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Figures show one migrant every three minutes attempts to reach UK from Calais (15 July 2015)

Date: 15/07/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Figures show one migrant every three minutes attempts to reach UK from Calais

New government figures show that a migrant in Calais attempts to reach the UK every three minutes – with police intercepting more than 8,000 attempts by migrants to sneak into the backs of lorries at Calais in the last three weeks alone.

A total of 28,000 attempts to reach the UK by migrants found on lorries have been foiled so far this year.

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced a new exclusion zone at Calais, which will offer lorry drivers at safe zone to board ferries from Calais to the UK.

Transport companies say that up to 20 migrants at a time are targeting each lorry – and police in Calais release those caught, enabling them to try again.

Kent Police have also told a meeting of the Home Affairs Select Committee that around 20 migrants a day can be found by police in the UK, however.

UKIP MEP and spokesman for immigration Steven Woolfe has called for migrants from Calais found in Britain to be sent back to France immediately.

The Home Secretary has blamed “irresponsible French strikers” for exacerbating the situation in migrant camps at Calais – long queues of vehicles waiting to cross to the UK have been the target of migrants and lorry drivers have complained of feeling intimidated by desperate migrants trying to board vehicles bound for the UK.

French ferry workers launched a wildcat strike in June, with the result that the port was blockaded, bringing cross-Channel ferry services to a halt, with many lorries stuck in 50-mile traffic jams – offering migrants an opportunity to try and break into lorries.

The number of migrants at Calais has also risen to around 5,000 in recent weeks – more than double the usual number living in makeshift camps around the port. In the three weeks since 21 June, a total of 11,300 stowaways have been captured, the Daily Mail reports – around 3,200 were found by UK Border Agency officials in lorries heading for the Channel Tunnel.

The new secure zone for lorries announced by Theresa May will hold 230 vehicles – the equivalent of a two-and-a-half mile queue.

Mrs May said the secure zone would provide protection for drivers by “removing them from the open road where they can become targets for migrants”.

The zone is expected to be open by September and will be policed by the French authorities.

However, the Road Haulage Association has dismissed the move as “too little”.

Chief executive Richard Burnett told MPs that the situation in Calais was reaching crisis point – and that the government had let down the association’s members.

“This isn’t fast enough,” said Mr Burnett.

“We’ve got drivers being threatened with bars and knives – we’ve had an example of a driver being threatened with a gun.

“This is unprecedented and it’s escalating. We need action now.”

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