Thread: Around 100 migrants still reach Britain from Calais every week

Around 100 migrants still reach Britain from Calais every week despite official claims the scandal ended when the Jungle was closed last year

French charity claims 100 migrants are entering the UK from Calais every week

Comes a year after the 'Jungle' camp of 10,000 was cleared and destroyed

Calais Police say attempts to board UK-bound vehicles are still going up

Camp was cleared in attempt to restore order and stop border crossings


By Joseph Curtis For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 08:57 BST, 24 October 2017 | UPDATED: 15:23 BST, 24 October 2017
A hundred migrants are still reaching the UK every week despite the closure of the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, it has been claimed.

Charity L’Auberge des Migrants said a similar number was arriving each week in Dunkirk and Calais, sparking fears of a new crisis in the region.

Around 10,000 migrants used to live at the Jungle until the squalid camp was pulled down by French officials in 2016 to 'solve the problems'.

The port city camp was popular with migrants who hoped to try to stowaway on trucks in the hope they would reach Britain.


A French charity claims 100 migrants a week are arriving in the UK from Calais despite the closure of
the 'Jungle' camp. Pictured are police inspecting a lorry, with thousands of migrants found stowed
away on vehicles in recent months


The Jungle, pictured in August 2016, once held around 10,000 migrants but was cleared last yearto
'restore order' to the area and stop Channel crossings

French officials said the destruction of the camp would restore order and end Channel crossing attempts, but several charities have disputed this, although some claim the number trying to cross each week is closer to 50.

In August this year, it was revealed that migrants had made 30,000 attempts to reach Britain from Calais despite costly security measures.

A spokesman for L’Auberge des Migrants told The Times: ‘It is because a handful get lucky and reach Britain that the others remain hopeful of doing so.

‘The day the Channel is completely blocked, it is likely that there will not be any more migrants in Calais.’


The camp, pictured in March 2017, was completely cleared but Calais police say the number of
attempts to board UK-bound vehicles and ships is still going up

Calais Police has confirmed the number of attempts to board vehicles at the port has increased, with around 1,600 stowaways found in August, more than double since May.

Smuggling gangs are still believed to be operating in the area, charging as much as £2,700 (3,000 euros) per person.

The Road Haulage Association told the Times it wanted French authorities to bring in the military to protect vehicles from being boarded, claiming the security at the port is ‘not enough’.

A spokesman said: ‘We advise our members not to stop within 150 miles of Calais. We have had reports of migrants standing on motorway bridges lobbing bricks so that when vehicles stop they can try and get aboard.


The Jungle, pictured earlier this month, is now nearly unrecognisable from before

According to the paper, there are around 700 migrants homeless in Calais at the current time and another 400 in Dunkirk.

Migrants are also trying to get to the UK via other ports around Europe, including Bilbao in Spain, with some arriving in Britain via smaller boats.

But Eurotunnel says ‘tougher security’ has prevented migrants from boarding UK-bound trains and ‘disrupting services’.

Since the Jungle was shut down, there has been a dramatic decrease in the amount of violent crime in the area as a number of migrants have applied for asylum in France or dispersed into other parts of the EU.

MailOnline has contacted the Home Office for comment.

Around 100 migrants still reach Britain from Calais every week despite ...

Migrants: Independent inquiry finds ‘likely’ use of excessive force by French police

Ouest-France | translated by Paola Tamma
12:34 (updated: 14:00)


A migrant stand on his makeshift shelter as police secure the Jungle migrant camp during its demolition in Calais, France, 01 March 2016 [Yoan Valat/EPA]

The French police “likely” used excessive force against migrants after dismantling the camp in Calais a year ago, an independent inquiry has found. But the ministry of interior insists that the “most serious allegations” were rejected.

EURACTIV’s partner Ouest-France reports.An inquiry was set up after international NGO Human Rights Watch accused the police of using excessive force against migrants in Calais. In its report, published on Monday (23 October), it said the allegations of use of excessive force by the police were “likely”.In a press release published shortly after the report, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb highlighted that “no element in the report sustains the most serious allegations made” by international NGO HRW in July, particularly the “routine” use of pepper spray. Its use was “highly unlikely” according to the report.The authors claimed that “the high number of oral and written witness statements, although hard to prove with material evidence, point in the direction of likely faults in the police’s use of force.”

The bilateral agreement on the policing of the UK border on French territory could be one of the first victims of Brexit. EURACTIV France reports.

Use of excessive forceOn the accusations of physical abuse, the report said that in most cases, injuries and wounds are the result of migrants’ attempts to jump onto lorries or of infighting between migrants.“Nonetheless, numerous witnesses and sources confirm a disproportionate and unjustified use of force on migrants and humanitarian workers,” write the authors.They condemn an “abuse” of teargas, the “destruction of migrants’ personal belonging”, and the failure to display policemen’s matriculation numbers.In his press release, the interior minister reinforces his “trust in security forces”, affirmed that he asked police chiefs to “remind systematically the rules on police intervention, especially during the demolition of camps”.The report by HRW, published in July, amplified the concerns voiced by associations regarding the treatment of migrants by police forces, after the former returned to the city following the demolition of Calais’ infamous “Jungle” camp in October 2016.According to the inquiry’s report, the number of refugees in the region of Calais and Dunkerke was “around 1,000 in September 2017, with a tendency to grow especially in Grande –Synthe.”

Migrants: Independent inquiry finds 'likely' use of excessive force by ...