Since the start of 2015, French officials have intercepted more than 37,000 migrants who were hoping to jump on trains or trucks heading to Britain via the tunnel that’s called the Eurotunnel in France and the Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel, in Britain. There have been several attempts by migrants to enter the tunnel in recent weeks. Many will seek illegal employment in Britain’s shadow economy or claim asylum in a system often seen as more generous than the French equivalent.
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Britain also has warships patrolling the Mediterranean turning back and rescuing migrants trying to cross into Europe. Citing police sources, France 24 says he was hit by a truck, becoming the ninth migrant to die in the area in the past two months.
One man is dead as 1,500 migrants rushed the tunnel, desperately trying to make England, reports the BBC.
There were conflicting numbers of people involved Wednesday, ranging from 150 to as many as 1,200.
The Eurotunnel company revealed frustration with the French authorities, with a spokesman saying: “This is an issue that is really for the government to sort out”.
“People die every day, on the sea or in the desert, this is no different”, 19-year-old Mohamed from Sudan told news agency TT’s reporter at the migrant camp in Calais.
Despite the risks, hundreds of migrants – some looking as young as 13 or 14 – gathered along the fence to the freight terminal in Coquelles.
The migrant crisis has turned into a blame game with Eurotunnel asking French and British governments to reimburse it for the €10-million it has spent to beef up security to cope with the Calais crisis.
Chief executive Jacques Gounon said French authorities aren’t doing enough.
Eurotunnel had notably cut to 103 from 325 in 2002 the number of security agents on the site, he said.
France dispatched 120 riot police immediately to Calais to bolster security that British authorities complain has been lax.
“The intensity and the desperate efforts of those who want to get to Britain, and we understand why they do, is becoming more and more severe”, he said. Katja Hall, deputy director-general at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said yesterday that the disruption at Calais “also has an economic impact as exporters are being delayed getting their goods to market”.
Sailings from the Port of Dover continued, with P&O Ferries running full services to Calais and DFDS operating a full schedule to Dunkirk and Calais.
Calais has long been a gathering place for migrants trying to find a way into the UK.
The Conservative Party minister gave no details of how these measures would work but said that the British government would allocate £7 million ($10.9 million) to increasing security at the Calais departure point.
Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said he had witnessed 148 migrants successfully make the journey illegally to England yesterday morning while at an immigration processing centre in Folkestone, Kent.
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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.
