The Road Haulage Association said the wall would not be the solution to the problems around the camp.
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France dismantled the southern half of the Jungle camp in February and March and the government said last week it would shut down the rest, but gave no timeframe.
Though previous incarnations of “the Jungle” were forcibly cleared by French authorities, with the support of the British Government, the most recent “Jungle” was reformed more recently in the wake of the large-scale influx of refugees to Europe.
Immigration minister Robert Goodwill has announced that £2 million will be spent on a 4m-high wall along the access dual carriageway to the Port of Calais.
“The security we’re putting in at the ports is being stepped up with better equipment. Now we are doing the wall”.
Built from smooth concrete to make it hard to scale without ladders, the wall will be part of £17m package of measures the United Kingdom is undertaking with the French, which also include investing in space for 200 lorries at Calais so that they have somewhere safe to wait.
The latest figures showed that UK Border Force guards on French soil stopped 84,088 migrants past year.
It’s been dubbed the “Great Wall of Calais”.
The Channel Tunnel is a top destination for thousands of migrants, many of whom are fleeing humanitarian disasters.
The wall is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
François Guennoc of Auberge des Migrants, a French aid group working in Calais, told The Guardian: “This wall is the latest extension to kilometres of fencing and security surveillance already in place. We have to escalate things, because for months now the situation has been getting worse and worse”, said David Sagnard, president of FNTR national truck drivers’ federation.
“It’s a waste of money”.
The plan comes after trucks and tractors slowed traffic on the main approach road on Monday to protest against the disruption and demand for the closure of the “Jungle”.
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Thousands of people, most from the Middle East and Africa, have made long and unsafe journeys to Calais, crossing the Mediterranean to southern Europe in overcrowded boats and then traveling hundreds of miles by foot, vehicle or rail to northwest France.
