Extra sniffer dogs and fencing are to be offered to Calais officials to
help them deal with high numbers of migrants trying to reach the UK, the
PM says.
David Cameron spoke to
French President Francois Hollande on the telephone on Friday and said
the pair had agreed to work to tackle illegal immigration.
The PM has warned the situation will be a "difficult issue" throughout summer.
There have been thousands of attempts by migrants to access the Eurotunnel terminal, affecting train services.
The
crisis has led to major congestion on both sides of the Channel, with
passenger services disrupted and 6,000 lorries parked in queues along
the M20 in Kent as part of Operation Stack.
Ministers said they
were considering setting up temporary lorry parks to ease the pressure
on roads, but the Road Haulage Association said the measures were not
enough.
And there were further problems in Calais on Friday when
former MyFerryLink workers protesting against job cuts blocked road
access to the port area by burning tyres.
Ferry workers burned tyres on a road leading to the port of Calais
Extra French police
On
Friday evening, Downing Street said the prime minister and Mr Hollande
had "both expressed concern about the immediate security challenges and
reiterated their commitment to continue working closely together to
tackle the problems".
"Both
leaders agreed on the need to work with Eurotunnel to monitor and
secure the area and for respective ministers to continue discussions
over the coming days to implement additional measures that could further
improve the situation on the ground."
Speaking earlier after he
chaired a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee, Mr
Cameron said the provision of extra French police at the Eurotunnel site
had already had "some effect" on disruption.
Media captionDavid Cameron: ''We need to do more to help lorry drivers and holiday makers''
Fencing
supplied by the UK government earlier this month is being put up around
the platforms where vehicles board the Eurotunnel shuttle and the work
is expected to be completed in the coming days.
But Mr Cameron
said the government would "further boost security by funding additional
fencing to shore up as much of the perimeter as necessary. More Border
Force search and dog teams will also be sent in."
He said: "We rule nothing out in dealing with this very serious problem."
The
UK is offering to replace green mesh fencing at the Eurotunnel entrance
perimeter in Coquelles, near Calais, with solid fencing of the type
normally seen at Nato summits.
Calais migrant crisis
Impact on Kent council social services
629
the number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum that require care from Kent county council
220 the equivalent number in March 2014
£5.5m funding shortfall according to the council
Meanwhile, Operation Stack - in which lorries queue on the M20 when Channel crossings are disrupted - is expected to continue into the weekend.
Ministry
of Defence sources suggested land could be released for an alternative
lorry park to help ease the backlog - but they dismissed reports that
service personnel were poised to play any significant role.
Potential
locations under discussions included the disused Manston Airport, in
Kent, and Ebbsfleet International train station in north Kent.
Travel latest
M20 closed coast-bound from J8 to J11 for the Operation Stack freight queue
The wait for lorries in the stack is up to five hours to Dover ferry port and three hours to Eurotunnel
BBC travel information Calais crisis: Advice for travellers But
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said
Mr Cameron's proposals were "not enough" and the situation was "out of
control".
"They are just sticking plasters in terms of trying to resolve this problem," he told BBC News.
UKIP
leader Nigel Farage told BBC Radio Leeds freight could start moving
again quickly if lorries were diverted to other ports, such as Ramsgate,
and travelled via Belgium. Former
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Radio 4's The World At One that
the Schengen agreement - which allows border-free travel throughout
Europe - was "only ever going to work in good times... You now see the
price that Europe is paying".
At the scene
Lucy Williamson, BBC correspondent, in Calais
After
dark, the nature of Calais' challenge becomes clear. Hundreds of
migrants walking together along the highway that leads to the Tunnel
site.
To get there they need to cross several fences and avoid security patrols.
Well before midnight, groups of several dozen were struggling under the freshly repaired fencing along Calais' railway line.
Some
here have been discouraged by the growing number of police and
television cameras. "The mood just doesn't feel right", one man told me.
But their long term goals remain and all the signs are that this
week's new challenges - larger groups of migrants, better organised
incursions - are becoming Calais's new routine. What happens to UK asylum seekers?
Young migrants
The
fourth night of disruption came as UK police and social services
struggled to cope with the impact of events across the Channel.
Kent
County Council asked Home Office officials for support in dealing with
the arrival of hundreds of young migrants in Dover. In the last three
months, the number of under-18 asylum seekers in the care of the council
has doubled to 629.
Police officers from neighbouring forces have also been deployed to Kent to help with Operation Stack.
Two migrants clinging to the roof of a lorry as it emerged from the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone, Kent
Eurotunnel says incursions are now a nightly occurrence
Thousands of lorries remain on the M20 in Kent
Are you in Calais? Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Afghan
founder of the militant Haqqani network, died at least a year ago,
sources close to the group have told the BBC.
Haqqani died after a long illness and was buried in Afghanistan, the sources added.
Rumours about Haqqani's death have circulated for some years and can still not be independently confirmed.
The latest report comes a day after the Taliban acknowledged that its leader, Mullah Omar, was dead.
Reports
of Haqqani's death, quoting Taliban sources, also appeared in Pakistani
media on Friday. One senior Afghan official said he had died six years
ago.
The network has never confirmed the death of its founder. A
man linked to the family denied Friday's reports, telling the BBC that
Jalaluddin Haqqani was still alive but ill.
The Haqqani network -
based in the tribal regions of Pakistan with links to al-Qaeda and the
Taliban - has been behind many of the co-ordinated attacks on Afghan and
Nato forces in recent years.
Haqqani's son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has long been thought to be in de
facto control of the group and has just been announced as a deputy
leader of the Taliban.
Tribal regions
Jalaluddin Haqqani was an Afghan guerrilla leader who fought Soviet troops that occupied Afghanistan in 1980s.
US officials have admitted that at the time he was a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
However,
he later allied himself to the Taliban after they took power in
Afghanistan in 1996. Haqqani served as a cabinet minister under the
Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Omar.
The
Haqqani network was one of several militant groups that operated from
the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border following the US-led
military campaign in Afghanistan, which began in 2001.
BBC
regional analyst Charles Haviland says Jalaluddin Haqqani turned against
the West with a vengeance, allowing his base in Pakistan to be used by
militants who inflicted huge casualties in Afghanistan, including among
Western troops.
As the Haqqanis grew in strength, Pakistan's
security establishment was accused of secretly supporting the group,
although it has strongly denied this.
Analysts say the network has always been part of the Taliban and its members accepted Mullah Omar as their leader.
On Thursday the Taliban said they had appointed their deputy leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, as successor to Mullah Omar.
Correspondents say the move is likely to divide the group and that many senior figures opposed the appointment.
The US dentist who killed a lion in
Zimbabwe should be extradited to face charges, Zimbabwe's Environment
Minister Oppah Muchinguri has said.
Walter Palmer's extradition was being sought so that he could "be held accountable for his illegal action," she said.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service was contacted by a representative of Mr Palmer on Thursday.
The contact comes as US authorities continue to investigate the hunt.
Mr Palmer, from Minnesota, is believed to have paid about $50,000 (£32,000) to hunt the lion, known as Cecil.
He says he thought the hunt was legal and was unaware Cecil was protected.
At a news conference in the capital, Harare, Ms Muchinguri referred to Mr Palmer as a "foreign poacher".
"As
we frantically try to protect our wildlife from organised gangs such as
this one, there are people... who can connive to undermine Zimbabwean
laws," she said.
"One
can conclude with confidence that Dr Palmer, being an American citizen,
had a well-orchestrated agenda which would tarnish the image of
Zimbabwe and further strain the relationship between Zimbabwe and the
USA," Ms Muchinguri added.
She also said Mr Palmer's use of a bow
and arrow against Cecil was in contravention of Zimbabwean hunting
regulations, Reuters reports.
Cecil the lion
A major tourist attraction in Hwange National Park - Zimbabwe's largest game reserve
The 13-year-old animal was renowned for being friendly towards visitors
Recognisable because of his large size and distinctive black mane
Led two prides containing six lionesses and 12 cubs along with another lion, Jericho
Was being monitored as part of an Oxford University study into lion conservation
What Cecil the lion means to Zimbabweans Licensed to kill: When hunting is not poaching Two Zimbabwean men have been implicated in the death of the lion.
A
professional hunter has been charged with failing to prevent an illegal
hunt - which he denies - and prosecutors are deciding on the exact
charges the landowner should face.
"I don't believe I failed in
any duties at all, I was engaged by a client to do a hunt for him and we
shot an old male lion that I believed was past his breeding age," the
Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst told the AFP news agency.
Tracking the pride
There has been a huge online backlash against Mr Palmer. The dental practice he runs in Minneapolis has been closed since he was named as the hunter who shot Cecil.
Cecil wore a collar that researchers at Oxford University used to track him
On Thursday, the White House
said it would review a public petition to extradite the American dentist
after more than 100,000 signed it.
But spokesman Josh Earnest said it was up to the US justice department to respond to any extradition order.
Meanwhile, US billionaire philanthropist Tom Kaplan has agreed to match every dollar donated to the UK conservation unit which was tracking Cecil until he was killed.
He capped the offer to Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at $100,000 (£64,000).
