to cross to the UK through the Channel Tunnel or on car ferries. So smugglers have found a new strategy.

‘It has started to be a very similar situation to that seen in the Mediterranean and I fear that the scenes we have seen there will be repeated in the Channel,’ he said, adding: ‘This all confirms our fear that the smugglers are willing to take extreme measures.’

Repeated security crackdowns around the Channel Tunnel and at major ports have made it increasingly tough for stowaways to get aboard trains and lorries.

As a result those with money are using informal networks of smugglers to get them aboard fishing boats, recreational yachts and speedboats.

The majority are economic migrants from Albania, Vietnam and Ukraine, with some wealthier families from Syria and Iraq.