Asylum seekers in Calais

Factual Questions
1

As we approached the Calais ferry port on our return to Britain this afternoon the traffic was moving slowly, particularly in the right hand lane, which was reserved for lorries. We were amazed to see several hundred men dotted along the side of the road at intervals over the stretch approaching the border controls. They looked like, well, what have been described on the news as asylum seekers. We assumed they were trying to sneak their way onto a lorry, and this was confirmed we saw five or six of them prise open the back doors of a slow-moving lorry, pile in, and shut the doors behind themselves.

What was most remarkable, apart from the sheer number of people, was how brazen it was. They made no attempt to hide.

There haven’t been many stories in the press recently about asylum seekers and I have never heard anyone mention seeing men waiting like this when approaching Calais.

Is this a common occurrence? Do many make it through? Are there normally this many people waiting? And if it’s possible to answer this without veering into Great Debates or the Pit, why weren’t the authorities present? If I were to hazard a (cynical) guess I would assume that the French police have no interest in stopping illegal immigrants leaving their country, but this seems simplistic and counter to good relations with Britain.

2

From talking to drivers of various coach trips, yes it is. On one stop outside Calais, not only did they make a decision to not leave the coaches unattended, but to keep enough of the drivers so that both sides of each coach could be kept under watch at once.

Part of the cynicism would be well-founded. In any case, there’s only so much the French authorities could do…even catching them redhanded climbing into a lorry would only actually be a minor charge in itself. Should the be charged with ‘loitering while black (or brown)’? And finally, put an increased police presence in the location where there’s a problem, and it’ll just shift elsewhere. There’s no way to police every stretch of road anywhere near every port.