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Calais: French truckers to blockade port over migrant camp

A blockade by French truckers at Calais as part of a protest over the migrant camp is threatening to cause major disruption next week.

French hauliers say they plan to stage a protest around the port over increasing threats from migrants and organised gangs.

The action is scheduled to begin early Monday, and could also include shopkeepers, businesses, farmers and police unionists.

Illegal immigrants breach security at the port of Calais. File picture: Mark Salt
Illegal immigrants breach security at the port of Calais. File picture: Mark Salt

As well as using their lorries to block access, French hauliers are also planning to ring the port with a human chain.

In recent weeks, organised gangs have been holding up lorries approaching the port and blocking roads with trees and other obstacles to allow migrants to climb on board.

The regional head of the French haulage association FNTR David Sagnard said: “Migrant violence hasn’t gone up a notch, it has gone up ten floors.”

The French and UK governments said this week that the border treaty under which border officials from the UK carry out checks at Calais would continue.

Meanwhile, Kent MPs are to meet with Xavier Bertrand, the regional political leader of the Nord Pas de Calais, over the crisis next month.

Refugees breaking through a fence at the Port of Calais
Refugees breaking through a fence at the Port of Calais

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins said MPs wanted to underline their opposition to migrant “hot spots” which Mr Bertrand has proposed to deal with asylum applications more swiftly and as a way to curb the numbers at the migrant camp.

Mr Collins said: “Creating these 'hotspots' would undoubtedly make the situation in Calais worse, as it would attract even more refugees to the camps, in the false hope that they would be able to enter the UK in this way.

"We would also be perfectly within our rights to decline their asylum application, as they are already in a safe country.”

The meeting is due to take place in a fortnight in London.

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