Help us ... or our town will become the new Sangatte!
Mayor’s plea as migrants target trucks at new port
IT is a scene reminiscent of Calais before the notorious Jungle migrant camp was torn down.
Dozens of young men target lorries as they drive slowly towards the quiet ferry port of Ouistreham in Normandy.
Without a policeman in sight, they break open the back doors and hide inside the trucks in the hope of reaching the UK.
This daily – and potentially deadly – game of ‘cat and mouse’ prompted officials in the town to plead for help.
Deputy Mayor Luc Jammet warned that Ouistreham, which serves as a port for nearby Caen, was in danger of turning into ‘the new Sangatte’ – a reference to the centre near Calais that attracted thou- sands of migrants and became a haven for people smugglers before it was closed down in 2002.
He said the town’s infrastructure and small police force is not equipped to deal with a ‘well-coordinated group of young men determined to get to Britain’.
Migrants believe they have a better chance of sneaking on to one of the three ferries that sail to Portsmouth each day than they do at other ports.
Put off by high security at Calais, young African and Asian men started arriving earlier this year and numbers have grown rapidly.
Asad Gul, 33, from Peshawar in Pakistan, told the Mail: ‘I was told this was the best place to try to get on to a ferry to England.
‘ Everybody is talking about Ouistreham as the new place to go. This has been my dream since I left home six years ago. There are no jobs in Pakistan.’
Overstretched police who catch migrants climbing into lorries have been told to issue a warning and let them go, allowing them to try again. One Sudanese migrant told the Mail he had been caught 45 times in the two months he has been sleeping rough in the town.
Grinning as he gave a thumbs-up to one frustrated lorry driver, he said: ‘It’s all a game. It’s what you in England call “cat and mouse”.
‘We know which lorries to go for. They are the old ones that are easier to get into. One day they won’t catch me and I will make it to England. I am sure of it.’
Three hours before each ferry departs Ouistreham, which serves as a port for nearby Caen, groups of migrants take up positions at points around the town.
Some create a diversion to distract police while others target lorries at traffic lights on a residential road. This week the Mail watched as dozens sprung from hiding places and forced open lorries. Those left outside bolted the doors as the lights turned green.
Lorry drivers aware of the problem refuse to stop at red lights, creating an obvious risk.
Alain Hurel, a waiter who lives on the street with his partner Noemi Fernandez, 45, said he is constantly telling the migrants to leave his property. ‘It has got a lot worse since August,’ said Mr Hurel, 46. ‘Every day they are sitting against the wall of my house. We don’t feel safe.
‘One day they tried to take my partner’s phone off her. There are not enough police. We are on the frontline and no one is helping.’
Mr Jammet, who is in charge of security in the town, said most of the migrants are from Eritrea and Sudan, but there are others from Albania, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
‘It is getting worse,’ he said. ‘We need more help. We need more police officers, but this is a problem that has to be resolved at a higher level.
‘ There is a big number of migrants who are waiting to go to the UK. If some have success getting on the ferries then more will come here.
‘We want to make sure that the town doesn’t become the new Sangatte. The town is worried. We are powerless.’
Migrants find new back door to Britain From the Mail, October 6