EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS NIGHT Desperate Calais migrants search for a better life in Britain

Record ID: 145638

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS NIGHT Desperate Calais migrants search for a better life in Britain
  • Date: 30th July 2015
  • Summary: COQUELLES, FRANCE (JULY 30, 2015) (REUTERS) POLICE TELLING MIGRANTS TO LEAVE MIGRANTS WALKING IN ROAD BY EUROTUNNEL TRAIN AT NIGHT MIGRANTS SITTING ON FENCE MIGRANTS WALKING IN ROAD CROWDS OF MIGRANTS WALKING IN ROAD MIGRANTS SITTING ON FENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) 25-YEAR-OLD SUDANESE MIGRANT, MOHAMMED, SAYING: "All Europe, you know that the England is good. All, everybody
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA954ZKBDVHSRCV9XM9JNJJZFQ7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Migrants desperate to reach Britain gathered near the Eurotunnnel in Calais in the early hours of Thursday morning (July 30) before heading to their camps for the night.
    Freight and passenger traffic through the rail tunnel has been severely disrupted as migrants camping out in shanty towns in the Calais area have repeatedly tried to board trucks and trains travelling from France to Britain.
    France said it was sending 120 more police officers to the site while Britain said it was pressing ahead with erecting a nine-foot (three-metre) fence to protect the terminal.
    25-year-old Mohammed, who escaped Sudan and travelled across the Mediterranean on a boat from Libya, told Reuters Television he would have a better life in Britain where his brother was waiting for him.
    "All Europe, you know that the England is good. All, everybody knows that. I want to meet family there, my family in Africa, he's waiting (for) me, you know. I don't have money now, I don't have a future. I don't have anything. No eat, no sleep, no shower, no house," he said.
    The migrants try each day to cross the channel, sometimes with treacherous consequences.
    A Sudanese man died on Wednesday (July 29) after he was believed to have been hit by a truck, French police said.
    French media said he was the ninth migrant to be killed in the crisis since early June.
    A Sudanese migrant who declined to give his name said he was trying to get to Britain by getting into passenger cars.
    "Go to train in the car, no to train running and jump, no, dangerous. Go to car, and car to go to plane [train]. No dangerous," he told Reuters Television.
    The crisis has turned into a blame game with Eurotunnel asking French and British governments to reimburse it for the 10 million euros ($11 million) it has spent to increase security to cope with the latest migrant crisis at Calais.
    The scale of the crisis has been highlighted in recent weeks by the sight of migrants lining roads and scrambling to jump into moving vehicles.
    Rocks have been thrown at trucks and migrants have in some cases clashed with drivers and police.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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