CALAIS migrants have become so lawless French troops should be deployed to deal with them, the town’s mayor has said. Natacha Bouchart said the population of the shanty towns which have sprung up around the busy ferry terminal was now standing at about 6,000. Speaking yesterday, Ms Bouchart told listeners that the lawlessness in the camps was “untenable” and that she was in talks with security officials to resolve the situation. “It would be nice if the army comes to monitor the migrants” the hardline mayor said in an interview with French radio station RMC.
Calais is struggling under the weight of the migrants who are squatting in and around the town which has been seen as a jumping off point for anyone wishing to reach the UK illegally.
And the governments of western Europe just stand there, slack-jawed, impotent as order breaks down:
Lorries, cars and caravans entering the port are targeted by mobs of immigrants hoping to stowaway across the Channel. Eurotunnel services also face daily onslaughts from those hoping to get onboard passing passenger and freight trains or simply walk through the tunnel. At least 16 people have died trying to make the perilous journey this summer. Passengers on both sides of the tunnel were delayed yesterday after an overnight invasion at its Coquelles base close to Calais.
Services were halted after hundreds of migrants stormed the terminal in the early hours of the morning.
Migrants are now using diversionary tactics with mobs deliberately distracting police so others can make it through fences and security and make their bid to cross the Channel, a Eurotunnel spokesman said. “They are coming in waves to occupy the police, then another wave comes, then another, until there is no more police. One group is then able to get through.
Ms Bouchart blames Britain’s soft-touch benefits system and huge black market economy for turning her town into a migrant magnet. She has demanded breaches of security at the Eurotunnel site be treated as “attacks on national infrastructure” instead of trespass meaning British-bound migrants who break into the Channel Tunnel could face up to 10 years in prison.
What we’re witnessing now is the crunch point where post-WWII European pacifism meets pre-WWI European martial ferocity. Let’s just put it this way: old habits die hard.
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