It is the latest attempt to enhance border security in Calais, home to a controversial makeshift camp known as “The Jungle”, where thousands of displaced people live in squalid conditions.
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Many fences were built to prevent the entry on the Channel Tunnel and railways in Calais. We’ve done the fence and now we’re doing the wall.
The wall will stretch either side of the ferry port’s main dual-carriageway approach road where those seeking to reach Britain attempt to climb aboard lorries passing through.
Seeking Sanctuary spoke on Premier’s News Hour after it was revealed a 1km-long barrier expected to cost £1.9 million will be constructed along a motorway to the French town’s port.
“It is imperative that the money to pay for a wall would be much better spent on increasing security along approach roads”, a spokesman said.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has said lorry drivers have vowed they were “in it for the long haul” and will stand their ground until action to dismantle the camp begins.
Twitter users were quick to link the plans with those of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose pledge to erect a wall along the border with Mexico is a cornerstone of his platform.
Many commentators on Twitter drew comparisons with Trump’s proposal, with @fleetstreetfox saying: “And now we’re the United Kingdom of Trump”.
French truckers and farmers almost shut down a main highway in Calais, France, to protest one of Europe’s largest growing migrant camps – a place widely known as “the Jungle”.
Local activists estimate that the camp is now home to around 9,000 people, while government figures put the figure closer to 6,900. Likewise, trees will not be planted on the outside in case they are used as footholds to scale the wall.
When the trucks slow down, migrants try to clamber into the trailers to stow away aboard.
Huts were dismantled earlier in the year and the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that his government still intends to shut the camp down. It will just result in people going further to get round it.
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National police union, Alliance, said that the situation at the “Jungle” was out of control, adding that the number of migrants residing there was around 10,000.
