UK ANARCHISTS SPARK CALAIS MAYHEM
‘No Borders’ activist group helped mob of 50 storm British ferry
BRITISH anarchists were last night accused of orchestrating a violent migrant takeover of the Port of Calais.
Agitators from the shadowy UK-run No Borders group – which has been behind a string of attacks – helped a mob of 50 storm a ferry and force the closure of the port.
Their rampage came hours after Jeremy Corbyn visited the town’s Jungle migrant camp.
The Labour leader yesterday called on the Government to allow thousands of migrants from the squalid camp to come to the UK.
The chaos – as well as the likelihood of 1.3million migrants heading to Europe in summer – will cause problems for David Cameron as he tries to convince Britons to stay in the EU.
It means his planned June referendum is likely to play out against a backdrop of battles between migrants and police. Some Downing Street officials – already nervous at the prospect – may push the PM to change his plans.
Today EU officials will discuss suspending the Schengen border-free travel area for two years as the crisis threatens to engulf Europe. On another dramatic day yesterday:
Calais officials and a Tory MP called for the military to be sent in as an estimated 2,500 migrants gathered to try to enter the UK;
Austria called for Greece to be suspended from the Schengen agreement for failing to properly police the continent’s borders;
Mr Corbyn claimed ‘everyone who wants to
‘The problem has not gone away, it is worse’
come to Britain and has a connection’ should be free to apply for processing by UK officials – to the anger of some of his own MPs;
Ministers were looking at plans for Britain to take as many as 3,000 refugee children.
The flashpoint in Calais was co-ordinated by No Borders – a group that claims ‘capitalist elites’ use border controls to ‘divide and rule’.
Members are said to have played a key role in violence at the camp, encouraging migrants to fight riot police. In October last year, a group of up to 150 No Borders protesters fought police at London’s St Pancras station. Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David, was there to support the demonstrators as they hurled paint and smoke bombs.
Some 2,000 migrants and activists left the Jungle on Saturday shortly before Mr Corbyn arrived, marching into the port to protest over being unable to reach Britain.
Masked No Borders members infiltrated the demonstration and a group of 500 broke away, officials said. Protesters defaced a statue of former president Charles de Gaulle in the central square with graffiti that read: ‘**** France.’
As they rampaged through the town, they confronted a man in his garden, hurling missiles at him.
The man – identified only as Gael – was targeted because he had been recognised from a demonstration that called for the camp to be removed, his father David told the Mail. As a British activist screamed ‘fascist scum’, Gael went inside before returning to wave an air rifle at them, TV footage showed.
The mob broke through a fence in the terminal and dozens climbed aboard the P&O ferry Spirit of Britain. The port was shut as the crew tried to keep the chanting throng at bay by firing water hydrants.
Calais deputy mayor Philippe Mignonet demanded action to tackle No Borders. He said: ‘There are some activists and some anarchists coming from England. It’s frustrating having them here to stir up trouble.’
Asked about Mr Corbyn’s visit, he said: ‘He was here campaigning. He doesn’t care, he was just coming to make his own advertising.’
Nine No Borders activists were among 35 – including one Briton – arrested after storming the ship, prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi said. Gilles Debove of the Calais police union said 90 per cent of No Borders members are from the UK.
And Xavier Bertrand, the region’s president, said: ‘The attitude of No Borders in Calais is scandalous – there must be punishment.’
The attack came a week after No Borders was accused of a midnight raid on the new camp at the Jungle, torching two earth-moving vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Anarchists in black balaclavas burst into the fenced-off, guarded area where French authorities opened a camp last Monday .
The vehicles were being used for a £20million humanitarian project to house 1,500 migrants in heated container huts. Huts were tagged with graffiti reading ‘No Border’, ‘Gas Chamber’ and ‘This is a prison’.
Calais prefect Fabienne Buccio said the breakaway group from Saturday’s march was ‘accompanied and infiltrated by No Borders who managed to get into the ship’. Eight people were due to appear in court today over the ship attack. The arrested Briton was released without charge.
Richard Burnett, of the Road Haulage Association, said drivers ‘are experiencing on a daily basis direct attacks – from a shopping trolley thrown from motorway bridges to steel javelins, brick blocks thrown from bridges. We have had drivers attacked and held at knife-point.
‘The situation is absolutely out of control. The problem has not gone
away, it has got worse. The objective here is to stop the vehicles, to create a queue.
‘That means that they can get on top of the trailer. ‘We have got lots of drivers that are refusing to go to Calais. Those daily attacks are totally unacceptable.’
Mr Burnett said it was ‘only a matter of time before our worst fears become a reality and a UK-bound truck driver is killed’.
Damian Collins, Tory MP for Folkestone, said: ‘It is incumbent on the French authorities to protect the port and the entry to the port as well as the Channel Tunnel sites as well.
‘If that requires deploying the military the French should do that. Clearly what has happened is a major breach which shows that what has been done is not adequate.’
A Labour spokesman said that ministers should take migrants from Europe, rather than just camps near Syria. But backbench Labour MP Frank Field said: ‘The real problem we have is a new leadership which is in touch with lots of economic injustices but on some of the big issues about the security of the realm, about defending our borders, about defending ourselves if need be, the Labour leadership is walking off in the opposite direction to where voters are.’
The Port of Dover said the Calais port had reopened more than two hours after ‘migrant activity’.