But near Calais, migrants were undeterred.
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Speaking at the Home Office, Mrs May said: “Crucially, what we are looking at now is improving security at the railhead at Coquelles, so we can ensure people are not trying to come through the tunnel”.
“Every day there’s a risk of life”.
But Lisa Doyle, head of advocacy for Refugee Council, criticised his remarks and told The Independent: “It’s extremely disappointing to hear the Prime Minister using such irresponsible, de-humanising language to describe the desperate men, women and children fleeing for their lives across the Mediterranean Sea”. But Christian Salome with l’Auberge des Migrants, an association that helps feed and shelter migrants, says the increased security won’t change things.
French police apprehended 300 people.
Migrants cross a road near the Eurotunnel on Wednesday in Coquelles, near Calais, France.
By Wednesday night, a police helicopter hovered overhead and gendarmes in flak jackets turned back about two dozen. Calls to crack down on smuggling as a solution ignore the fact that those who try to climb onto trains or even swim across the Channel lack the means to pay smugglers to help them enter the UK.
In response, Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham wrote on Twitter: “Cameron calling Calais migrants a ‘swarm” is nothing short of disgraceful.
A small group of people did make it through the Eurotunnel into Kent last night, where they received some support from British Red Cross.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old Egyptian youth is in a critical condition in hospital in Paris after being electrocuted on the roof of a Eurostar train leaving the Gare du Nord.
There were conflicting numbers of people involved Wednesday, ranging from 150 to as many as 1,200. But French authorities and the company agreed there had been about 2,000 attempts on each of two successive nights, Associated Press reported.
Theresa May, the home secretary, has promised an extra £7 billion in funding. That brings to nine the number of people who have died trying to cross from Calais, a port city in northern France, into England since early June.
“This exceptional migrant situation has dramatic human consequences”, said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. “Calais is a reflection of the conflicts and the crises that are tearing apart some regions of the world”.
“We need them to stop the migrant flow from Calais but it appears to be too much for them to handle”.
A Sudanese man in his 30s who gave his name as Abraham said: “I tried three times tonight but it was very hard with all the patrols”.
About 1,500 attempted the crossing Tuesday night, and at least one man died in the attempt.
Eurotunnel, which operates the route, said it “deplores” the death. According to Keefe, the migrants are “well organized and their actions clearly coordinated”.
Britain is making sure “everything that can be done working with the French is being done”, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron said during a trade trip to Singapore on Wednesday. Other British officials blamed the government in France, where officials said Eurotunnel also needed to do more.
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“I’m amazed that the French authorities have not done more”. The new arrivals, Debove said, would be a “burst of oxygen” to protecting the site, but he expected attempts to continue.
