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| Eurotunnel has called for the migrants to be cleared out of Calais |
EUROTUNNEL bosses admitted that there would be no end to the migrant crisis in Calais until all migrants are permanently removed.
The warning by John Keefe came after Downing Street made fresh pledges to pay for more security guards and CCTV around the company’s freight terminal at Coquelles.
They will be added to new blast-proof fencing, originally used to protect world leaders at last year’s Nato summit, and sniffer dogs.
But Mr Keefe, director of public affairs for the transport operator, said it would require a “blank cheque” for increased security measures to keep pace with sophisticated people smugglers.
He said: “We have more than 5,000 migrants whose single goal is to get to the UK by whatever means possible. This is a unique challenge. The numbers are getting bigger than ever before, from 600 to 5,000 in just six months.
“Catching them all will take a blank cheque, which is obviously unsustainable.“
While he welcomed Downing Street’s contributions to security, he added: “One of the problems is that migrants know they don’t have any police powers, so they just walk past them.
"The only people with the power to intervene is the police, and we inform them
“And each time police take a group into custody and start to process them, those officers are off the streets. We need them on the streets to remove migrants.
“It’s pretty common knowledge they take them a few kilometres down the road and release them to come back again.”
He said Eurotunnel had been spending an average of 10million euros a year on security. This year, they have already spent 30 million.
“We can put all the security you can imagine in place, we can build higher walls and make them out of concrete, but the migrants will still try to get across somehow.
"Every time we put in another layer of security, they look for another way to get past it,” he said.
More migrants are now infiltrating depots where lories are loaded, and are deeply embedded by the time they reach security checks,” he added.
Small-scale security measures would not tackle the main issue - the organised crime networks at the heart of this crisis.
“This is a continuous war of attrition by those people who are running people trafficking networks to focus on different places and keep the targets moving,” he said.
“The people organising this business are not migrants, but sophisticated people traffickers, and they have no compunction about trying any route through any means at any port within Europe.
“The only solution is to stop migrants from reaching Calais, and to remove those who are already there.
“As long as you allow these 5,000 to remain, they will keep coming back, night after night, often several times a night, causing criminal damages and putting lives at risk, and our resources will be absorbed in building higher fences and putting more people on the ground.
The only long-term solution is to remove them and stop any more coming. There is no other way. “
They will be added to new blast-proof fencing, originally used to protect world leaders at last year’s Nato summit, and sniffer dogs.
But Mr Keefe, director of public affairs for the transport operator, said it would require a “blank cheque” for increased security measures to keep pace with sophisticated people smugglers.
He said: “We have more than 5,000 migrants whose single goal is to get to the UK by whatever means possible. This is a unique challenge. The numbers are getting bigger than ever before, from 600 to 5,000 in just six months.
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| Small-scale security measures would not tackle the main issue |
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| The New Jungle has grown over the past |
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| Trucks manage to get across the border into Britain |
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| Migrants plug into electricity in the New Jungle camp |
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| Migrants walk along the train track after crossing a fence |
While he welcomed Downing Street’s contributions to security, he added: “One of the problems is that migrants know they don’t have any police powers, so they just walk past them.
"The only people with the power to intervene is the police, and we inform them
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| Migrants are a continued threat to security |
“And each time police take a group into custody and start to process them, those officers are off the streets. We need them on the streets to remove migrants.
“It’s pretty common knowledge they take them a few kilometres down the road and release them to come back again.”
He said Eurotunnel had been spending an average of 10million euros a year on security. This year, they have already spent 30 million.
“We can put all the security you can imagine in place, we can build higher walls and make them out of concrete, but the migrants will still try to get across somehow.
"Every time we put in another layer of security, they look for another way to get past it,” he said.
More migrants are now infiltrating depots where lories are loaded, and are deeply embedded by the time they reach security checks,” he added.
Small-scale security measures would not tackle the main issue - the organised crime networks at the heart of this crisis.
“This is a continuous war of attrition by those people who are running people trafficking networks to focus on different places and keep the targets moving,” he said.
“The people organising this business are not migrants, but sophisticated people traffickers, and they have no compunction about trying any route through any means at any port within Europe.
“The only solution is to stop migrants from reaching Calais, and to remove those who are already there.
“As long as you allow these 5,000 to remain, they will keep coming back, night after night, often several times a night, causing criminal damages and putting lives at risk, and our resources will be absorbed in building higher fences and putting more people on the ground.
The only long-term solution is to remove them and stop any more coming. There is no other way. “
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