EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS Migrants rough it out in Calais waiting to make it to Britain

Record ID: 145563

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS Migrants rough it out in Calais waiting to make it to Britain
  • Date: 31st July 2015
  • Summary: CALAIS, FRANCE (JULY 31, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS WAITING FOR ACCESS TO SHOWERS AND ELECTRICITY MIGRANTS STANDING BEHIND GATE MIGRANTS RUNNING FOR SHOWERS AND POWER PLUGS / MIGRANT SHAKING HIS HEAD, POINTING TO THE RUSH SIGN READING (English): "UK ASYLUM WORKSHOP EVERY SUNDAY" SIGN READING (English): "AFTER RAMADAN GAMES" VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS IN CAMP MAKESHIFT SHOPS AND MIG
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA76SXJNECGJJC7HHUDOR6ICYVD
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Migrants living in camps in Calais in France are roughing it out day-to-day, scrambling on Friday (July 31) for water and electricity, all the while hoping to cross the Channel to make it to the United Kingdom.
    Migrants have long gathered in the French port city to try to get into Britain.
    But Eurotunnel, the firm that runs freight and passenger shuttles via the Channel Tunnel, says numbers have swelled to around 5,000 people from about 600 and that it is struggling to cope.
    It says migrants have also become better organised, mounting nightly attempts in large groups to storm the facilities.
    Eurotunnel has sometimes been forced to suspend its services, causing disruption at what is one of the busiest times of the year for British holidaymakers.
    Some 3,000 migrants live around the tunnel entrance in a makeshift camp known as "The Jungle", making the northern French port one of the frontlines in Europe's wider migrant crisis alongside Italian and Greek islands used an an entry point for those crossing the Mediterranean from Africa or the Middle East.
    Resources in the camps are not enough to cater to the growing number of migrants, said Thierry-Mehdi Benlahsen, emergency manager at NGO Solidarites International.
    "Rising number of migrants unfortunately, the situation in terms of sanitation, despite the intervention of several NGOs is going worse by the week, still no intervention from the French authorities here, I mean when we arrived around six weeks ago, there was only three water taps for 3,000," he said.
    In addition to severe conditions in the camps, the migrants were treated badly, said a woman passing by.
    "I am ashamed of what is happening here like sanitary conditions, like the fact that they have the right to seek asylum but they are treated like they're nothing, when they walk in Calais, they are treated like dogs, they told us and we saw that. I spoke with a refugee and he was talking about Montaigne, Socrates and Aristotle, so these people are probably intellectually superior to us and they are treated like they're nothing," said Emily, from Reims.
    Freight and passenger traffic through the rail tunnel have been severely disrupted in past weeks as migrants desperate to enter Britain have stepped up attempts to board trucks and trains travelling from France.
    The humanitarian and immigration crisis, in which nine migrants have died since early June according to French media, has turned into a blame game between Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel and French and British politicians.
    "It is important for our British friends to be present, notably on a budgetary level because we need to fight clandestine immigration together," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters after a government meeting on Friday.
    The issue has put the British government under pressure after disruption to cross-Channel passenger and freight traffic.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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