Calais migrants: Britain to build huge fence at Channel Tunnel port in France

James Brokenshire, the Immigration Minister, tells the Telegraph he is holding urgent talks with hauliers to improve security on foreign lorries and sending two miles of security fencing to tackle the migrant crisis

A migrant sits under the trailer of a lorry as he attempts to cross the English Channel, in Calais, northern France. All trains and many ferry services between Britain and France were cut off Tuesday by striking port workers, stranding hundreds of trucks and thousands of passengers on both sides of the English Channel. Adding to the chaos, illegal migrants who are camped by the thousands in the port city of Calais were seen trying to stowaway on vehicles stuck in traffic jams
A migrant sits under the trailer of a lorry as he attempts to cross the English Channel, in Calais, northern France. All trains and many ferry services between Britain and France were cut off Tuesday by striking port workers, stranding hundreds of trucks and thousands of passengers on both sides of the English Channel. Adding to the chaos, illegal migrants who are camped by the thousands in the port city of Calais were seen trying to stowaway on vehicles stuck in traffic jams Credit: Photo: Thibault Camus/AP

Britain is to build more than two miles of high-security fencing at the Channel Tunnel port in northern France, in an attempt to stop thousands of illegal migrants breaking into lorries bound for the UK.

James Brokenshire, the Immigration Minister, told the Telegraph he was taking action after a surge in the number of “clandestines” storming the border in the Calais area last week.

He announced plans to protect the lorry terminal in Coquelles, near Calais, with nine-foot high police barrier that has previously been used to secure the London Olympics and last year’s Nato summit in Wales.

The minister will also hold urgent talks this week with the European Commission and haulage firms in an effort to force foreign lorry companies to improve the security of their vehicles.

Speaking on Saturday, as the scale of the Tunisia beach massacre became clear, he warned there was a risk that foreign jihadists could try to enter Britain with some of the 3,000 migrants at Calais.

The action comes after hundreds of illegal migrants tried to break through controls at Calais and Coquelles last week. A strike by French ferry workers caused mayhem in the area, bringing traffic to a standstill and allowing hundreds of migrants to try to break into vehicles.

On a typical day, 202 illegal immigrants are caught at the port at Calais and the tunnel terminal nearby at Coquelles. But during the night of Wednesday to Thursday morning last week, more than 650 people were stopped attempting to break through at both ports.

In the 12 months to April this year, border authorities stopped illegal migrants trying to cross the Channel 39,000 times, more than twice the number for the previous year.

Some drivers have reported being threatened by stowaways wielding knives, while witnesses saw clandestines climb on top of trucks and cut their way through the canvas to climb inside.

A migrant attempts to board a UK-bound lorry parked on a road outside Calais

A migrant attempts to board a UK-bound lorry parked on a road outside Calais

Mr Brokenshire said: “I am very concerned to hear some of the stories of the impact of what we have seen on those who are trying to do their jobs and get produce and trade into the UK.

“It is extremely hard and extremely unsettling and I can only imagine the concern this causes to individual lorry drivers.”

He said specialists would begin moving equipment for the security fencing, known as the National Barrier Asset, to France on Monday, with the aim of completing the work by the end of July.

The new barrier at Coquelles will focus on protecting 2.5 miles of track and platforms used by trains carrying lorries in a move the minister said would make it “much more difficult for migrants to try to break in”.

“There was a site visit at the end of last week and the National Barrier Asset team are mobilising over the weekend to move fencing, hardware and the equipment they need to install that to Coquelles on Monday,” Mr Brokenshire said.

Steps are also being taken to speed up traffic at Calais so that lorries, in particular, are not vulnerable to migrants attempting to jump on board.

This week, Mr Brokenshire will hold a series of meetings with the haulage industry to hear concerns of drivers who are “running the gauntlet”. He will also call meetings with representatives from continental lorry companies and the European Commission to raise concerns that security of foreign vehicles entering Britain is not adequate.

“We in the UK are held out as leading the way on vehicle security,” the minister said. “I do want to see standards applied more broadly across Europe […] so that vehicles are better secured and less vulnerable to stowaways trying to break in.”

The minister urged families and holiday-makers not to cancel their plans for travelling through Calais over fears of further disruption from French ferry workers’ strikes.

“I want to see people go off on their holidays, get away for those breaks and strengthening the links between those Channel ports,” he said.

But police and border officers face a major challenge stopping clandestines, he warned. Organised criminal gangs are exploiting migrants who want to get to Britain, some of whom have “no consideration as to whether they live or die” and are adopting risky tactics when stowing away.

Figures from British police forces suggested a significant increase in the numbers of migrants who made it into the country before they were caught by police. Once in the UK, they can claim asylum.

Mr Brokenshire accepted that there was a risk that extremists could try to gain entry to Britain through the camp of 3,000 migrants gathered at Calais.

“Of course I do understand the concern,” he said. “That is why we have robust systems in place, when people claim asylum in this country, checks are made.

“It is not something we have seen to date but it is something that we remain absolutely vigilant over. We are calling on the Italians and other southern Mediterranean states to ‘up’ their screening and the taking of biometrics and the like from those arriving on their shores.”

Asked if he could guarantee that the border checks at Calais would stop jihadists coming into Britain, he said: “There has never been such a thing as absolute security.” But the public “can be assured” that it is the government’s highest priority to protect Britain from attack, he said.

Migrants jump out of a lorry after being discovered by French gendarmerie officers

Migrants jump out of a lorry after being discovered by French gendarmerie officers

The minister’s comments came after figures revealed up to 100 British-based drivers have been sentenced in France over the past year for offences connected to human trafficking.

The swelling numbers of migrants trying to reach Britain through the Channel ports are making it a lucrative business for the people smugglers who hire them. Details emerged of two cases this week. One was a painter and decorator from Birmingham who said he was only giving a lift to the Somalian found in his car. The other is a debt-ridden father-of-three up caught with two Iraqis in the boot of his Renault.

Nasir Nadin Salah and Bashir Haji are just two of dozens of Britons sentenced by the French courts in the past few weeks for attempting to smuggle migrants across the Channel.

Up to four Britons a week are being prosecuted by the French for attempting to smuggle people into the UK as the migrant crisis in Calais grows.

Salah, 43, from Birmingham, was earlier this month handed a six month suspended sentence by a court in Boulogne-sur-Mer for transporting a Somali national in his car who was carrying a false Dutch passport.

He was also banned from travelling to the Nord Pas de Calais area for three years. The prosecution has appealed for a higher sentence.

Now back home in Britain, Salah claimed he had been approached by the man asking for a lift to the ferry terminal when he stopped his Audi A4 at a service station near Calais while returning from visiting his sister in the Dutch town of Leiden.

Salah was arrested by French police at the entrance to the terminal, who took him into custody but released the suspected migrant.

The painter and decorator, who is married with children, told The Telegraph through an interpreter last week: “I was just helping the guy. He came up to me at a petrol station near Calais and told me his car had broken down and could I give him a lift to the ferry terminal. He didn’t pay me to take him there. I wasn’t people smuggling. I wasn’t working for human traffickers. I was just being kind. I was giving him a hand. It was unfair that I was taken to court.”

But in court Nadir, who spent 48 hours in police custody after his arrest, told a different story. He admitted that he had been contacted in Britain by a member of his own family who had arranged for him to pick up the Somali man.

Haji made no secret of why he had agreed to drive the two Iraqis through customs and border controls in the boot of his car. After falling thousands of pounds in debt, the 49-year-old from Preston, who is married with two sons and a daughter, was approached by a figure who instructed him to drive to northern France, where he was to pick up the men in return for a payment of £500, along with his ferry ticket and the cost of petrol.

French police intercepted Haji’s Renault Laguna before it boarded a ferry at Calais and discovered the two Iraqis crammed into the boot. The two men, who were allowed to go free by the French police, had paid traffickers £4,500 each for the crossing.

Haji was earlier this month sentenced to 12 months in a French prison for “trying to facilitate the entrance of foreign citizens in circumstances incompatible with human dignity”. He was also banned from the Nord Pas de Calais region for three years and had his telephone confiscated.