- Title: FRANCE: Migrants linger on in Calais area despite "jungle" closure
- Date: 24th September 2009
- Summary: CALAIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 23, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LORRIES AT PETROL STATION NEAR MOUTH OF CHANNEL TUNNEL LORRY DRIVER RESTING ON HIS STEERING WHEEL LORRY LEAVING PETROL STATION DRIVER GETTING INTO HIS CAB (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH LORRY DRIVER GILDAS TERRIANES, SAYING : "You see a lot of them on the motorway. At least you did. But you see a lot. I've seen th
- Embargoed: 9th October 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8F1GGKL9XOQ1RNWEL3XT72D1O
- Story Text: Lorry drivers who regularly travel to Britain and face fines of several thousands of pounds if they are caught with someone onboard all welcomed the closure the closure of the Calais Jungle on Wednesday (September 23). But they said it would not spell the end of illegal migration and would merely push the problem elsewhere.
Gildas Terrianes, a French lorry driver welcomed the closure of the camp in a dawn raid by 500 police which netted approximately 261 migrants. But it was not the end of the problem, he said.
"I've seen them all the way up to Boulogne and also going the other way to Dunquerque. You see quite a lot of them between Dunquerque and Boulogne."
Horst Mayer, a German lorry driver who goes between the Continent and Britain says he has on several occasions had to chase would-be migrants away from his truck when it was parked up for the night. He says the Jungle which housed several hundred migrants was a legend among lorry drivers and that many were scared of the camp.
But he added that the problem remained and that he occasionally spotted migrants further afield trying to board parked vehicles, especially in motorway resting areas.
"They're walking about on the motorways and they're crossing the motorways trying to get from one station to another and there's no roads linking the stations. But the lot of them walking along the hard shoulder. All of a sudden you see people walking there and it's something we weren't used to."
Migrants were certainly in business not far from the Jungle, near the hovercraft port at Calais, housed in the same kind of ramshackle tents as their colleagues arrested on Tuesday.
This small settlement had initially been closed in August. But two migrants who did not want to be interviewed on camera, said that they were fresh arrivals on Tuesday -- several hours after the closure of the Jungle by the French police.
Among the mess and debris in their small camp, a British motorway atlas lay open, testimony to the pressing ambition to reach the United Kingdom, whatever the cost.
Charles Frammezelle, a charity worker who has been involved with migrants in the area for more than a decade, told Reuters Television that a lot of the people had merely gone to ground and would re-emerge soon.
"They've left to go to other places in France, in Paris and Bordeaux. And I think that by the end of the week, maybe Monday or Tuesday, they will be back here."
Hundreds of French police cleared an improvised camp dubbed "the jungle" on Tuesday (September 22) where illegal migrants, mostly Afghans, had been gathering near the port of Calais before trying to cross to Britain. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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