LONDON, Sept 7 Work on building a wall in the northern French port of Calais to try to stop refugees and migrants from jumping aboard trucks bound for Britain will begin this month, according to British officials.
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It is expected to cost £1.9 million and is being built as part of a £17 million package of measures.
Construction is to start soon.
He added: “The security that we are putting in at the port is being stepped up with better equipment. Now we are doing the wall”, Goodwill told MPs.
The camp and a Franco-British border control deal that effectively pushes the British frontier onto mainland France have been hotly debated since Britons voted in a June referendum to leave the European Union.
For many, the goal is to reach Britain – attractive because of its English language and relatively open labor market – by stowing away on trucks and trains through the Channel Tunnel.
Thousands of the migrants live in an overcrowded Calais camp known as “the jungle”, which French authorities have vowed to dismantle. As many as 10,000 migrants now populate the tent city.
Norway will build a fence along its arctic border, while Hungary has constructed a fence along the border with Serbia and Austria topped with razor wire. But migrants are using increasingly unsafe tactics to slow trucks and hitch a ride. People use rocks, shopping carts and tree logs to stop cars and trucks so they can jump on board. Aid group Auberge des Migrants says 11 migrants have died this year – seven on the highways.
The motorway into Calais was blocked on Monday (5 September) by lorries and protesters calling on the Jungle migrant camp to be demolished.
But some truckers would rather better policing than a concrete wall.
But Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said efforts should instead be focused on security in the 5km leading up to the port.
Vikki Woodfine, of law firm DWF, who works with many hauliers who have been affected by Calais, said: “Whilst it’s encouraging that the Government is taking steps to address the situation in Calais, this wall isn’t the answer”.
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And Birmingham MP Jack Dromey compared the scheme to US Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s widely-criticised plan for a wall to separate the United States of America from Mexico.
