The UK´s response to the migrant crisis in Calais is to send security fences and barriers to deter desperate people in their attempts to make it to Britain.
Rising numbers of migrants massing Calais over the summer have brought problems for the police and city administration and much worry to the residents of the French port.
The mayor of Calais has appealed to the UK for help in dealing with the situation.
Britain´s immigrant minister James Brokenshire said the initiative will help send a message that the UK is “no soft touch”. Brokenshire warned migrants that they "should be under no illusion about what awaits them if they arrive here illegally".
Brokenshire said it is for the French to maintain security and order on their own land, but added that the UK would do what it could to help – recalling a £3m boost to the port earlier this year to improve security.
He said the Immigration Act ensures those who should not be in Britain will not get benefits, housing, bank accounts or driving licences, and added that criminal gangs who traffic people to the port on the promise of a better life will be investigated and broken up.
The minister said the new fencing would replace the "inadequate" measures currently in place, and added that a hope would be to create secure parking for legal travellers to wait without the threat of any disruption.
Comments
The UK Government should have put these fences up years ago in the main UK airports and ferry ports to stop us Brits coming here to Portugal and the rest of Club Med.
Only the really desperate, or certifiably mad, clinging under lorries or hiding in aircraft wheelbays and lifeboats etc - will then have got here.
The more normal British chosing somewhere more developed. But still sunny. Such as Haiti.