FRANCE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS France boosts Calais border control with steel fence as world marks International Migrants Day

Record ID: 348823

  • Title: FRANCE-MIGRANTS/CALAIS France boosts Calais border control with steel fence as world marks International Migrants Day
  • Date: 18th December 2014
  • Summary: CALAIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 17, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKERS INSTALLING STEEL FENCE STEEL FENCE SIGN READING 'CALAIS' WITH STEEL FENCE IN BACKGROUND WORKER ON CHERRY PICKER BARBED WIRE ATOP FENCE / WORKERS INSTALLING FENCE WORKERS ON CHERRY PICKER SIGN READING 'PASSPORT CONTROL' WITH FRENCH AND BRITISH FLAGS AT ENTRANCE OF PORT SEEN THROUGH FENCE CARS GOING THROUGH PASS
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEXCY83RXQF5MS1SPF5V20BU4H
  • Story Text: An increasing number of migrants have been trying to enter Britain via the French port of Calais in recent months and, as pressure grows from Westminster to take action, authorities have begun to construct a steel fence to secure the port from illegal immigrants.
    Stopped from crossing the English channel, migrants have set up makeshift camps in and around the city that are slowly becoming their permanent homes.
    Local authorities estimate there are now more than 2500 of them in Calais.
    Britain and France recently agreed to improve border controls to prevent the immigrant population, many of whom are fleeing humanitarian crises in Africa and the Middle East, from crossing the Channel.
    As part of these measures, French authorities have started to install a 20 kilometre steel and barbed wire fence to secure the port, as part of a 15 million euro initiative that Britain agreed to partially finance.
    The nine foot high barrier was previously used by the UK at a NATO summit in Wales and has since been repurposed.
    Local authorities are also due to open a new centre to help the migrants who, since the closure of the Sangatte camp in 2002, roam the dunes of the northern French town.
    A specialist in migration policy and professor at Sciences-Po, Francois Gemenne, explained on Tuesday (December 16) that the asylum policy reform in Europe has been long-debated but has seen little improvement in recent years, leading directly to the current crisis.
    "The structural reason is the looming crisis of asylum all over Europe, and in particular in France which explains that many people are stuck in a camp. They are hoping to cross the channel so that they could apply for asylum or migrate to Britain but clearly there is a barrier that they cannot cross. So this is the structural reason, the fact that the asylum system is over crowded today," he said.
    Without formal accommodation, migrants living in makeshift camps have grown more desperate in their attempts to board trucks, cars and boats to Britain, leading to increasingly violent clashes with the police trying to stop them.
    Migrants say they have little choice but to keep trying to reach Britain as Calais police expel them from each makeshift camp and the local government fails to provide for their basic needs.
    Like his 200 Sudanese compatriots in the camp, Abdul Karim passed through a dozen countries before arriving in Calais five months ago with the goal of reaching reach the UK, where he hopes to find a better life.
    "I came to Calais because I want to go to England, that's the reason. If I am in Paris I can't go to England, I am in Calais near to England so I can cross the border. I don't know if I am lucky or not, it depends. If I am lucky one day I cross the border," he said.
    Last month, France sent 100 extra policemen to the ferry port after days of heightened tensions as migrants scrambled to board boats bound for Britain.
    At the end of October, police were forced to use tear gas to ward off hundreds of migrants attempting to jump onto trucks bound for Britain.
    Police forces are stretched too thin, said Police Union spokesman Gilles Debove on Wednesday (December 17), and finding and removing stowaways from trucks puts the lives of both police officers and migrants at risk.
    "Our colleagues who chased down the migrants on the ring road and made them get out of the lorries put themselves at risk of road accidents and put also put the migrants who got out of trucks and ran away at risk. We are lucky that nothing like this happened," Debove said.
    Clandestine migrants have been part of the landscape of Calais for over fifteen years, often fleeing significant conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and the horn of Africa.
    Established in 1995, the Schengen Area did away with border controls between 26 EU countries as well as some non-members such as Switzerland and Norway, but Britain did not sign the agreement.
    Italy and France have put immigration reform on the agenda at EU summits, without expecting any real changes.
    Gemenne said that the lack of suitable immigration policy a key problem in Europe/
    "At the moment what is striking is that there is no proposal at all from the European Commission. We don't hear them at all about this subject. To me this is one of the biggest European scandals at the moment. It seems that European migration policy is all about the surveillance of borders, but there is no project, there are no ideas, there are no values behind all of that, and I think this is really the biggest scandal in Europe at the moment," he said.
    The town has seen growing tensions between locals and migrants in recent weeks while officials say they have observed increasing rates of petty crime, including mobile phone theft and robberies.
    Migrants and associated charities have called for a demonstration on Thursday in Calais and other French cities to coincide with International Migrants Day. They are protesting the barriers put up along the bypass leading to the port area, known as the "wall of shame".
    To prevent violent clashes, authorities have denied permission for a far-right rally take place at the same time.
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