British cross-Channel travellers face disruption as lorry drivers said they were “in it for the long haul” in their protest about the migrant crisis around the French port town, a trade association warned.
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But that appeared uncertain late on Monday after the federation’s president called for the go-slow to end. It now houses between 7,000 and 9,000.
Truckers, one with a banner reading “We are truckers, not migrants traffickers; together free Calais, block a highway near Calais, northern France, Monday Sept. 5, 2016 to demand the closure of a Calais migrant camp as its population surges and tensions rise”.
“More and more of us want to sell our licences”.
“We’ve had no answers, so we’re blocking things up”, said Frederic Van Gansbeke, who represents businesses and shop-owners in Calais.
Charities who are helping the occupants say the real figure is as high as 10,000.
Calais residents would also form a human chain along the port road, said protest organizers. I didn’t walk 12 km (8 miles) this morning just for that.
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.
In February and March, French authorities dismantled its southern half and dispersed some of its inhabitants. The camp, now home to at least 7,000 migrants from the Mideast and Africa trying to reach Britain.
Despite efforts to reduce numbers by dismantling the slum’s southern section earlier this year, up to 9,000 migrants from countries including Sudan, Syria and Eritrea are living there in squalor.
The French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has pledged to dismantle the migrant camp but has set no timetable for doing so. His list of complaints did not include the heavy fines truckers must pay if migrants are caught inside their vehicles.
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He said the new building would enable refugees and migrants to get new clothes and items like bicycles, blankets and sleeping bags “where they can have a choice, without needing to queue and with a different type of welcome. which is not possible in the Jungle”. Now there is looting and wilful destruction, tarpaulins are slashed, goods stolen or destroyed. “Drivers go to work with fear in their bellies and the economic consequences are severe”.
