A new "secure zone" will be created
at Calais for UK-bound lorries in a bid to stop migrants boarding them,
Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.
The area will hold up to 230 vehicles - in effect a two-and-a-half mile queue.
Mrs
May said 8,000 migrant attempts to cross the Channel to the UK were
foiled between 21 June and 11 July, when ferry strikes in France
exacerbated problems.
Transport bosses said migrant numbers in Calais had risen from 600 in January to 5,000 - and that figure was growing.
'Repeated attempts'
Mrs
May told the Commons hauliers had been subjected to "repeated attempts
by illegal migrants who attempt to stow themselves away in their
vehicles".
The new zone should provide protection for lorries and
their drivers by "removing them from the open road where they can become
targets for migrants", said Mrs May.
She said the security zone should "transform protection" for hauliers.
Her announcement came as transport bosses appeared before the Home Affairs Committee to answer questions about the crisis.
Kent
Police Chief Constable Alan Pughsley told MPs there had been a
"significant increase" in the number of migrants found hiding in
vehicles in the UK over the past month.
He said:
From 1 January to 31 May, 26 people were found
In the five weeks from 1 June, 405 people were found
"At the peak" on 8 July, 96 people were found
There are estimated to be 5,000 migrants currently in Calais, and that number is "rising"
Mr Pughsley said he believed strike action by French ferry
workers during that time was a "contributing factor" to the numbers
because it meant "easier access" for people to trains or lorries.
Media captionJohn Keefe, Director of Public Affairs at Eurotunnel, said the increase in migrant numbers was ''a crisis''
John
Keefe, director of public affairs at Eurotunnel, said the 5,000 figure
had grown from an estimated 600 migrants in January, and the rise was
"continuing apace".
"We have never seen numbers like this before
and we have not in the past seen the degree of organisation that goes
with the numbers either," he said.
He said a secure zone would not
solve the issue, adding: "As soon as you remove an opportunity, the
organised criminals who are managing the migrant attacks are moving to
the next opportunity - to the next weak spot."
Media captionAhmed asked for £1,200 to be wired to London or Kabul
Road
Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said the situation
was "out of control" and criticised the fact the secure zone would not
be in place until the autumn.
"This isn't fast enough. We've got
drivers being threatened with bars and knives. We've had an example of a
driver being threatened with a gun," he said.
"We've got a problem right now. This is unprecedented and it's escalating. We need action now."
The
"write-off" of products due to contamination by migrants entering
vehicles could be £1bn a year, he said, adding: "There are full loads
that are being destroyed."
British and French authorities have been working together improve security
Last week a migrant from Eritrea died attempting to board a freight shuttle headed to Britain. The death came days after about 150 migrants tried to storm the Channel Tunnel terminal in France.
The strike by French ferry workers at the end of last month
forced the suspension of Channel Tunnel services. It closed the Port of
Calais and resulted in thousands of lorry drivers being stuck on the
roads into Calais. This led hundreds of migrants to try to board
UK-bound lorries.
Mrs May said British and French authorities had been working together for months to improve security at Calais.
Some
£12m will spent on work to reinforce security in northern French ports,
including new fencing and work to improve traffic flow and Border Force
controls, which would be completed next month, she said.
Other
security measures already announced include a £2m upgrade of detection
technology, £1m extra for dog searches and new fencing in Calais.
Home Secretary Theresa May revealed the secure zone measure in a Commons statement
UKIP's migration spokesman,
Steven Woolfe, said the government was "waking up to the crisis" but
called for more UK border personnel in Calais and said the UK should
negotiate a scheme where migrants can be returned immediately to France
if they have entered the UK illegally.
Shadow home secretary
Yvette Cooper said Britain's border was the scene of a "terrible crisis"
where lives were being lost and people were being injured.
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